Three Questions to Answer That'll Improve Your Mood

You probably have certain strategies you use whenever you want to feel better. They might involve calling someone, going for a walk, watching a movie, or immersing yourself in a good book. Here, we bring you one more strategy to incorporate into your repertoire in the form of three questions.

Reviewed and approved by the psychologist Sergio De Dios González.

Written by Edith Sánchez

Last update: 20 March, 2023

Small setbacks, fatigue, or even a dull routine can sabotage your hopes. They also tend to set off a chain of negative thoughts. An easy way to regain balance is by asking yourself a few key questions.

The function of these questions is to refocus your thinking. They allow you to adopt a more positive and proactive perspective. Therefore, you’ll improve your mood without having to resort to any more complex actions.

Another valuable aspect of these key questions is that they are, so to speak, timeless. This means you can ask them at different times in your life and they’ll always provide you with new and encouraging answers. So, what are those questions that you can turn to when you feel down?

1. What worked out better than you expected?

This is one of the key questions worth asking when you’re feeling down to improve your mood. It doesn’t mean seeking great achievements or extraordinary milestones. You simply want to find some of those small everyday miracles that you tend to overlook.

For example, perhaps you thought that a certain task would take you a long time, but it didn’t. Or, you thought that to achieve a particular goal, you were going to have to use a lot of resources, but this wasn’t the case.

Just find a couple of examples of these small actions that exceeded your expectations. On occasions, it might even be enough to reach the end of a difficult day without things getting any worse. Bear it in mind.

2. How has nature captured your attention today?

The second question invites you to look at your environment. More specifically, to look at the natural elements you probably come across every day without really thinking about them. But, nature provides you with a serene, generous, and universal sense of satisfaction. It’s a shame to waste it.

Once you start looking, you’ll probably soon be able to identify a good number of extraordinary elements around you. For instance, look at the huge sky and appreciate the very atmosphere that makes life possible. Study a beautifully intricate tree that’s been growing for an age. Or, look at an animal that represents the different ways in which the universe manifests itself. There’s so much evidence around you that existence is extraordinary.

Moreover, contemplating nature feeds your feelings of inner peace. Therefore, it’s a good idea to visit a park, garden, or any space full of natural elements when you feel low or you’re going through one of those moments when you feel oblivious to the beautiful world around you.

3. Who are you missing?

The third of the key questions to improve your mood concerns thinking of those people who are special to you but, for some reason, you don’t see every day. They’re usually friends or relatives with whom you’ve had a really close relationship in the past. People who left you with pleasant memories but with whom you don’t maintain frequent communication.

In effect, simply thinking about these people will help you feel better. Indeed, it helps to remember that affectionate relationships enrich your life and transcend time. After all, you’re certain that, if you seek them out, they’ll be delighted to hear from you. It’s an excellent way of improving your mood.

Within this group, there may be people you only know superficially, but who left you with the feeling that you wanted to know more about them and meet them again. You also got the impression that the feeling was mutual and that it might be a really good idea to find a way of meeting or talking to them.

These three key questions to help improve your mood are easy options that you can turn to at any time. They’ll make you realize that the mere fact of carrying out the self-reflection they propose is a way of changing your gloomy perspective to a more encouraging one.