Having a bad day?
A science based guide to have a better day.
4/19/20232 min read
Recently I had the worst day. Nothing special had happened, but it was one of those days of low energy and nothing seems to work out.
Not even my favorite lunch made it better, even though I took a pic of it and posted it on instagram.
In the era of hyperconnectivity having a bad day isn’t hype. We, as millennials were taught, don’t show the bad moments. Nobody wants to see you sick or tired, likes are for nice foods and far away beaches.
So we just don’t show it for anyone, but of course even on bad days we open tik tok and see how productive are others, or at least show us. The problem was I was in a slump and all those people were so better than me, which made me think that I was the worst human, just because I was low on energy.
I’ve tried everything, from pushing through, to doing nothing and not even that was satisfactory enough.
Sometimes we just need to find something in between nothing and being productive. In my case, the solution is a book or something to study or even write for a bit, while wearing comfortable clothes and drinking lots and lots of water. After an hour or so I guarantee you and I will end up having a better perspective and unexpectedly a productive, not a 100% (as you usually have) but at least a solid 50% productive day.
Now is a perfect moment to open and answer all emails, chats, and all that boring day to day things (and people) you’ ve ignored all day long.
Believe it or not, this is not just a tale of an off day, but a well funded evidence based guide to elevate my happiness levels. 5-hydroxytryptamine, or serotonin, is a biogenic amine most noted for its role as a neurotransmitter responsible for mood control.
Serotonin, has been studied in deep in human medicine and it was isolated and characterized in 1948 by Maurice Rapport and Irvine Page (Rapport et al., 1948a–c) from studies in blood coagulation and clots. Since then was well studied for many pharmaceutical purposes and in 1957 Brodie & Shore proposed the role of
serotonin as a neurotransmitter, which are substances that link two or more neurons and permits the flow of information inside the brain. Has been linked to a variety of central nervous system functions such as mood, behavior, sleep cycles, and appetite.
Most of our 5TH (5-Hydroxytryptamine, or serotonin) is stored inside brain cells and platelets, which means a tight regulation on this hormone/neurotransmitter blood levels. This is where most antidepressants make their magic, by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. The more serotonin we have, the happier we are.
Nevertheless, we don’t need, or shouldn’t take pills without no need or a doctor’s order, there are other ways to release small amounts of this magic chemical. We know that when we accomplish just a little in low stakes activities like, for me, reading a book or doing some physical activities are natural ways to increase 5TH levels in the brain and therefore improve a useless day into an almost fulfilling day.
Most of the time our 5TH is in a normal, kind well balanced hormone, but every now and then we may have a disbalance, such a bad day.
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