30 Instant Mood Boosters for the Exhausted Mom

It’s time to confess mama. You’re tired, exhausted, and your brain is about to cave in right?

As the lady of the house, you are carrying a big weight on your shoulder. You think about the responsibility you have to your family and the obligation to fulfill them.

Perhaps you’re having a bad day at work only to come home and find yourself lost in endless screams, cries, and complaints – whether it’s from your kids or even your spouse.

Or perhaps you couldn’t achieve all the goals and tasks you set in front of you only to find that you’ve completed 3 of the 15 items you put on the list.

Wherever you are at this moment and whichever situation you are in, there’s one thing we know for sure: you’re exhausted and you need a mood booster.

The bad thing about it is that you’re emotionally and mentally drained. Your productivity is at level zero “0” and it’s the perfect recipe for an angry, easily irritated, and stressed mom.

But the good thing about it? You can change your situation with these 30 instant mood boosters.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see disclaimer for details.

1. Read Mom Affirmations

What are mom affirmations?

Mom affirmations are positive quotes and statements that are geared towards moms to help lift their spirits.

As you know, everyone operates on spirituality. The willpower to overcome difficulties and the belief that you can take care of your family. When we go through hard and difficult times, it is easy to feel punched and beaten.

By reminding ourselves how much work it is being a mom and how much effort we put into providing the best for our family, we are conquering every little bit of negativity that brings us fear.

But really, we moms work hard and you need to remind yourself of it.

Here are 5 places to find positive mom affirmations:

1. Positive Affirmations for Moms by Scary Mommy
2. 40 Positive Affirmations for Christian Moms by Tara with Feels Like Home Blog
3. 20 Affirmations for Busy Moms by Nina with momAgenda
4. Everyday Affirmations for Anxious Moms by Charlie with Living Tickled
5. 31 Days of Positive Affirmations for Moms that Will Bring Joy by Lauren with The Military Wife and Mom

2. Watch Motivational YouTube Videos

We all encounter bad days throughout Motherhood and may even doubt our ability to be a parent.

The truth is, no parent is perfect. No mom is perfect. No one is perfect.

Every step you take as a mom differs from other moms because you are different. And another amazing way to remind yourself and boost your mood is to watch a motivational video.

Whether you need a mood booster on how to be happy or how to be a parent, there are several videos that can nurse your mentality back to health.

3. Read a Book

Reading a book is a great way to boost your mood. Whether it’s a sentence, an excerpt, a page, or a chapter, you can always find comfort in the words of a motivator (the author).

One book I’ve recently read about is, The Happy Mom Mindset: 7 Ways to Skip the Mom Traps So You Can Think, Feel, and Be Happy by Molly Claire. In this book, Molly explains the Mom traps that we often put ourselves in. She identifies the characteristics of the different Mom traps using real life examples and how we can overcome them.

Most often, our actions are a result of our thoughts. When we change our perception, our actions also change. When our actions change, the outcome ALSO changes. Sounds like a cycle right?

To learn more about the mom traps you may be setting yourself in, you can check out her book here.

4. Look at a Picture

Do you ever take out your phone and go back in time by looking at photos you took from 2 years ago?

Well, here’s the thing. Looking at a picture from the past helps you re-live your memories and any emotion that was associated with that picture can have a calming effect on you.

What about that one place in the world that you’ve always wanted to visit? Does it bring you happiness, hope, and joy?

Find a picture of that place and rest your mind on it for at least 5 minutes. It can be used as a calming method to help you remove any negativity and stress you’re experiencing at the moment and take your mind elsewhere.

A list of pictures that can lighten up your day include:

• Pictures of family and events
• Relaxing landscapes
• Your child’s photo’s
• Places that you wish to visit
• Food
• Hobbies
• Role Models
• Tourist attractions
• Intricate patterns
• Bright and colorful pictures

Also, have you ever heard of the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”?

With just one look at a photo, you can find so many answers in the way it communicates to you – emotionally and mentally.

Because photos are one of the most powerful ways to channel messages, there is no better and simple way to boost your mood than there is to look and think upon one.

I’ve always wanted to visit Italy and one of the many pictures that helps me calm my mood is the one below. If there was one place I wish I can be at this moment, it would be Venice, Italy!

5. Look at Colors

Let’s dive a little into psychology here.

While you’re busy going about your every day routine, you may have not realized that the colors around us has a mood effect.

Hot pink, bright yellow, dull green, sky blue.

What did you think when you read those words? Did it remind you of an event, item, or material? Did it take you back in time to a specific day or memory?

As you think about a color, your mind has the ability to visualize an image and bring forth any emotions associated with it.

One great example is blue.

When you think about blue, you may think about the sky, ocean, and water. It may bring you to a state of calmness, relaxation, and harmony right? Because of its color blue, it creates the tranquility of life. However, blue may not always bring you peace and harmony. It can also bring feelings such as loneliness, sadness, and depression – which relates to the state of feeling the “blues”.

Here’s a list of colors and its mood effect:

• Red – Love, Excitement, Comfort, Power, Danger
• Blue – Calmness, Stability, Peaceful, Tranquil, Loyalty, Sadness, Lonely
• Green – Healing, Hope, Refreshing, Health
• Orange – Excitement, Warmth, Energetic, Attention-drawing
• Yellow – Intensity, Cheerful, Energetic, Complex
• Purple – Royalty, Luxury, Soothing, Wisdom, Spiritual
• Brown – Sadness, isolation, darkness, Natural, Down-to-Earth, Dependability
• Pink – Love, Kindness, Feminine, Soft, Compassion, Creativity

While we’ve listed a few of the main colors and its mood effect, I always enjoy looking at bright colors.

Let’s do a little test.

When I stare at this photo, it makes me feel productive, happy, energetic, and creative.

When YOU look at it, how does it make YOU feel? (Comment below!)

6. Plan a Dinner Date

Planning a dinner date with your loved one or even friends and family members can be an effective way to brighten up your day.

When you talk and socialize with others, you’re given the opportunity to express yourself, relieve stress, and can even share concerns you have. And for all we know, there may be some great advice out there that is just waiting for you to hear it!

7. Plan a Girl’s Night Out

We moms all need that kind of night.

The night where you can simply be “girls” and just have fun – a drink of wine, talk over that new movie that just came out, and laugh over a chick flick.

If you’re looking for a girl’s night out, there are several things you can do:

• Go to watch a movie
• Have a cooking session at someone’s house
• Get crafty and be creative!
• Go on a “girl’s” dinner date
• Go food tasting! – desserts, breads, pasta’s, wine, chocolate, etc…
• Have a painting party
• A quick potluck
• Have a swap party! (swap clothes, magazines, etc…)
• Try an escape room
• Attend a local event
• Go on an evening or night shopping spree
• Go out for a drink

8. Go to an Entertainment Center (or to an Arcade)

For a second, let’s go back memory lane and find that little girl inside ourselves.

Remember the little girl who was worry-free and only wanted to play games? Perhaps you loved playing Monopoly or maybe you enjoyed playing the PlayStation or maybe you STILL play games on your phone.

Well, here we are again. You can always take a family trip to an entertainment center or arcade room and STILL find yourself worry-free. Your kids will enjoy the entertainment in front of them as well as YOU enjoy playing! It’s a win-win situation.

9. Color a Coloring Book

You might find it strange that coloring a coloring book is an option to boosting your mood but is in fact, more beneficial than you think. It’s like meditation to the brain. It allows you to focus on one thing at a time while your brain relaxes.

You can relieve stress, reduce anxiety, and fall into a state of relaxation. Adult coloring books tend to be more advanced than children’s coloring books. You will find intricate designs, mandala’s, and even detailed outlines of characters, scenery, and patterns.

10. Go Shopping

If you’re like me, you’d agree that shopping is a big stress reliever.

I’m not one of those shoppers who can shop for hours but a good hour or two is enough to flip a frown into a smile.

Perhaps you forgot to buy a household necessity that has been on your list for weeks! You can use this opportunity to finally make that trip to the store all while boosting your mood.

11. Talk to Someone (or others)

Talking to someone allows you to feel a sense of connection – which helps tremendously with stress relieving.

If you’ve heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you’d remember that there was a stage called “Love and Belonging” where you accomplish happiness and fulfillment by attaining a sense of belonging and connection with others – whether it’s from friends, family, or social groups.

Talking with someone (or others) allow you to express yourself, be open, and share life events and concerns that other individuals can relate to. It can influence the way you think, behave, and respond to your environment.

For example, if you’re part of a social group for moms (whether it’s from Facebook, other social applications, or in real-life social groups) and you are currently distressed over a cluttered and stressful situation, other moms may be able to relate to you and share their experiences and advice.

Make sure you head on over to join my Facebook group, Pregnancy and Motherhood, where we can share and talk about our questions and concerns.

12. Drink a Caffeinated Beverage

Not often a highly recommended option but we all need a neurological boost once in a while, which brings us to learn about the effects of caffeine.

Caffeine is a natural stimulant to the nervous system that can influence many changes to the brain and body.

You can become more alert and more energetic – with your metabolism increasing. However, do note that consuming too much caffeine can affect your blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and may cause you to even have a headache.

Regardless of the effects, there’s one thing you might be able to relate to: the love of drinking coffee, tea, or soda.

Some moms (including me), operate on coffee most days. When I wake up early and settle into my daily routine, a cup of coffee helps me with my productivity.

Other moms may find comfort in drinking tea instead, which helps them manage their daily tasks as they go about their day.

If you’re a Coca-Cola lover or an Energy drink person, you’d understand the effects of drinking a can or two and how it influences your behavior throughout the day.

Common and popular drinks you might be familiar with include:

• Red Bull
• Coca Cola
• Mountain Dew
• Diet Coke
• Coffee
• Cappuccino
• Black Tea
• Green Tea

The bottom line here is that drinking a caffeinated beverage is okay but should be consumed moderately! 🙂

13. Listen to a Podcast

Another great way to feel connected to others is to listen to a podcast.

I’ve always enjoyed listening to TED Talks because of how much information I’ve learned from its speakers. The emotions, knowledge, and power that is communicated through each session is strong enough to change my mood and enhance my perception.

More importantly, you will find several Mom speakers who can relate to what you are feeling right now – and believe it or not, these moms also have some good tips for you as well!

Whether you have an iPhone, Android, or even a tablet or computer, you can always listen to a Podcast that relates to Mommy-ing or pregnancy.

You can find more podcasts below!

• The Absolute Best Podcasts for Moms from Life as Mama
• 16 Awesome Podcasts Mompreneurs Must Hear Right Now from Elna Caine with Twins Mommy
• Listen Up: A Mom Shares the 7 Best Parenting Podcasts by Kelly Dawson from My Domaine
• Mom Podcasts by Atomic Moms

14. Write Down Your Thoughts

Writing can be used as a form to relieve stress.

When you are stressed about work. life, money, relationship, and kids, you can explore your inner thoughts and feelings through writing.

If you’ve kept a diary, journal, or planner before, you’d understand the benefits of writing down your thoughts. You can organize your thoughts, vent about something, compliment others, discuss life events, or even find solutions to the stress you are experiencing!

15. Exercise

Exercising is a great way to shift gears from thinking too much about your emotional health to concentrating more on your physical health.

When you exercise and improve your physical health, you also improve your mental health.

Physical activity release natural chemicals in the body called endorphins.

Endorphins help change the perception of pain (or stress) and influences pleasure (or happiness). These natural chemicals bind with our body’s receptors that can block pain signals – similar to the drug called opioid. However, unlike opioid, endorphins are safe and healthy for the body and brain.

Listed below are some exercises you can try to instantly boost your mood!

• Yoga
• Walk
• Run
• Swimming
• Sports
• Rock climbing
• Lifting weights
• Dance
• Zumba
• Bike
• Garden
• Cardio

16. Listen to Music

Listening to music is a great way to remove negative energy. Whether it’s country music, pop music, hip hop songs, or even relaxation music, you can find comfort in the tunes and lyrics that communicates to you.

During stressful times, I would often find myself listening to the sound of nature – water ripples, rain, birds in a forest, and water falls. Music and noise is linked to our emotions; therefore, creates a calming effect during a chaotic situation.

17. Watch a Movie

There are days where you might find watching a movie can help relieve your stress.

With different movie genres out there, you can find the perfect type of movie that can help you express your emotions!

For some good laughs, you might want to consider watching a comedy. Or to vent and cry, you may want to consider sad movies. How about a movie that captures your full attention? You may think about action movies, thrillers, or horror movies!

18. Read about Happy or Successful People

Read, learn, and aspire. That’s my favorite thing to do. When I read about people who are happy or successful, I find it motivating to overcome my hardships.

Happy people often show similar characteristics: hopeful, optimistic, positive, acceptance, energetic, open-minded. They focus on the outside rather than the inside and move on from challenging situations (which can be challenging itself, sometimes).

As for successful people, when you think of the efforts that these individuals put to be where they are today, it can be an aspiring thing to look upon.

For example, we have Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, who first launched Amazon from the garage of his rented home and we have Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., who built the first Apple computer with his partner, Steve Wozniak, in his parent’s garage. Despite the conditions that these two successful Entrepreneurs were in, they were able to startup a company worth billions of dollars today.

19. Meditate

There is no better way to relax your mind that there is to start with meditation.

Meditation has been around since ancient times and continue to be a popular practice today. It allows you to focus your mind on one thing: an object, your surrounding, a thought, or an activity.

A simple 15-minute meditation can be sufficient to change negative thoughts into positive thoughts or from chaos to harmony.

I personally love listening to guided meditation, a meditation that is guided by the voice of another individual (a trainer, teacher, professional, etc…).

With the assistance from another person, I am able to navigate my inner thoughts and visualize images and scenery that is created by the teacher.

When I was pregnant, I often use guided meditation to help me sleep better, relax the mind, and remove negative thoughts.

20. Disconnect from Technology

We all need a day where we can just disconnect from technology and focus on the life events in front of us.

No distractions from netizens, a term coined for users of the internet, and no influences from the news (whether it’s fake or real).

When you disconnect from technology, you may find yourself reconnecting with people around you (a feeling that we are slowly learning to forget).

Instead of being on Facebook or checking your Twitter account, find that time to spend with your spouse, your family, and most importantly, your kids. There is nothing to lose in this simple action and you may even find yourself learning more about things that you thought you once knew.

22. Power Nap for 20 Minutes

Re-energize your body by taking a power nap.

Power naps are daytime naps that helps refresh the body in numerous ways: your brain, your memory, motor skills, and your alertness.

With a quick 20 minute nap you can already feel a boost of energy. However, make sure you avoid napping too long where you fall into a “deep sleep’, which can lead to increased tiredness and possibly a headache.

23. Get a Massage

Okay, tell me one thing.

Which Mom doesn’t like a massage? For sure, I do!

You can never go wrong with a good massage for 30 minutes (or more!) and even a 15-minute massage will do!

When you are sad, worried, or frustrated, it often leads to stress or depression. And if you didn’t know, stress has a connection to your physical body: it tightens up your muscles, increases the heart rate, and rises your blood pressure.

A massage can help relieve physical tension in the body and bring you to a state of relaxation.

One massaging tool I’ve learned to love is the neck and shoulder massager.

It is super easy to use and all you have to do is loop it over your shoulder and the massaging starts! I often have muscle knots where the shoulders are and this neck and shoulder massage has been able to help me loosen up tensions that have been there for weeks!

24. Take a Shower

There are two kinds of shower you can take to boost your mood and they’re both beneficial in different ways: a hot shower and a cold shower.

A hot shower helps relieve muscle tensions and a cold shower is an instant wake-up call. Whichever one you need right now, taking a shower can be one instant alternative to easing anxiety, stress, and body fatigue.

Personally, I prefer a cold shower Mama 🙂  The sudden touch of cold water always help me freshen up!

25. Try Aromatherapy

Do you ever take a walk into a bath and body store and find that one lotion that smells sooooo deliciously good? Or come upon that one Eucalyptus candle that instantly relieves your stress?

For one thing, you know aromatherapy is taking effect. Through the use of smells and fragrances, your body and mind are changing in many ways that only you can understand – which is why aromatherapy is a great instant mood booster!

You can try an aromatherapy essential oil diffuser, aromatherapy candles (Eucalyptus, Lavender, Rosemary, Peppermint, Citrus Fruits), an essential oil burner, or even buy candles and use a candle burner!

26. Get a Makeover

New look, new you. With a makeover, you may feel completely transformed and may feel happier!

27. Eat Dark Chocolate

Do you find comfort in sweets? Eating dark chocolate can be one way to help reduce stress and boost your mood!

28. List 10 Things You are Grateful For Today

A self-reflection is one effective way to settle down and calm your mind.

By writing down 10 things you are grateful for, it helps you realize the good qualities and events that occurred in your life today. You can embrace the positive things that happened despite the negative emotions you are feeling.

29. Declutter Your Personal Space

Perhaps you have that one room full of boxes, clothes, or paper that is scrambled all over the place.

Why not use this opportunity to declutter your personal space? It can be your office room, your living room, the kitchen, a bedroom, or even your garage that needs some organization.

If you’ve heard of “feng shui”, you would understand the benefits of keeping a clean and organized environment. It can bring upon positive energy, happiness, and good health. But if this concept new to you, you might want to learn more about it right?

What is Feng Shui?

Feng shui (“feng” meaning wind and “shui” meaning water) is a belief and concept of Chinese origin that influences positive energy and harmony through its environment (house, office, building, etc…).

When one has an organized environment, through the placement of objects and yourself, he or she is thought to have better fortune in the different aspects of life.

For example, one may realize that with a more clean house environment, it can lead to a happier and healthier family relationship. Or the placement of your sofa and lamp in the living room may lead to a career advancement or the placement of plants in your house may lead to better health.

30. Have a Cup of Wine

Yes. Saving the best for last~

If you’re a wine lover mama, then this may be the solution you’d love to hear. A cup of wine is the perfect treatment to “unwind” and “let go” of all the stress you’re having.

But it’s important to understand that although wine sounds nice, only a cup is recommended every now and then – so don’t drink often!

A few things to take note of:

• Don’t drink right before you sleep! – Why? Because it can affect your sleep schedule, which can cause you to stay up later than you planned to.
• Drink moderately as it can lead to bad decision-making
• Make sure you drink wine with food or after food

Now that we’ve rounded 30 instant mood boosters, tell me which one you enjoyed the most! (Comment below!)

Oh, and one more thing.

If you enjoyed this post, please share? Other mama’s may find it helpful as well!