Shift Your Mood in Minutes

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By Maryann Hammers

Feeling down? Here are 5 ways to take you from grouchy to grinning.

People who feel stressed, depressed, hostile, or hateful are at greater risk of heart disease, studies show. Meanwhile, cheery folks not only have healthier hearts, but they also have better marriages, more friends, higher incomes, heightened job success—even longer lives than their cantankerous cousins.

Just as some people are usually upbeat, others are inherently grouchier. It’s in the genes. “At least 50 percent of what constitutes personality is genetically determined,” says psychiatrist Eve A. Wood, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Arizona and author of the books There’s Always Help; There’s Always Hope and 10 Steps to Take Charge of Your Emotional Life. “Whether we are easy-going and playful or intense and pessimistic is heavily affected by our genetic endowment.”

That doesn’t mean you are doomed to gloom. Even if you are naturally negative, you have something to smile about. Really. “A good grin actually changes your brain neurochemistry and elevates your mood,” says Wood, who suggests reading joke books or watching funny movies to help maintain an uplifted mood.