We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
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The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
With our tips we will try to make your brain secrete hormones called endorphins, which are known as "happiness hormones". They are substances that our bodies naturally produce and are responsible for our quality of life. They will make you experience feelings of joy and well-being, and make the muscular and mental tension that make you feel bad disappear.
This feeling of well-being will contribute to the prevention of possible anxiety/depression and/or the relapse of these disorders. For example, chronic pain often makes people feel depressed, but this hormone contributes to you having less pain, increases your immune system, and therefore helps you feel better and stronger.
These tips will also help you increase your ability to face situations that can and do create discomfort.
1. Exercise
When the body starts doing exercise the level of endorphins increases.
Choose your favourite kind of exercise. If you don't like going to the gym, try walking or running, which will bring you lots of physical and mental benefits without having to spend money. It can also give you a certain sense of freedom.
Diet has a fundamental influence on your mood, for example, if you do not ingest enough protein, it will be harder for you to secrete endorphins.
Enjoy meals and the accompanying sensations (smells, flavours, etc.), company, etc.
Try to sleep at least seven hours a night, which is the amount of time the body and mind require "to repair themselves" and to feel refreshed.
Practise yoga, pilates, relaxation techniques such as guided meditation, mindfulness, visualisation, Jacobson's progressive relaxation technique, chromotherapy, aromatherapy, music therapy, and so on.
Practising these activities removes muscular contractions and causes you to experience a feeling of well-being and profound relaxation.
Expressing your difficult thoughts or feelings will take a weight off and your mood will improve significantly. The caresses and hugs of your loved ones can also help increase your well-being.
Try to see the positive things that surround you and use nice words to convey them. Be grateful.
Learn to forgive and forget, you will have a calmer life without accumulated resentment.
Enjoy the little everyday things, try to escape from routine and boredom. Always leave a door open to new projects.
Think that the unpleasant situation that you may be experiencing is just a momentary obstacle and this will help you to tackle problems with more motivation.
Avoid toxic comments or situations in which negativity predominates (complaints, gossip, etc.).
If there is no-one close by with whom you can offload, starting to write is a good way of freeing yourself of negative thoughts. Express your thoughts and feelings in writing.
The sun is an excellent anti-depressant. Look for sunny places so that your brain can continue secreting the happiness hormone: the beach, the mountains, etc.
Also, observe carefully everything around you in the place you have chosen (the colour of the sea, the clouds, the intense green of the trees, the sound of the waves, the birds...)
If you feel yourself beginning to feel sad or anxious, you can do activities that you know make you feel good when you are emotionally stable.
You may not want to start doing them again right away, but think about the result you obtained when you used to do it. If you liked going to the cinema before and now you don't like it, try to remember how much you enjoyed watching a good film... maybe this will encourage you to try again.
If you're not sure about what you like most and what gives you most satisfaction in life, try different activities such as doing a cooking workshop, gardening, drawing, playing an instrument, dance lessons, singing...
Being part of a group often has good results for keeping you healthy and preventing possible depression. So, travel, walk, go for dinner or to the cinema with a group of people.
Respect the environment, be more supportive, help your neighbour...
For example, signing up for volunteering will increase your self esteem. Helping others brings with it a feeling of physical, emotional and intellectual well-being.
Do something that you like and that makes you feel better. For example, a relaxing massage or a hot shower will cause the nerves of your skin to release endorphins; eat something that you like, walk along the beach or park, sunbathe, if you have a pet, go outside with it, watch a film, start a good book...
It can help keep you company and focus your attention on something else. Animals provide unconditional love and they can be useful in less motivated moments.
Stroking your cat or dog can make you feel very good.
Record all the activities you do throughout the day. It's important to assess the good times in the day and make an effort to change the less good ones.
Smile and laugh, and if you cannot find anything to laugh at, join laughter therapy workshops. Laughter is undoubtedly one of the factors that increases our levels of endorphins.
Laughter makes your soul grow and gives you a simpler life perspective, without overwhelming problems or unpleasant situations.
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