9 Tips for Choosing Your Mood as an HSP or Introvert

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed can take a toll on you emotionally, especially if you’re a highly sensitive person or introvert. Here are some tips on choosing your mood.

Walking through hard times and being super stressed all of the time can do a number on your mood. I cannot tell you the months that I would spend in a really stinky mood, and it wasn’t because of anything other than just that life was hard and I was just in a stinky mood.

That’s not how we want to live our lives. It is possible to walk through hard and stressful situations and have a better, pleasant, and positive mood. Today I want to give you 9 tips on how you can improve your mood during stressful times.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify

One of the unique things that happens as an HSP or introvert is that your emotions are amplified: good or bad. Usually the bad is usually amplified when you’re stressed. So when you’re walking through hard stuff, you are going to be more – whatever that is.

If you’re sad, you might feel despair. If you’re angry, you may feel rage. It’s just how our brains work and how we process things. There are things you can do to help you improve your mood, I promise.

I have done all of these with success. I’m not just pulling stuff out of the sky and telling you to do it. These are things that I have done that have helped me so much over the years.

Tip #1: Deal with Your Feelings

The first thing is to start dealing with your emotions: recognize and validate how you feel. It’s important to acknowledge your feelings without judgment. There’s no need for stigmatizing emotions and feelings they just are information. You’re not a better person because you’re not angry. You’re not a worse person because you’re frustrated and disgusted today.

I want you to get into the habit of taking some moments to identify and label your emotions, Often being able to say, “This is how I feel” can help you move on. It’s simple, ask yourself what you’re feeling right now and why.

That can be a journaling question or you can just stop and think that through. When you’re talking about what are you feeling don’t be afraid to go deep. It’s not just what emotion you feel but also what it feels like in your body. For example, if I am worried and anxious, I have a stomach ache. My hands get sweaty and I can’t sit still.

Are you a highly sensitive, introverted woman who feels overwhelmed by your emotions? Processing your feelings and learning to embrace your sensitivity can be challenging. But what if you didn’t have to navigate this journey alone? Take the first step towards peace. Book your Feel Your Feelings coaching session today!

Tip #2: Journal

Journaling will help you explore and then validate your emotions. When you’re asking yourself about your feelings, it’s a perfect prompt that you can use to journal. Ask yourself what’s causing you to feel stressed right now.

This is important: give yourself permission to feel that way. Like we’ve talked about, you want to validate your emotions. You’re not judging or critiquing them, just validate. You probably feel that way because of what’s happening.

It is perfectly reasonable and understandable that you are frustrated when something is not going your way. To be exhausted because you are in a busy season of life. If you are angry because somebody is being rude and ugly to you, that’s understandable, it’s reasonable.

Identify what you’re feeling, what’s causing you to be stressed out, and then give yourself permission to just feel it. You don’t really have to do anything other than that if you don’t want to.

Tip #3: Self-Care

I want you to incorporate some simple self-care routines. Start with something simple. 5 or 10 minutes to soak in a tub, go for a walk, listen to your favorite song, dance in your living room, or whatever it is that you want to do. Incorporate that into your routine, because when you can find some moments to take care of yourself, to fuel yourself, it’s going to improve your mood.

Tip #4: Mindfulness

Deep breathing is so helpful. It activates the nervous and vagus systems — things in your body that are supposed to naturally calm you down. But sometimes you are literally holding your breath. Not taking deep breaths. Only breathing really shallow and it can be that’s telling your body that you’re stressed and in danger.

If you can, find a couple of minutes to go, sit, and just breathe. Try a box breath where you breathe in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four, and then hold for four. That’s a really easy thing to do. After a few times, you will find that your nervous system is going to be like, oh hey, will start recognizing the need to calm down. And start to release some of the tension in your body.

Tip #5: Move Your Body

Next is gentle movement or exercise. I do not mean picking up all the weights, CrossFit, or a marathon. Those have a place but not here. I want you to think of something that’s going to be gentle for your body. Walking is probably my favorite thing to do. Also, stretching or foam rolling. Think of something that you can do that’s going to be nice and gentle on your body because you’re trying to release some stress and tension from your body. okay, so now I want to talk a little bit about some things that you can do spiritually right to connect with God.

Tip #6: Prayer & Scripture

Now I want to talk a little bit about some things that you can do spiritually to connect with God. Tip number six is to have some time in prayer and spend time in scripture. I know that seems like a “well duh”, but do it right. Find a comforting Bible verse or passage and just read it, meditate on it, pray it, or journal it. Say it to yourself over and over again. One of my favorites is Psalm 46:10: be still and know that I am God.

Tip #7: Quiet Time

Tip number seven is to create a soothing, quiet time with Jesus routine within your day. I’ve talked a little bit about creating a restful, calming place to journal. Do the same thingt o meet with God. It doesn’t have to be long. You just want to have a nice cozy, comfy place to sit with God and maybe read a verse or two, say a quick prayer, maybe journal some prayers, or even go for a walk and listen to some worship music.

Tip #8: Community

These next two tips are going to be very practical. They didn’t really fit in the other ones, but I wanted to include them. Number eight is to reach out to your community. Find your people. If you are struggling, reach out to them and ask to meet for coffee or go for a walk to talk and share your heart. Let somebody else share that burden with you. That’s what they’re there for.

Tip #9: Boundaries

The final tip is boundaries. Please embrace boundaries, because they are going to help you protect your peace, your sanity, and your emotional well-being. Begin to ask yourself what areas of your life are causing you stress. What’s an area where you’re noticing that your mood is really terrible?

Is there a boundary that you can set that’s going to reduce that? Maybe you need to hop off social media because it’s stressing you out. Perhaps you need to limit your time with a specific person. We all have people in our lives who drive us absolutely up the wall, and sometimes we need to put boundaries in place. Think through what you need and what you can put in place for boundaries.