8 quick cures for crankiness

5. Press pause four times a day
Pause a total of 20 minutes a day, five at a time, to exorcize your inner grouch, says Georgia Witkin, Ph.D., a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and author of The Female Stress Survival Guide (Newmarket Press, 2002). That's the magic number, suggests Harvard research that showed that's what it took to reduce stress, including irritability, by 50 per cent. Whenever you pause, your brain takes your body off high alert: your breathing returns to normal, which slows your heart rate, blood pressure and stress hormones and reduces the adrenaline overload that tension creates, says Witkin. The most important five-minute downtime is when you wake up: "Your body undergoes the biggest change in blood pressure and heart rate in the morning, so avoid hitting the ground running," explains Witkin.

6. Tell a joke
Learn something from men: Study findings show that they typically open conversations with a joke or at least something not serious, whereas women start off by asking or telling someone what's wrong, and the seriousness tends to escalate. "We can learn something from men about stress," says Witkin. "The more you can do to smile and laugh, the tougher it is to hold on to to bad feelings." Laughing stops hyperventilation and reregulates our breathing pattern. And just smiling sends feedback to the brain that positively affects heart rate, blood pressure and digestion.

7. Wear pastels
Choose the peach top instead of the red one today. You may think that bright colours such as orange, red and yellow are cheery and energizing, but they can actually trigger aggression because they're overstimulating, suggests colour psychologist Leatrice Eisman, Ph.D., author of The Color Answer Book (Capital Books, Inc., 2003). Consider that traffic signs usually capture these colours to send us into alert mode: watch out, danger and stop. Warmer tones have a nurturing, caring feeling, and the less bright and saturated the colours, the more soothing they are.

8. Get your heart racing
Do 10 minutes or more of aerobic exercise to douse grumpy feelings. Findings from the Northern Arizona University have shown that 10 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise improved people's mood the most. Working out at a higher intensity or longer won't make you any cheerier either, report the latest findings published in the journal Exercise Psychology (March 2005). "Exercise has proven strong, calming effects that can last for several hours," says Raglin. "But we've also found that it's aerobic activity that seems to improve mood, not other kinds."

Click here for 10 ways to sneak exercise into your day.

Page 2 of 2