Health Hacks: Boost your mood with these 5 simple tips

Welcome to Health Hacks with Doctor Mike, a weekly video series to learn the latest tips and tricks to ensure you're as healthy as can be.

Good health is contingent on far more than just eating well, exercising and sleeping. In fact, researchers at Harvard Medical School have found such a strong correlation between happiness and health with scientific research to back it up: Positive emotions can not only contribute to a happier life, but it can prolong life as well.

"Your physical health is intimately connected with your mental health," explains Doctor Mike to AOL Lifestyle. "So, if you're feeling down for a very long period of time, symptoms can show up, like high blood pressure, low back pain and even heartburn."

Read on to discover Doctor Mike's top tips to boost your mood so you can live a happier life.

1. Bump those beats: Science has proven that music can lower your stress level and reduce anxiety.

2. Busting a move: Dancing helps relieve tension -- and doing it with a partner can boost your mood even more!

3. Connect with the outdoors: There's a growing field of medicine called ecotherapy that has shown how spending time in nature can reduce anxiety levels.

4. Three good things: At the end of the day for two weeks, write down three good things that happened and why. Research concludes that this practice retrains your brain to think about the positives and not just the negatives, thus alleviating symptoms of depression and elevating your mood for a significant period of time.

5. Challenge your inner critic: Rise above negative thoughts by writing them down and replacing them with rational substitutes. By doing that, we take the power back ourselves.