Tips To Help Maintain Your Mental Health
Our mental health can have a great impact on our day to day lives, but also our physical health. I know when I’m not feeling my best I can’t give my best. If I’m feeling anxious or stressed out I tend to isolate myself from others then wonder what I’m missing out on which just ends up making me feel sad and lonely. As you can see the loop of unchecked feeling and emotions can easily create a snowball like effect. Today we’ll talk about preventative measures to lessen our exposure to these derailing types of feelings and emotions. For the longest time our medical system didn't see the connection between our physical and mental health but more and more providers are seeing what huge importance mental health plays in our overall well-being. When we leave things to fester and grow they tend to spread, this can also be said for our mental health when left unchecked and out of balance new issues can arise. Have you ever been really stressed out about something at work or school and then acne slowly starts popping up all over the place? Me too! Acne is just a small road bump compared to the catastrophic health issues that can manifest when our mind, body, and soul aren’t in alignment. Mental health is a complicated and complex part of us, but there are things you can do in your day to day lives to help support this vitally important part of us.
Get Outside
Sunlight exposure can do wonders for the body and mind. Exposure to sunlight can help with your circadian rhythm allowing you to get to sleep easier and wake up with ease, and I don’t know about you, but when I don’t sleep well I’m not well. Exposure to sunlight helps with our sleep cycle because when we are soaking up the sun we produce serotonin and one of serotonin’s good buddies is melatonin, one of the chemicals that helps lull us to sleep at night. The availability of sunshine has more impact on mood than rainfall, temperature, or any other environmental factor.
Mindset management
Using tools like breathwork and meditation can go a long way to help reduce cortisol and other stress hormones. Like we talked about earlier, when we allow feeling and emotion to fester they spread in unpredictable ways, one way to get ahead of this is to find an outlet that helps move the feelings out. Think of it like cleaning up trash or clutter around the house. When we do activities like meditating, breathwork, or journaling we give ourselves time to clean up all the mental clutter that has accumulated.
Getting Enough Rest & Relaxation
Our constantly busy lives tend to not let us get the rest we need for healthy brain function and not getting enough relaxation can cause pent up emotions and feelings of stress. Rest can come in many different forms, rest doesn’t always look like getting to bed early or taking a nap. There is emotional rest, mental rest and so many more types of rest than the physical version we tend to think of first. Taking the time to allow the different parts of us to take the time to calm down and find balance can be crucial. Have you ever felt really tired, taken a nap and then woke up not feeling as energized as you thought you would? Maybe you didn’t actually need physical rest, but a walk listening to your favorite music allowing your brain to take the mental rest it needs. Maybe you were feeling really emotional and journaling might have left you feeling more rested. Either way and no matter what kind of rest you need, making sure you carve out the time for rest can be a great preventative measure to help keep your mental health in check.
Spend time with "safe" friends
We as humans are social creatures and spending time with friends who won't judge us or make us feel uncomfortable can be uplifting and release serotonin, but even more important spending time with safe friends can create the space we need to vent and express our emotions in an environment that feels safe. You know when something is really bugging you or rubbed you the wrong way and you find a friend and start venting about it, but instead of validating your feelings or holding space for you to let it all out they told you “It’s that big or a deal” or “You’re overreacting”? Yeah, that’s not the friend I’m talking about. I’m talking about the friend you tell the most embarrassing stories to and laugh with, the friend that takes you on your best days and your worst.
Do The Things You enjoy
Doing the things we enjoy can release serotonin and other "happy" hormones while also allowing ourselves to relax. Remember how I said relaxing can come in all different ways? Yep, full circle moment! You know that rant we all have when we are feeling overwhelmed or on the edge of burnout… “I feel like all I do is (BLANK)!”. Our lives are not meant to be all work and no play which Is why making the time to do the things you love and spend time on your hobbies is crucial. Work is essential in our lives, but we need to break it up with play to not drive ourselves up a wall!
Being physically active
Moving our bodies can help rid the body of built up stress hormones and boost the creation of happy ones. Did you know that most stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline don’t just go away, our bodies have to burn them up or use them so they don’t continue to keep the body in an elevated state. Adrenaline and cortisol were designed to keep us safe in life or death situations with in intention of the compounds being used up and expelled from the body while escaping the threat. In the society we live in today it’s not an everyday occurrence to be in life or death situations, but it is common to come along stresses that create adrenaline and cortisol like being embarrassed or a loud car driving by, but we no longer our using these compounds up so the get left floating around the body leaving us in an elevated state of being. When we move our bodies and do regular physical exercise our body naturally burns off these stress compounds and starts creating serotonin, you know the infamous “runners high” that’s serotonin! Not only do we allow our serves to burn up any stress compounds and boost serotonin levels, but exercise is so beneficial to our sleep patterns and quality as well.
eating Healthy
Eating what's healthy for your body can go a long way to making us feel better in our bodies and about ourselves. Fueling our bodies with the correct foods for us can fuel you with energy to concur our day. Hangry is a thing for a reason when you’re not getting enough fueling foods it can have a drastic effect on your mood throughout the day. Eating a diet rich in Omega-3's can also boost brain function and brain health allowing you to think clearly and have the energy to tackle complicated feelings and emotions.
