YOUR MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS: 6 STEPS TO FIND BALANCE,HEALING & A HAPPIER FUTURE
Do you ever feel flat? Down or alone?
Maybe your brain feels cloudy, your mojo has disappeared, or worry has engulfed your mood?
Stress and mental illness are common experiences. Ones that can suck the quality from your life and the energy from your body and mind.
So, what can you do when you feel awash with emotional pain? And how can you implement actions that prevent illness and support healing?
These six steps will help you to find balance, naturally, because you deserve a happy future.
Regular Exercise
You might have already noticed that physical activity can deliver a buzz along with an energy hit?
Moving the body positively enhances mood. The benefits are significant for those without mental illness. Research also shows, “The benefits are significant especially in subjects with an elevated level of anxiety and depression because of more room for possible change.”
The good news is that there’s no need to spend an hour each day in gruelling training… Unless that’s your passion.
A study published in the journal Healthy Psychology found that after only 10-minutes of cycling, there was a significant improvement in energy, a drop in fatigue, and a positive boost to mood. By the 20 minute mark, the confusion of brain fog subsided. Exercising for longer periods did not further elevate mood.
Maybe surprisingly, it appears the best way to enhance your state of mind is to take a low intensity approach.
Aerobic exercises like cycling, jogging, swimming, and walking are perfect choices. Fifteen to 30 minutes, three times per week is sufficient to trigger positive change.
Practice Mindfulness Meditation
You’ve likely heard this term by now, but what is mindfulness meditation and how can its practice aid a healthy mood?
Mindfulness meditation is the conscious practice of moment-by-moment awareness. By paying gentle attention to our feelings, sensations and thoughts without rendering judgement or getting hooked on each one, we can linger in the present. With practice, rumination about the past and worry about the future can be let go.
See, what Buddhist’s have known for an eon, we are beginning to understand: mindfulness meditation has profound psychological benefits.
A study called The Effects of Different Stages of Mindfulness Meditation Training on Emotion Regulation found that this practice enhanced mindfulness and improved emotional state.
Focused attention meditation, with a concentration on one single point like a mantra or a candle, was shown to effectively improve mood.
Alternatively, open monitoring meditation worked as well. This practice allows for the internal and external world. For example, sounds, smell, temperature, emotions and thoughts. Awareness of such things is allowed to arise, then fall away to be replaced by another. This practice “could further improve individual levels of mindfulness and maintain a positive mood.”
There are ample videos available on YouTube that will guide you through your choice of mindfulness meditation practice. Decide on the one that best suits you so regular practice becomes seamless.
Talk To A Trusted Person
As poet and activist, Maya Angelou, said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Speaking to a trusted family member, friend and mental health expert can offer respite in stressful situations and therapy in mental illness.
While professional therapy may at first seem confronting, it can be powerful. An article published in Scientific American noted that, “Talk therapy” gives people “the tools to continue to function better in the world, feel better about themselves, reduce psychiatric symptoms and face life’s challenges with greater flexibility and freedom well beyond the end of their sessions.” It’s one treatment that gives beyond the time spent within it.
Stay Well Nourished
Nutrition is the foundation of good health. This is no different with the mind in mind.
There are several nutrients that act to catalyze the production of neurotransmitters; that is, they speed and enable the production of “happy hormones.” Vitamin B6 and the minerals, magnesium and zinc included.
Omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to directly ease depression.
Additional tip: While not a nutrient per se, medicinal plants like Ashwagandha are revered for their calmative effects against stress and anxiety.
Enjoy Nature
We, humans, tend to think of ourselves as separate from nature. Yet, research points in the opposite direction to our egos.
Green therapy, or immersion in nature for therapeutic purposes, is wonderful for stilling the mind. Reports of reduced stress, anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness are continuing to mount.
There are so many ways to invite nature into your life. From indoor plants including the appropriately named peace lily to lavender, to a walk along the beach or immersion in a forest, think about how you can add more living green to your space and existence?
Sleep Well
Poor sleep is ubiquitous in modern life. The hustle of work and ongoing responsibility often leads to switching slumber for activity. Add in mental illnesses like anxiety and depression that are known to halt sound sleep and the quality and quantity of shuteye can become eroded.
Yet, there are potent ways to improve your sleep.
- Schedule a stable wake time and stick to it
- Ensure your bedroom is dark, cool and quiet
- Take a warm bath 30 minutes before bed
- Opt for a comfortable, supportive mattress and pillow
- Avoid blue light for 90 minutes prior to retiring; that includes TV, laptop, tablet, smartphone and eReader screens
- Supplement with an evidence-based product that both calms stress and boosts sleep
ThermoSleep contains the nutrients we talked about earlier that are necessary for neurotransmitter function and stress reduction: vitamin B6, magnesium and zinc.
This science-backed product also harnesses the soothing power of Ashwagandha. In addition, melatonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), lemon balm extract, passion flower and Chamomile flower combine to produce a gentle, synergistic blend that is specifically formulated to quell stress and enhance sleep.
The Takeaway
Taking steps that both protect your mental health and aid recovery, where needed, are essential in the humdrum of modern life. If you don’t, you risk serious future illness and a poor quality of life.
Yet, with the right steps — ThermoSleep included — life can be happier and healthier. And that’s what drives us here at OnestHealth.com… your wellbeing!