Keeping your brain healthy and functional takes some special activities and thoughts. For starters, being negative all the time has a negative effect on mental health. One of the best advice I’ve ever received from someone was that you should always look at things either positively or neutrally.
For example, if something bad happens, try your best to find something positive about that situation. Also, following a specific life teaching helps keep your brain healthy since you always have goals set for you that exist to make you a better person.
Working out is also a recommendation that doctors often give to patients who have mental health issues such as depression, insomnia, anxiety, and various others. Exercising has been proven to boost your mood and take care of mental illnesses such as the ones we mentioned.
The type of exercise isn’t incredibly important if you aren’t looking to make yourself involved in sports and making yourself look amazing. If you’re just looking for boosting your mental health and maybe even trying to lose some weight, exercising is a perfect choice.
If working out isn’t what you’re after, here are seven quick and simple tips to boost your mental health.
Try Meditation
Meditation has been used by an incredible number of people for various purposes. It’s a great way of conserving energy and letting go of excess stress. An interesting fact regarding meditation is that you can slow down your own heartbeat with enough practice.
There have been cases where meditation gurus slowed down their heartbeats to around 20-30 beats per minute which is around two times slower than a regular person’s heartbeat. There are many guides on the topic of meditation, but the thing you should remember is to simply relax and focus on one spot, most commonly the tip of your nose.
Focus on your breathing, and you’ll soon find yourself completely devoid of all stress and negative thoughts. Two 15-minute sessions during the day should be enough to help you out and boost your mental health. One in the morning and one in the evening, just before sleep.
Meditation might not cause you to fix all of your mental issues quickly, but the road is easy and steady. It also helps long term by causing you to ignore some problems that aren’t really problems (for example, when you give too much thought for something that doesn’t matter). In the end, meditation is great on its own, but it’s even better when combined with some other methods that are just as effective!
Exercise Regularly
When all else fails – exercise! This is a common opinion of doctors that have patients who are battling various mental conditions such as depression and anxiety. Science has proven that working out has the same effect on mental health as certain medications, and it’s probably even healthier.
People who have been going to see a psychologist or psychiatrist and haven’t achieved any results usually lock themselves in even more. However, once they start working out, the issues seemingly begin to resolve themselves.
The reason behind this is that the body produces an increased amount of chemicals such as serotonin, testosterone, and various others. This is interesting because most people that suffer from depression have an extremely low level of serotonin which sometimes can’t even be solved with medications.
However, working out causes the body to release the chemical no matter what, so people feel relief when working out. Exercising regularly also helps improve your overall health and boost your mental abilities since more oxygen-rich blood reaches the brain on a constant basis.
Get Enough Sleep
You’ve probably had situations where you had extra work and couldn’t sleep properly. If this happened for more than one day, then you likely had issues concentrating and doing your usual chores around the house. Sleep deprivation is a serious issue and can even cause death. Not getting enough sleep on a daily basis won’t cause fatal results but it will impact your brain’s ability to function normally.
We’ve all been teenagers once and stayed up late while getting up early for school, so you probably know the feeling. The issues start appearing once you get a little bit older. Your body can no longer follow that tempo, and it starts to self-destruct (not as spectacular or quick as you might think). The brain doesn’t have time to repair all the damaged cells throughout the body and, with not enough sleep, the damage just keeps getting worse.
If you want to have a healthy brain, make sure you get enough sleep. 6-8 hours is enough for an adult but if you are below 40 years old, make sure that it’s closer to 8 hours of sleep rather than 6. Once you get old, 6 or even 5 hours of sleep will be enough.
In any case, if you have issues with sleeping, you might want to take a look at Kratom Crazy, a website where you can purchase Kratom. Kratom is a plant that is healthy and can help you with insomnia, as long as you get the correct strain.
Add Protein-Rich Food in Your Diet
Here’s something you might not have known: An improper diet can cause your mental health to deteriorate! An unhealthy diet will not only cause physical issues in the form of weight gain, but it will also cause you to lose focus, and it can even influence your memory. You can change this by adding protein-rich food to your diet and getting rid of fast food and sugars. Chocolate is healthy but in moderate amounts, while other sweet food such as candy and similar isn’t as good for you.
Protein-rich food such as beans, pork tenderloin, seafood, and various others are incredibly tasty if prepared properly. If you aren’t a fan of meat, you can make protein shakes and soy, but be warned that vegetables aren’t usually rich in protein so don’t think that a veggie-only diet will do enough for your mental health. Seafood is awesome, and it’s a great choice because it’s low in fat while being incredibly rich in protein.
Listen to Music
How many times have you heard a friend say “Music has helped me pull through”? Or even, how many times have you said it yourself? Many people can’t go through a day without listening to music and rightfully so. Science has proven that music has a strong effect on the human psyche. Music can help you through tough times, or help you achieve your goals. Whatever music you listen to, if it makes you happy, it makes you healthy as well.
Even though some music is supposed to be better at this than other music (such as classical music which is considered the best choice for this) – the music that makes you happy and the music you love is just as powerful.
Music causes our brain to relax and release certain chemicals in a similar way as when working out. Different wavelengths have different effects so some music can make you feel energetic while other types of music can cause you to relax. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you listen to as long as you enjoy it and feel good about it!
Eliminate Bad Habits
Sometime in the past, I used to drink alcohol whenever I wasn’t feeling good. I would close myself up to anyone who’s inquiring to see what’s wrong. Then I’d drink myself to oblivion. This all changed when I found out about certain methods to live a better life. I swore to myself never to look at alcohol again in such a way, and I’ve kept that promise.
It’s no secret that bad habits such as alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, laziness, and various others can cause you to live a not-so-happy life. The path towards better mental health is dealing with all the bad habits and getting rid of them step by step since we all know it’s nigh impossible to completely stop with a habit instantly.
Spend Quality Time With Your Friends
“Friends are family” is what I always used to say when I had issues that I didn’t want to talk about. Friends are there to help you out and listen to you, no matter what problems you’re having. Have a coffee with a couple of your friends and tell them about your issues and you’ll see that by simply talking about your problems you’re influencing the way you feel about life. You will feel better, and you will appreciate your friends even more – it’s simply how life works.
Plus, spending quality time with friends makes us happy and fulfilled, so there’s that!
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