How to improve your mental health - just by making adjustments to your lifestyle!

By: Vaishnika Pagadala

What is Mental Health and Why is it Important?

Mental health is essentially our psychological, emotional, and social well-being. It determines how we react to stress and allows us to make healthy choices. Although physical health is given priority over mental health, both play an equal role in our overall health. Good mental health leads to healthy choices and decreases the chance of other physical health problems. Let’s get deeper into some ways we can improve our mental health and reduce the risk of developing mental illnesses.

Sleep is a Key Factor for Good Mental Health
Getting enough sleep ensures your body and brain have enough time to recover from the day’s activities. While getting enough sleep can be challenging with busy days, sticking to a schedule can help you get enough sleep. Sleep deficiency causes parts of your brain to not function properly and can impact your problems solving skills, decision making skills, and emotions; sleep deficiency is also shown to lead to depression and suicide.

Make Physical Movement a Priority
Doing yoga and meditation regularly has various effects on your body. Yoga makes you focus on breathing and calms your body while meditation helps to focus in the present moment and calm your mind. That being said, any physical activity can help improve mental health. Studies have shown that engaging in physical activity can improve blood flow to the brain - which has a positive impact on mood. If you are on a busy schedule and can’t allocate time for meditation, taking short walks can help refresh and recharge your brain as well.

Keep a Mind on Your Meals and Hydration
The food you eat gives energy to your brain and not eating proper food can distract the functioning cycle and have an impact on your mental health. Having consistent, well-balanced meals and drinking plenty of water can improve your focus and energy levels. Limit your intake of excessive sugars and caffeine. While sugars and caffeine give a boost of energy, they actually cause an imbalance in your energy levels and increase the risk of developing a mental illness. Therefore, limiting sugars, caffeine, and alcohol and developing a well-rounded diet can have a long-lasting impact on your body, starting from your brain.

These 3 simple changes to your lifestyle - sleep, diet, and physical activity - will lead you to have a better mental health by helping you manage stress, increase your focus, and decrease your risk of illness.

Child and Family Guidance Center Supports Your Mental Health Here at the Child and Family Guidance Center, we understand the importance of mental health and aim to provide psychological support through a variety of affordable services such as therapy, counseling, rehabilitation, and skills training. Anyone can receive care from us regardless of their age or financial situation. Mental Health is important to us and we want it to be important to you too.

Citations:

Caring for your mental health. (n.d.). National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/caring-for-your-mental-health#part_8445

Yoga and Meditation: Benefits and differences | TPOT. (2022, August 23). Turning Point of Tampa. https://www.tpoftampa.com/yoga-and-meditation-benefits-and-differences/ Selhub, E., MD. (2022, September 18).

Nutritional psychiatry: Your brain on food. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-20151116 8626 Plumptre, E. (2024, May 6).

The importance of mental health. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/the-importance-of-mental-health-for-wellbeing-5207938

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