Easy lifestyle changes are those you can incorporate into your daily life without reading a book first, or even knowing a technique. Every step you take brings you further. It shouldn’t be hard, or feel like a ‘must’. In this guest blog, we get 11 easy lifestyle changes with tips how to boost our mental health and wellbeing. They will impact you positively. You will reap the benefits from feeling happier, more energised and your mind will cooperate too. If you put one or a combination of these tips into your every day life, you will vastly improve your mental health, feel good factor and enable yourself to face stresses and challenges.
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11 Easy Lifestyle Changes That Will Boost Your Mental Health
by Evelyn Kail, Blogger
The importance of mental health cannot be underestimated. It determines how happy you are. It is often stated that the mind is its own place, and of itself can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven. Thus it is of fundamental importance that you engage in practices that will positively affect your mental wellbeing.
1 – Diet
What you eat is probably the single biggest factor in determining mental health. Simply put, there are a number of nutrients which are needed by the brain in order to function correctly. If the brain does not get these essential fats and nutrients it will not function properly. Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential for brain health and can be found in fish oil and eggs. The brain also needs a number of micronutrients such as Folate, Zinc, Vitamins A, Iron, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin C. These can be obtained with a diet consisting mainly of fruits, nuts, seeds, oils and vegetables with some fish, dairy, and eggs a couple of times a week.
2 – Change
Routine is absolutely detrimental to brain health. If you are constantly doing the same thing over and over, ticking the box, repetition, repetition, repetition, then your brain is dying. New connections are not being made between neurons. The brain needs stimulation and change to keep it going. Otherwise, it will atrophy. Use it or lose it, as the saying goes. Tip: 30 Tips How To Age Proof Yourself
3 – Creative Writing Exercises
A great way to keep the brain in good working order is to focus on working out your creativity muscles. This can be done through a number of imagination/creation exercises you set yourself. These exercises can be anything as there are no real limits on the imagination. Just pick something and let your imagination take off.
4 – Art
Like creative writing, art/painting requires brain muscles of a type not commonly used. In an age of Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Word, art provides a much better alternative for expressing creativity, working with images instead of word and digits. It is also great for therapy as any unresolved issues will surface in your paintings.
5 – Brain training exercises
There are a number of online sites such as Lumosity which are targeted exclusively at training your brain to function at its best. The training consists of fun games which give you a score depending on how well you do. As your brain gets better it is reflected by the score. A mix of science and entertainment brought to you by scientists and game developers.
6 – Supplements
There are certain supplements that are particularly effective for protecting and enhancing the brain. One such supplement is Cod liver oil, packed full of high-quality Omega 3, the essential brain nutrient. You can also get B complex tablets which are effective when taken every now and again. Tip: Dietary Supplements – Good for Your Health?
7 – Exercise
Everything is interrelated, thus a less than optimal body will result in a less than optimum brain. A good lifestyle change to incorporate into your life is to build your own gym at home. This will encourage you to exercise more. Garagegymplanner.com is a fantastic resource for building your own personal gym. There is more to it than you might think, and garagegymplanner.com can be a great help.
8 – Meditate
Meditation has been proven to have an incredible amount of benefits related to the brain. It protects against neurological diseases and people who meditate regularly are reported to have a psychological age five years younger than those who do not. It also calms the mind and releases GABA, a potent neurotransmitter. Tip: 7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change The Brain – forbes.com
9 – Read good books
Reading good, inspiring, thought provoking books is a great way to get into mental shape. Books can introduce new ideas and concepts which will expand your awareness and keep the brain sharp. It is very important that these books are positive in nature. Horror books and movies are not good for the brain as they introduce negative thought patterns. Instead of trawling the internet reading garbage articles, pick up a classical novel and read it until the end.
10 – Listen to good audiobooks/binaural beats
Binaural beats can harmonize your brain to leave you feeling calm and collected. Listening to music at 432 Hertz is alleged to be very good for the brain. There are many binaural beats available for free on YouTube, and as most people are at a computer all day anyway, there really is no harm in listening to binaural beats while regular work is being completed.
11- Watch good movies
Like books and audio, what you watch is very important. Make sure you watch only positive, engaging content, not soap TV shows, which are probably the worst form of television. You learn nothing and the story is generally the same.
Hope you liked my easy lifestyle changes that can help you boost your mental health! / Evelyn
Easy Lifestyle Changes for Body, Mind and Spirit
The GOODista team is grateful for contributions to the site that make so much sense. As humans we are pressed to maximum at various stages of our lives. We can choose to play the ‘blame game’ or suffer in silence. We can also make an active choice to help ourselves.
Body, mind and spirit work together when they are balanced. Feeling out of sorts can be the result of too much stress, pressure and worries — or — too little proper nutrition, sleep or exercise. Any step towards a healthy balance is an active choice to feel better.
We are thankful to Evelyn Kail for her insights and resourceful tips. The 11 easy lifestyle changes are absolutely possible to incorporate into our daily life, even when you’re working (far) away. A combination of some, if not all, of these 11 techniques will see a vast improvement in anyone’s mental health.
Please share your thoughts in the comment box below and tell us: How do you boost your mental wellbeing?
Welcome back to The GOODista healthy lifestyle blog – for wellness and energy every day and working (far) away – to Feel, Be and Do Good. Don’t miss any updates, get recipes, tips and special offers: Subscribe here below.
Recommended and Related:
- Life Altering Lifestyle Change – thegoodista.com
- 15 Ways to Boost Mental Energy Levels – lifehack.org
- 5 Ways to Boost Your Memory and Mental Agility – The Chopra Center
- 63 Ways to a Better Lifestyle – selfdevelopmentsecrets.com
- Building Better Mental Health – helpguide.org
- Wellness Coaching – thegoodista.com
Useful information! Thanks for your great sharing
Posts with a lot of useful information, vivid images 😀
Thank you for sharing info.
Thanks Monica! So glad you liked this post. Welcome back to thegoodista again, and feel free to join the mailing list. Ciao!
Thanks for an interesting blog post. Much to follow and to get inspired by.
Thanks for your comment and glad you felt inspired! Keep on reading and commenting!