By Dr. Margarita Munoz and Jill Winner
Uncertainty and stress make it more important than ever to take care of your mental health. With many of us facing pressures at work, home, school (and just in general), allowing ourselves the space to focus on our mental health have numerous benefits to our overall well being. Here’s a list of things we can all do to maintain or improve our mental health.
Healthy Eating
Nutrition is essential for mental health. A growing field known as nutritional psychiatry shows that certain foods can help anxiety, depression, and cognition. We often crave high fat, heavily processed and sugary foods for comfort, but they are ultimately harmful to overall wellness. A Mediterranean diet—or eating foods like vegetables, fruit, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, beans and legumes – is proven to be healthier for the body and mind. Evidence exists that food fuels your body and brain. Research also shows that microbes in the gut help make serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters, which help with mood. Additionally, these nutrients are needed for brain and nerve cell functioning.
Exercise
Exercise helps boost your mood by releasing endorphins and serotonin, neurotransmitters that help with mood. Additionally, it can help with self-esteem, mental acuity, sleep, and serves as a distraction technique from our negative thoughts. Try busting out some dance moves to upbeat music and feel your worries drift away.
Sleep/ Circadian Rhythm
Sleep really matters, as it gives our brains time to refuel. Keeping a regular sleep cycle helps maintain our circadian rhythm, our internal clock. There are some things you can do to help get a better night’s sleep: avoid TV, computer and phone screens before bedtime and try listening to relaxing music or reading instead. Avoiding other activities than just sleeping in your bed, and keeping a cooler ambient temperature in your room, as well as avoiding caffeine in the afternoon can be helpful. Sleeping late on weekends can throw off our rhythm and then create insomnia, so try to keep a regular pattern.
Connectedness
Research shows that people who connect daily with others feel happier, experience less anxiety, and have a decreased risk of cognitive decline. In addition, feeling loved and cared for reduces feelings of loneliness and not fall into a depression. Creating connections, especially as you get older, is not always easy. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new, enroll in a class, join a book club, or investigate workshops or lectures at your local library or community center.
Boundaries
Creating boundaries can assist you in keeping your emotional energy from being drained, prevent burnout, and maintain positive mental health. By establishing emotional and physical boundaries, you will have better balance, decrease conflicts, stress less, and increase confidence. Saying “no” is alright. Be firm but kind. Communicate honestly and consistently.
Self-Compassion
We are often most critical of ourselves and show others more kindness than we do ourselves. Self-compassion allows us to treat ourselves like we would a friend. It permits us to accept our imperfections, but still take accountability and grow with a lens of kindness and compassion instead of criticism. Having self-compassion elevates our mood, helps us have healthier relationships, and improves our self-esteem.
Self-Care
When life gets busy, self-care often gets dropped to the bottom of the priority list. Self-care, however, is essential to our mental health. Self-Care can help improve mood, manage stress, and increase self-confidence. Pick self-care activities that are enjoyable and fit in your schedule. Self-care does not have to take a lot of time. Smaller self-care ideas include taking a brief walk, listening to your favorite song, or calling a friend for a brief check in.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is another tool that helps to support our mental health and outlook on life. It means focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. Mindfulness can help you to become more aware of your feelings, which can then improve your ability to stay calm and manage emotions. While meditation, breathing, and yoga are great ways to practice mindfulness, other ways include journaling, making a gratitude list, or paying attention to what is going on around you while taking a walk.
Recognizing when to get help
Seek professional help if you begin to feel your symptoms are unmanageable. Your primary care physician can help refer you to a mental health professional. You can also contact your insurance provider or look on psychologytoday.com for names of local providers.
If you or someone you know is feeling unsafe and having suicidal thoughts, you can call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat on-line at 988lifeline.org.
We here at Family Centers have been invested in community wellness for decades and continue to be a resource to help our neighbors overcome a variety of life’s obstacles. On behalf of us all, we urge you to take care of yourselves and each other. May you have a healthy, safe, and rewarding summer.
