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5 Important Ways to Look After Your Mental Health and Feel Great Every Day

Look After Your Mental Health and Feel Great Every Day

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Did you know that you are more likely to experience a mental illness than diabetes, heart disease or cancer? Fortunately, there are many ways that you can care for your mental health and help prevent the onset of common mental disorders including depression and anxiety. By adding a few simple self-care practices to your schedule, you can become more resilient in the face of daily stress and keep your mind in top operating condition.

1. Amp Up Your Sleep Quality

Many people are not aware of this, but sleep is one of the most important determinants of a healthy mind. According to The Harvard Medical School, sleep disruption impairs thinking and emotion regulation. If you get up in the morning feeling unrested or tend to wake often during the night, you may benefit from improving your sleep hygiene. Try to avoid alcohol, nicotine and caffeine for several hours before bedtime since these substances can cause sleep disruptions. Keeping your bedroom dark, cool and free from distractions is also recommended to improve sleep quality.

2. Reduce Stress at Work

Work stress is the number one cause of chronic stress for people, wreaking havoc on our mental health. This is why it’s important to reduce the amount of stress you experience on the job. Eliminate as many interruptions as possible so that you can get your work done more easily. For example, only answer emails during certain hours or close the door to your office when you need to focus. Say “no” to tasks that aren’t in your job description or any optional requests that you just don’t have the time for.

When you’re faced with a tense meeting or have a lot of overwhelming tasks on your plate, try stopping for a few minutes of deep breathing. Don’t forget to take regular breaks to step away from your work. Better yet, take a quick walk outside through a nearby park to benefit from the rejuvenating effects of nature.

3. Learn How to Relax

Lounging on the couch and watching television can be an enjoyable way to wind down at the end of a stressful day. However, this can cause negative feelings of guilt for people who think they should be doing better things with their time. Instead, try meditation or yoga the next time you need to relax your mind. Due to the focus on deep breathing and mental awareness, these activities can actually change your brainwaves from excitatory to relaxation. Yoga has even been shown to increase levels of certain chemicals in the brain, which help us relax and fight stress.

4. Build a Support Network

As mentioned by Very Well Mind, social support plays a very important role in our mental health because it helps us deal with times of stress. In fact, poor social support has been linked to higher rates of depression and substance abuse. Social relationships can even improve your motivation to stick to new goals. So, part of your self-care lifestyle should involve building a social network by developing various social relationships. Try joining new groups in your community or talking to your neighbors when you’re out for a walk.

5. Care for Your Mental Health Through Addiction Recovery

Taking care of your mental health is even more important if you’re a recovering addict. Building a strong and healthy mind following addiction will help prevent relapse and make it much easier to adjust to your new, sober life. Picking up a hobby is a great way to do this. Hobbies provide an outlet for stress and act as an enjoyable distraction from negative thoughts. You could try painting, volunteering in your community, or joining a new sport. As mentioned before, meditation and yoga are also valuable tools for relaxing the mind and avoiding anxiety.

Although you may feel obligations to care for others in your life, don’t forget about the small steps you can take every day to care for your own health as well. If you need time to re-energize or relax, don’t be afraid to call off a meeting with friends so you can retreat into your meditation space. In the end, self-care is all about you.

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5 Ways to Improve Memory After 50

Improve Memory After 50

How to Improve Memory After 50

George Burns once said, “By the time you’re eighty years old, you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it.” How much can you remember now in midlife?

According to an article on The Guardian, memory loss can start as early as age 45. As the years go by, the effects can worsen.

By the time we’re eighty, we’ll likely struggle with absentminded queries (like where we put the phone) as well as major milestones (like when we got married.) This can be devastating for many people who want to keep their memories alive, not knowing if they’ll suddenly disappear into thin air.

However, this is not the time to give up and accept the fact that you’ll lose every single memory to age. At this stage in life, you have the opportunity to preserve your memory after 50 and even enhance it so those moments you hold dear aren’t lost to time.

Proactive choices made on a regular basis can help strengthen your memory skills, even during midlife.

Foods

Now, one of the easiest ways to improve your memory after 50 is to change your diet. We don’t mean overhauling your entire menu, but substituting a meal or two for something more mentally beneficial. Here are a few recommendations:

Eggs

For memory, eggs can be an asset. Why? They contain large amounts of choline, which helps form stronger mental cognition.

In fact, a study referenced by CNN even potentially found a link between higher levels of choline in midlife and a reduced risk of dementia.

For better brain function, they’re “eggs”actly what you need!

Salmon

Getting your omega-3s in can be a major deposit to your brain’s memory bank. Not all fish contain high-levels of omega-3s, but salmon is an exception.

According to Reader’s Digest 3.5 ounces contains 1.5 grams of omega-3s. For comparison, catfish only possesses 0.3 grams.

Guess the catfish is out of the bag now (or rather, the grocery bag!)

Walnuts

Walnuts are another great source of omega-3s. Actually, the levels of DHA (a type of omega-3) in walnuts have been known to aid cognitive function in adults and prevent decline later in life.

Not only that, they also play a role in maintaining a healthy heart by lowering the risk of high blood pressure.

These little guys are “nut”hing short of fantastic!

Mental Strategies

In order to build strong muscles, your body needs a proper workout. So does your brain. Here are some memory-boosting strategies that will help lift your brain power to new heights:

Mnemonic Devices

Need to remember a grocery list? What about a group of tasks you need to accomplish? Use a mnemonic device, which is simply just a condensed method for remembering lengthy information. T

he most common devices include acronyms, rhymes, and the Method of Loci.

In this method, you imagine each of the rooms in your house and associate everything you need to remember in one of the rooms.

So, do you need to buy copier paper? Place it in your mental computer room. What about toilet paper? Imagine your bathroom and place on a roll on the counter.

The Method of Loci may seem loco, but it really works!

Repetition/Assimilation

It may be difficult to recall the name of that caterer you hired last year or that co-worker you rarely talk to, but what about the person you just met?  You can choose to remember, just as you can choose to order a plate of salmon (which you might want to start doing more often!)

Memory isn’t typically thought of as a conscious choice, but when it’s something we label as important, we do choose to keep that information in our minds longer, since we’re more concerned with its retention.

And when we encounter issues with this retention, that’s when repetition becomes key.

Repeating a name back over and over can help the information sink in. By hearing it or writing it down, we familiarize ourselves with it so thoroughly, we don’t have to think about it anymore. This is crucial if we want a strong, durable memory, but it can only happen in conjunction with assimilation.

Assimilation is the process of associating current information with something previously learned in order to form a lasting connection.

In other words, repetition is the glue, but assimilation is the adhesive — nothing would stick without it. Finding as many similarities as possible is what helps our brain process the information more efficiently and make them easier to recall.

So make as many mental connections as possible. By doing so, you’ll create a delicate framework by which all your memories can be stored for future use.

Savor those Precious Memories

Our memory is sacred, and it should be treated as such. Filling our bodies with good food and increasing our mental capabilities with simple tricks are just some of the ways we can prolong our ability to recall our treasured memories. And by remembering the past clearly, we can continue to be our best selves well into our senior years.

For additional tips on memory and other health-related subjects, visit Beachbody.

Don’t worry — we’re easy to remember!