Improve Your Mental Health
Meditation Yoga pose with mudra outside.
6 Tips to Improve Mental Health
Are you finding yourself feeling anxious, depressed, mentally exhausted, or experiencing difficulty concentrating? While we recommend visiting your GP to seek out medical advice, making small lifestyle changes can work wonders to clear your head and have your body feeling strong and energized.
To feel your absolute best, Kevala Health encourages small, healthy daily habits into your routine. Not only do they help your mental health state, but also act as a preventative measure. Following our 6 healthy daily habits below you will begin to improve your mental health.
Top 6 Healthy Daily Habits for Mental Health
1. Regular Exercise
Fostering a healthy body often leads to a healthier mind. In particular, incorporating cardio into your workout regime releases powerful endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals that our body naturally produces during exercise that act as a mood boosters and general pain relievers. Regular exercise also improves brain functioning and has been tied to alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety. Try exercising like walking for a minimum of half an hour, three to five days a week to reap its endless benefits.
2. Healthy Food
The old adage “you are what you eat” has some truth to it, a healthy diet is strongly tied to your mental and physical health. At a minimum, you should be limiting your consumption of highly processed foods and refined sugars. We always advocate for the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables and eating plant-based where possible. If you’re not sure where to start, try picking up a beginner’s plant-based cookbook or meal plan.
Making sure that you’re consuming enough key nutrients and vitamins will ensure that your body is working properly, to aid cognitive and bodily functioning. More healthy eating tips.
3. Yoga and Meditation
The practice of yoga has long helped participants to become physically and mentally stronger. Yoga has been known to assist with emotional healing, improve focus, and boost self-confidence.
By practicing the deep breathing exercises found in yoga, you can calm your nervous system. This helps to alleviate anxiety and become overall more relaxed. It also works to cultivate a healthier relationship with yourself and self-esteem. By taking the time to do classes such as yoga, people tend to become more confident and centered. These are key factors in relaxing anxieties and elevating our sense of self.
There are a variety of meditation practices available that help to reduce the effects of mental illnesses. At its core, meditation allows participants to become more mindful and live in the present. By doing so, they can let go of past worries and lessen future anxieties. Moreover, the focus on breathing helps your body to move out of fight-or-flight mode and into a relaxed state of being.
Regular meditation has also been linked to improved self-esteem, by fostering deeper reflection and positive mindsets. It also tends to lower cortisol levels, the stress hormone, so that you can feel calm and more relaxed. We recommend practicing meditation daily and starting with a few minutes a day to 20 minutes to bring your mind into the present and wash away unnecessary worry.
Kevala Health live yoga online classes are perfect for anyone wanting to improve their mental health from beginner yoga to senior yoga. We offer restorative yoga live stream classes to vinyasa yoga (flow yoga). Read more on restorative yoga at home in our blog.
4. Mindfulness
Mindfulness has become somewhat of a buzzword for a reason. It is the ability to focus your attention only on the present moment, to purposefully accept your situation without negative energy or judgment. It has been linked to stress and anxiety reduction and overall improved satisfaction and happiness. You will learn more about mindfulness in Kevala Health's live-stream yoga classes.
Or read about Mantras and Mindfulness in our blog.
5. Family and Friends
In our busy lives, it can be all too easy to let work and other commitments take priority over spending time with our friends and family. However, at the end of the day, it’s our loved ones that mean the most to us and uplift us when we need them.
Prioritizing family or social time with friends at least once a week is vital to our well-being. Humans are social creatures, and a lack of community interaction can leave us feeling isolated and lonely. If you’re pressed for time, try incorporating social activities into your everyday errands, such as walking the dog with a friend or grabbing a quick morning coffee with your partner before work.
6. Quality Sleep
Sometimes, it can be far too easy to let quality sleep slip away from us. With busy work schedules, insomnia-inducing anxiety, or impeding screen time, most of us aren’t getting our eight hours. The fact is, that humans need enough decent sleep to function at a bare minimum. Without it, our mental and physical functions can deteriorate.
Getting enough sleep is vital for mood regulation, a healthy immune system, and cognitive function. If you’re having trouble with sleeping, try sticking to a regular sleep routine, limit excessive amounts of caffeine, avoid screen time half an hour before bed, and try not to nap during the day. By doing so, you are far more likely to experience happier moods and energy to live your best life. Practicing yoga will help to improve sleep.
By incorporating each of these tips into your daily routine, you are far likelier to experience improved mental well-being. We encourage you to slowly practice these habits at your own pace, consistently reflecting on how it’s helping to boost your health.
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If you are looking for guided meditation targeted at aiding mental health such as anxiety and depression, Kevala Health offers free, recorded sessions. We also offer a 14-day free trial on our live online yoga and meditation classes that you can participate in from the comfort of your own home. Check out our timetable to see which class best suits you.
Start to improve your mental health now with our 14-day free trial of unlimited live-stream yoga and pilates online classes.
Namaste, Jodie.
