Make gradual positive dietary changes over three months, such as swapping refined carbs for whole grains, increasing vegetables, fruit, and legumes, adding nuts, seeds, fish, and olive oil, while reducing junk and processed foods, to significantly improve symptoms of depression.
Dedicate specific time each day for ‘self-care’ to restore your chemical balance, as this is crucial for mental fitness and countering a culture that fetishizes overworking.
Use meditative breathing to calm anxiety, especially before stressful tasks or when feeling overwhelmed, as it’s a powerful way to quell the ‘anxiety storm’ in your brain by calming electrical signals.
Use journaling to process emotions, reflect on interactions, and plan future responses, allowing you to sort out thoughts, gain objectivity, and make better decisions by getting them out of your head and onto paper.
Avoid living life on autopilot by stopping and stepping back to recognize and exercise your choices in what you tolerate and how you respond to life, rather than letting life just happen to you.
Reduce stress by externalizing anxieties or negative thoughts through writing them down or speaking them aloud to a trusted person, preventing them from building up and releasing them from your brain-body system.
Actively work on changing your mindset and thoughts, as this can make it easier to implement physical health practices and improve overall brain function and relationships.
Counter the societal tendency to constantly focus on future accumulation by practicing gratitude and appreciating what you have in the present moment, rather than always striving for more.
Challenge the conditioning that you are ’not quite enough’ in the present moment and that you always need to become a ’next version’ of yourself, by recognizing that everything you need is already within you.
Engage in physical exercise like running to help manage mental health issues such as panic attacks, as the physical symptoms of exercise can provide a sense of control over similar sensations experienced during panic.
Create dedicated time and space to unplug from work, worries, and external demands, allowing yourself to simply ‘be’ through activities like yoga, reading, or running, to foster mental well-being.
Exercise outdoors, preferably in nature, as it magnifies endorphin production, lowers stress hormone cortisol, and can shift your mindset to celebrating your body rather than punishing it.
Incorporate yoga into your routine, not only for physical benefits but also for its positive impact on anxiety, by providing dedicated self-care time and encouraging slower breathing.
Use physical activities like running to create a personal space away from people, work, and other distractions, which can be a significant aid for mental well-being and a sense of control.
Begin journaling by simply recording what happened to you each day, which can help you identify patterns, understand your mood triggers, and learn about yourself.
Practice deep, slow, deliberate breathing by inhaling for a count of four, holding for a count of three, and then slowly releasing, especially before engaging in a stress-provoking task, to calm brain electricity.
To make new behaviors stick in the long run, track your progress and celebrate your successes, as this is a key principle for habit formation and positive reinforcement.