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Prioritize Mental Health to Boost Your Mood, Alleviate Financial Anxiety, and More

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By Brad Krause

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health concerns — such as depression and anxiety — can lead to premature death, with some people dying as much as two decades younger as a result. While the right combination of medication and psychotherapy can often help to treat or relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression, a good self-care routine can also contribute to better psychological health and well-being. Mindful Framing wants you to be happy and healthy, so read on for information that can help with these concerns.

Care for Your Wallet, Calm Your Mind

Finances are one of the biggest stressors we face as humans, especially during this time of pandemic-induced economic uncertainty, If you’re worried about money and losing quality sleep because of it, however, caring for your wallet and regaining some control over your finances could help to ease some of your anxiety and boost your psychological health and well-being. To get a handle on your financial anxieties, for instance, you could start contributing more money to your retirement account, building an emergency savings fund, or repaying your smaller, more attainable debts.

 

If you own your home, refinancing your mortgage could be another worthwhile option to consider when you’re stressing about finances. By refinancing, you’d use the equity in your home to free up some cash for other expenses, or you could lower the amount of your monthly mortgage.

Sleep Better, Live Happier

Quality sleep is crucial to our physical, mental, and emotional health — and Healthline explains that consistently poor sleeping habits can lead to obesity, impaired brain function, and an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Additionally, sleep deprivation, depression, chronic stress, attention difficulties, and anxiety often go hand-in-hand.

 

If you’re suffering from insomnia, depression, anxiety, or another mental health concern, a good night’s sleep could help to alleviate these issues and boost your psychological well-being:

 

  • Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages after 3 pm.
  • Limit daytime naps to 30 minutes at most.
  • Follow the same sleep schedule all week, even on weekends.
  • Relax with a gentle yoga class, guided meditation, or deep breathing exercises before heading to bed.

Eat Nutritiously, Ease Depression

In addition to caring for your wallet and getting plenty of sleep each night, some foods have been shown to alleviate symptoms of depression — including carrots, bananas, beans, beets, and avocados. As such, incorporating these mood-boosting foods into your diet could help to improve your psychological, emotional, and physical health and well-being over time. Plus, many of these depression-fighting foods can be incorporated into smoothies, salads, sandwiches, veggie burgers, and other delicious, easy-to-prepare meals.

 

Diet relates to energy as well, and many people battling mental health concerns find themselves struggling with sluggishness. Thankfully, there are products that can help. If you’re having trouble with weight loss or with finding the motivation for working out, a metabolism boosting supplement might give you the spark you need to get the ball rolling.

Set Fitness Goals

Exercise can play a key role in managing mental health. As the Myeloma Crowd explains, working out can help your body produce feel-good chemistry that protects your mind and promotes healthy thought patterns. Just five minutes a day can be enough to put a little happier spring in your step, so don’t be afraid to start small.

 

It’s important to avoid setting yourself up for failure, so keep your goals achievable. Consider adding a tool to measure your progress, such as an Apple Watch Series 6. Having something that tracks your movement throughout the day and helps you plan workouts is a great way to feel encouraged and stay on track.

Stay Positive

While tech can add to your well-being, sometimes it can also detract. To boost mental health, it’s also important to step away from social media if you’re already feeling self-conscious, open up to your loved ones when you’re struggling with insecurities, and surround yourself with positive, health-conscious individuals who can help you to achieve your wellness goals. Surround yourself with positive vibes, and step away from negative ones.

 

The abovementioned self-care strategies can all help to boost your happiness and psychological well-being, but you shouldn’t be afraid to speak to a therapist if you think you could also benefit from counseling, medication, or a combination of the two.

 

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3 Strategies to Keep Anxiety Away during your Free Time

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By Jennifer Scott

For some people, anxiety is something you have to manage on a daily basis. For others, anxiety pops up out of nowhere, especially around stressful times like the holidays, weekends and vacations. Personally, I fall somewhere in between these two. Dealing with chronic anxiety means I have to stay committed to healthy activities that help. Yet, even with these strategies, there’s something about the holidays that can quickly derail my mental health goals, despite my best efforts.

As Verywell Mind explains, holiday stress is predictable. I know it’s coming each year, but for some reason, it still creeps up on me. After years of this catching me off guard and struggling with episodes of anxiety around the holidays, I’ve finally realized how much it helps to simply anticipate vacation stress. This realization has been life-changing, which is why I felt it was so important to share how powerful it can be. Because when you accept that vacation stress will happen, you can find strategies to handle it and even keep it from turning into full-blown anxiety.

Strategy #1 – Keep Up with Healthy Habits

Wait, weren’t we talking about anxiety?! The truth is that many people underestimate the role our habits play in managing stress and anxiety. Being active, eating a balanced diet, and getting enough rest are all habits that keep you healthy physically, but they also keep mental health in check. This doesn’t mean you should do anything drastic! In fact, the nutrition blog Lively Table recommends not starting a diet over the holiday season. Instead, aim for balance, with healthy breakfasts, extra helpings of vegetables, and supplements that fill out your nutritional needs.

It’s also a good idea to consider supplements that help with anxiety, such as CBD oil. CBD oil comes from the cannabis plant, but it doesn’t contain the psychoactive chemical THC. What this means is that it delivers a calming effect without the high feeling you get from using marijuana. When it comes to buying CBD oil, the best quality can often be found through a CBD dealer who comes highly recommended, or through a marijuana dispensary that also sells CBD products, which may include capsules and edibles in addition to oils.

Strategy #2 – Lean on Your Support System

As much as personal habits can help you manage anxiety, no one should try to cope without the help of a strong support system. And while many of us spend extra time with family during holidays, weekends and vacations, all that family time may lead to extra stress — not support. This is one of those stressors that you can anticipate, which means you can have a plan for how to handle it. If you’ll travel to visit family and will be away from your support network, stay in touch with those who can help most by calling and texting. Just be sure that your data plan will have you covered, as you don’t want to get hit with overage charges, especially around the holidays. If you need to make changes such as adding more data, survey your provider’s unlimited phone plans before the season gets hectic.

Strategy #3 – Embrace Acceptance

Even when you have the healthiest routine and the best support system, stress during your periods of time-off will still happen. This is why Greater Good Magazine encourages acceptance. Accepting stress may sound unconventional, but it’s actually a smart way to protect your mental health. Along with acceptance, it’s also important to have realistic expectations around those days without work routines. You can’t do everything, so focus on setting limits that put your top priorities first. For example, if you have a long list of personal and family responsibilities, consider whether some events are absolutely necessary or if certain ones can be skipped. If spending money on gifts during the holidays is a stressor, talk to family about having a more minimalist holiday so that your budget gets a break.

Setting these limits is actually one of the best ways to take control over a hectic weekend or holiday schedule. Of course, stress will still happen, even with the best strategies. However, when you confront it head-on, the stress becomes more manageable and the joys of the season will outweigh the anxiety.

Stepping Up Your Yoga Practice on a Busy Schedule

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By Sheila Johnson

Yoga has never been more important in our highly busy and technical world. Taking just a few minutes a day to focus your body and mind can increase both your health and your sense of inner peace. You don’t even need to make it out to the yoga studio to access guided sessions and enjoy lessons from a great yoga teacher.

Start Your Journey

Selecting a yoga practice when you’re living an on-the-go lifestyle often means making it work at home, the office, or your backyard. Thankfully, there are plenty of great platforms, streaming keeps you growing, especially if you find an instructor you feel is inspiring. Just look for a leader with the right traits, whose energy feeds you, and with whom you feel connected in spite of not being face-to-face.

You will notice the benefits and enjoyment you gain from yoga day by day. Make sure you have a media player with the features; you want and that fits your budget. There are plenty of smart options available, just think through your priorities and personal criteria. Of course, there is more to yoga than gathering gear and going through the motions.

Set Intentional Goals

Whether you get out to the yoga studio regularly or are just trying to fit a little body-and-mind in at home, we have a few tactics that can help you take your yoga practice to the next level. Setting intentional goals  for yoga is not just about meditation and routine. You are reaching for your limits in order to overcome them. So set goals. Just as Metta Yoga points out, you should challenge yourself to both take the time for yoga and to continue along your path of self-discovery and physical achievement.

Something that hangs up many enthusiasts is seeing others’ progress. There’s no need to be self-conscious regarding their journey. Yoga is your personal journey and you can set your own milestones. To focus on yourself, consider tracking your weekly and monthly progress, and celebrate your achievements, whether you monitor your journey in your mind or via an app on your phone.

Leave Your Comfort Zone

Many aspects of yoga are challenging in various ways. New stances, holding poses longer, and pushing yourself to a more pure embodiment of each stance, can be difficult. As Honor Yoga explains, sometimes you need to leave your comfort zone. Push yourself a little harder with each day or week that you go through your yoga routines. And if you have a teacher that you enjoy, trust them to guide you outside your comfort zone into achievement. If you don’t have an instructor with whom you feel connected, or you simply feel stuck, getting fresh insight can often work wonders.

Look for a yoga teacher near you who can give your regimen the boost you need. Take Risks and Accept Failure When you push your comfort zone, you may feel your muscles straining. You may fear that you will lose your balance. Accept this fear. Take risks and be at peace with the possibility of failure. Not only will you make failure less likely but if you do fail, you will grow by serenely trying again until you master each greater step in your yoga journey.

Adopt a Routine

Set  a routine and practice minimums for each day. Your day is busy, and it’s okay to accept that as well. Yoga is something you should do every day, but it doesn’t have to be your life. Even more so, feeling guilty will not help you achieve the next stage in your path of physical and spiritual enlightenment. Give yourself permission to practice only a few minutes a day. Yoga with Adriene notes that just seven minutes per day is all you need to stay in form. You will have time for longer sessions later. On your busiest day, feel good about your simple seven minutes.

Life these days is busy and complicated. Your yoga program can be the respite you need. Set aside a little time here and there, and with the right tools and connections, you can prosper in your practice.