How we support our mental health is not meant to be challenging or difficult to prioritize. In fact, the more we find health habits that work with our schedule seamlessly, the more likely we are for these things to become long-standing habits. Though forms of therapy can be incredibly helpful for lots of people, it’s also necessary to find ways to integrate healing into our conscious everyday lives.
By now, you probably understand that even simple things can make a massive difference in how you feel day in and day out. Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are not mutually exclusive of each other, all of them need to be considered when looking at the bigger picture of how we feel.
Here are some ideas for things you can add to your schedule to support your mental health more holistically from all angles.
Prioritize spending time outdoors and getting morning sunlight
Our brains are much smarter than we like to give them credit, and one of the best things you can do for your overall health and well-being is to get some time outdoors. Bonus points if it’s for 10 minutes before 10 a.m. to get the sunshine in your eyes.
This tiny habit of morning sunlight can change your mood, cortisol levels, and positively impact your ability to fall asleep. This is because the sunlight helps your circadian clock keep time – aka your body’s automatic clock for sleeping and waking.
Getting outside is more than just an opportunity to soak up the sun and vitamin D, it’s also a time to breathe fresh air and be in nature, which is known to relax and regulate the body and mind. If you’re an active person, spending time doing outdoor activities can be a huge advantage for your focus, creativity, and mood.
Practices such as grounding, or making direct contact with the earth, can rebalance electrical signals in the body, so if the land around you allows for it, take your shoes off and put your feet on the ground a couple of times a week.
This habit may not feel like much, but over time the cumulative effects can make a great difference in your body’s natural processes which can have pretty resounding positive ripples throughout your life and your overall mental health and well-being.
Find movement that feels like a good release
We know that moving the body is a key piece to how we feel physically and mentally, but finding movement that feels like you can release stress can be a game changer to this habit.
Movement and exercise is not a one-size-fits-all plan, in fact, there are lots of ways to move the body that might work for a lot of people but don’t necessarily work for everyone. This means that taking the time to be honest and curious about the types of moving you’re doing can actually impact how your body responds.
Stress on the body is still stress, albeit positive, but a movement that you love that feels good and releasing can have downstream positive effects on all your mental and physical processes.
Get curious about what types of movement feel good for you and why. Mind-body connection is key to this, and when you build that awareness while you’re moving, you can build new neural connections to support your ability to relax and release even deeper.
Don’t forget that movement is allowed to be a fun form of expression, it’s encouraged that you enjoy it. So find something that you can have fun with that doesn’t feel like a chore and reap the benefits that soon will follow.
Intentional time with friends and loved ones
As social beings, humans need other humans. We don’t just need people when we’re sad and feeling down, we need people when we’re happy too. So making time to intentionally enjoy the company of the people you love who also love you is important.
When assessing the people you want to spend more time with, consider those who make you feel supported and cared for. Make sure these people allow you to feel safe and are considerate of your individuality.
Spending intentional time with people you love means that you are using this time to not be distracted, to have meaningful conversations, to connect about things that are important to you and to them, to share what’s going on in your life, and to feel the support of having someone on the other side that can encourage and challenge you to be your best self.
Vice versa, being that type of friend to others makes us feel better about ourselves. Being a good friend can be a confidence booster, something we enjoy expressing because the kindness extends far beyond what we’re giving.
So put your phone on airplane mode and commit to spending more time with the people you love who also love you!
Get adequate sleep and focus on your bedtime routine
Surprisingly, the one thing that impacts mental health the most is the thing that we are focused on the least: sleep. Sleep is vital to our body’s ability to rest, recover, heal, and feel balanced. Inadequate sleep can have immediate mental health implications.
Those who struggle with building good sleep habits also report being moody, irritable, and less equipped to deal with the normal stressors of daily life in a positive way.
It’s not just getting enough sleep that’s the issue, it’s also the kind of sleep we’re getting, how we prepare for that sleep, and how we fit it into our lives.
Things like scrolling social media late at night, watching suspense-driven television, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, light pollution, and temperature to name a few, can impact the kind of sleep we’re getting or our ability to fall asleep or stay asleep.
Aside from being more mindful about these things, you may also benefit from having a bedtime ritual. Not using your phone an hour before you go to sleep, spending time winding down with a cup of tea and a relaxing book, doing light stretches before bed, or meditating can help your body get into the sleep state quicker and with more positive effects.
Find what works for you and start building on your sleep habits in a bigger and more intentional way.
Consider micro-dosing psilocybin or LSD
There is a growing body of evidence that microdosing protocols can have a plethora of mental and physical health benefits for a lot of different populations.
Microdosing, or taking about 1/10th of a standard recreational dose, is sub-perceptual and not intended to have hallucinatory effects, but can greatly impact how you think, feel, and relate to the world around you. This is different than taking macrodoses or hero-doses if you’re familiar with psychedelic lingo in that you can microdose and still go about your daily life. Of course there is a place for macrodosing psychedelics if it’s something you’re interested in, and these experience can have immense impact on your spiritual, emotional, and mental health.
Much of how we understand microdosing to work on the brain is its involvement with serotonin. Serotonin is involved in many brain processes and is mostly known for how it stabilizes mood.
At small doses, these substances are gentler and more supportive of mindfulness and connection to self. People who microdose regularly report having more focus, mental clarity, curiosity, and compassion for themselves and others. This all comes with the help of careful intention setting and integration of what feelings and experiences you’re having while practicing with these entheogens. Many people report that microdosing has helped them cease their dependency on anti-depressants and SSRIs.
Whether you struggle with diagnosed mental health conditions or not, microdosing psychedelics can be a great way to connect with yourself, others, and nature in a more meaningful way which is why it’s become incredibly popular among a wide array of populations and more research is being funded to support it further.
Mental health matters
How you feel, act, think, and exist in the world should be honored and cared for. Mental health is just as important as physical health, so finding ways to incorporate healthy habits that support the 3 or so pounds of brain sitting in your skull is going to have a ripple effect on the rest of your life.
Remember, building habits takes time and trial, so try things out and if they don’t feel good for you, then try something else. Always check in with yourself and be thoughtful about how you integrate these concepts into your life overall. Be curious about everything you try and open to what might stick.
Focusing even a fraction of your attention on how you’re feeling can be rewarding and improve your quality of life in a big way.
Whatever path you take, always trust that you know what’s best for you.
