How to Naturally Boost Your Mental Health

Being able to boost your mental health is so important as it impacts all of the other parts of our lives such as our physical health, jobs, and relationships. Things have been especially hard on people the last couple of years with going in and out of lockdowns, and the uncertainty that comes along with that.

Taking the time to look after you mental health should always be in your top priorities, so here are some ways that you can help naturally boost your mental health:

Chiropractic

While you may be aware of the amazing ways chiropractic can help you physically, it can also help improve your mental health, and it does this in a few ways. The first way is by relieving tension in tight and sore muscles. While this seems like this is just helping you physically, mental and physical health are extremely closely related. Having constant tension in your muscles is one of the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Relieving this tension from your muscles also helps your brain to relax more, easing the effects of depression and anxiety.

Chiropractic has also shown to improve sleep quality, helping to decrease fatigue levels and improve your overall state of mind. Chiropractic care has also been shown to release hormones such as cortisol, oxytocin, and neurotensin. These hormones help to decrease pain levels, stimulate optimal nervous system function, and create positive feelings of social bonding. Together these natural hormones help to decrease stress and have an overall positive effect on a person’s state of mind.

Exercise

As our physical health and mental health are so closely related, exercising can have fantastic impacts on your mental health. Exercising releases chemicals called endorphins into your body, and these help to boost your mood and make your body feel good.

Just 20 minutes of exercise can help boost your mood for up to 12 hours. Exercise also increases blood flow to brain, which helps increase the efficiency of the brain’s chemicals, and helps to boost our self esteem. 

Nutrition

What you put into your body is your fuel for everything, including your brain. If you are putting unhealthy food into your body you are not giving your brain the fuel it needs to function properly. This is going to have negative effects on your mental health. Eating a healthy and natural balanced diet will make you feel physically better, which will give you the natural boost for your mental health that you need. This will also allow your brain to function at its best.

It is important to eat food such as fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils. Foods that are high in omega-3, such as walnuts, chia seeds, or flaxseed oil are also key. It is also important to minimise your intake of foods such as sugar and fried foods. 

Breathing

Breath work is one of the simplest, fastest ways to calm your brain down. It is especially good when dealing with symptoms of depression or anxiety. Deep breathing sends a message to your brain to slow down and relax, sending out your body. This results in relieving tension and lowering your heart rate and blood pressure.

There are many different breathing techniques you can try out but one of the most simple ones is belly breathing. For this you breathe in for a count of 3 seconds, and then breathe out for 3 seconds. Do this with a hand on your stomach . Make sure you can feel your belly pushing out into your hand as you breathe in. Do this for 2-3 minutes while sitting or lying down with your eyes closed. You will notice you feel much more calm when you are finished. It’s a simple, natural, yet effective way to boost your mental health.  

Talk to someone 

It can be very easy to feel alone when you are having problems trying to boost your mental health, but the reality is you are never alone. Find someone you trust and talk to them about how you are feeling. This will stop you from bottling things up inside until they become worse. Just being able to talk about what you are feeling can be very cathartic and provide you with a feeling of relief. You may even find that other people are feeling the same way as you, and this will help you feel less alone.