A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. If you want to preserve your brain health you need to have a healthy body and vice versa.
While multiple theories speak about how various processes are involved in keeping your mind healthy, here are the most useful habits to promote a healthy body and mind.
Learn the 12 habits for a healthy mind and body below.
12 habits for a healthy mind and body
- Get adequate rest
- While you keep working throughout the day handling your professional and household responsibilities, remember to get rest too.
- Get at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep daily to perform the best the next day. You can take a 30 minutes nap in the afternoon. This gives your body and minds a rest. Resting gives your mind the time to heal itself.
- Stay physically active
- Exercising helps your brain produce the hormones it needs to make the rest of your body work the way it should and uplifts your mood.
- Including exercise in your daily routine improves blood circulation and acts as a stressbuster. Pick up an exercise that you enjoy the most. It could be running, lifting weights, doing cardio, martial arts, yoga, Pilates, or dancing.
- Pay attention to your nutrition
- If you have been feeling foggy, forgetful, or anything that is making your mind unable to function as it should, you may be suffering from vitamin deficiency or a mineral deficiency, such as iodine.
- So, make sure you include all types of foods in your diet, including fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fish.
- Have plenty of water
- Bodies need water to function. Water makes it easier for the blood to supply nutrients to the whole body, including the brain. Dehydration affects brains and decreases their cognitive functioning.
- Make sure to drink at least eight tall glasses of water throughout the day. Adequate hydration is necessary for good brain health along with the functioning of other organs of the body.
- Learn to achieve a work-life balance
- Do not slog so much that you are not able to make time for yourself. Do not let the work spill into your personal life. This can increase your stress levels if you are unable to maintain a work-life balance.
- Learn ways how to decrease your workload so that you do not end up giving extra hours at your workplace. Take a look at how much work you have during the day and organize it; learn how to manage your time well. If you can delegate it, do so.
- Take a walk outside
- The best thing about walking is that it can be done anywhere, at your own pace, and is an easy activity for energizing your mind. Even a 10-minute walk outside during lunch break at the office can help clear the clutter in your mind.
- Walking outside, especially in the woods or at the park is relaxing for the body, mind, and soul.
- Stimulate your brain
- Indulge in exercises that stimulate your brain. It can be anything, such as puzzles, playing chess, or any other brain games, learning new things (such as pottery), a new language, or any hobby (such as singing, painting, writing, and many more).
- Journal
- Journaling means writing what you feel daily in a diary or a journal. You can write things for which you are grateful, and write your goals and the timeline. It may help you get a clear perspective about the things in your life.
- Deep breathe
- Breathing is an involuntary action to stay alive. However, these breaths are shallow. When you take deep breaths while paying attention to it, it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and promotes a state of calmness and relaxation.
- Be mindful
- Practicing mindfulness means staying in the present moment. It means focusing on the task at hand. The task may be anything as simple as eating to as complex as playing any sports.
- While you get involved in any activity, such as thinking, try to be focused on what is happening currently. Of course, you should take lessons from the past and think of securing your future, it is important to experience the beauty of the present moment fully without the added stress of what comes next.
- Meditate
- Meditation is one of the most powerful stressbusters. It can lower heart rate and blood pressure and calm the chaos that goes daily in your mind.
- Practicing meditation is so simple that it can be done anywhere. Just close your eyes in a relaxed position, take deep breaths, and simply observe your thoughts. Allow the thoughts as they come and do not stress about what thoughts come.
- Check if you have mental health disorders
- If you think you are suffering from depression or anxiety, schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist, who is a doctor specialized and trained in diagnosing and treating mental health issues.
- They may diagnose whether you have clinical depression or any other mental health disorder that is affecting your mental ability or mental status.
- They will help you develop skills and strategies to help tackle depressive and anxious thoughts. If needed, they may put you on an anti-depressant and sleeping pills (sedatives).
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GoodTherapy. 7 Habits for Good Brain Health. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/Habits-Good-Brain-Health
GoodTherapy. 7 Habits for Good Brain Health. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/Habits-Good-Brain-Health
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