Physical Wellness….because we often forget that your brain is part of your body!
The journey towards feeling and living your best often starts with mental health services, which are mysteriously separate from your physical health services and often frustratingly so! Over the course of western history, our medical system has decapitated itself, pretending that what happens with our bodies should not affect our minds, and visa versa…but of course, it does! After all, our brains are literally wired into our bodies through our nervous system and spinal cord, including our vagus nerve, which means there is a two way relationship! This of course does not come as a surprise to anyone who has dealth with the stress of childbirth, cancer, traumatic brain injuries, etc. but often the more subtle highway between our health and our experiences or ability to think and feel are overlooked or outright dismissed by society and providers alike. So here is some information to help you inventory and research how you can improve your self-care and potentially experience positive changes in your mental health, with and without therapy!
Self care is so much more than a good smelling perfume or a bubble bath. While those are nice, they don’t do much to actually relieve stress or support us in healing our minds, or coping during stressful times. Let’s start with the basics, but please click on the links to our sources for more information!
Hydration
Not drinking enough water has been highly correlated with poor mental health including depression and anxiety, headaches, concentration problems, fatigue, memory, and focus. Even 1 or 2% dehydration can impact your brain function and cause short term memory loss! Your brain is 85% water, compared to 60% for the rest of your body, and survival mechanisms in our bodies will begin to conserve this resource if it senses a shortage of any kind, including limiting our physical, mental, and emotional functions.
Health resources indicate adults should be drinking 2-3 liters of water each day, and potentially more if they are pregnant, physically active, or coping with summer heat.
Sleep
Despite being crucial for mental health and cognitive function, many Americans are raised to view sleeping as a sign of laziness and feel bad for getting even the minimum recommended amount of seven hours of sleep per night. Despite the weird mental image most people get of a depressed person lying on a couch sleeping all day, about 75% of depressed people experience insomnia, and sleeping six hours or less can make you 2.5 times more likely to experience mental health symptoms!
So why do we need sleep? Sleep is a crucial time for many bodily functions, and has been correlated or proven to be highly involved in the organization of memory, the removal of toxins from your brain and body, neurodevelopment, hormone function, metabolism, and our immune system function. Additionally, getting proper sleep is a complex process that, when interrupted by our stress, diets, sleep duration, timing of sleep, etc. prevents us from reaching sufficient levels of sleep, including REM cycles which impact our memory, emotion processing, and health brain development.
Particularly for adolescents, sleep is so important, that they need more than adults and young children! The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night, 6-12 years olds get 9-12 hours, and teenagers 13-18 get 8-10, yet 72.7% of teenagers in the USA are sleep deprived!
For tips on sleep routines and skills, check out this article or reach out to FMHS today!
Mobility, Fitness, and Exercise
Exercise has a bigger impact on your mental health than just a runner’s high or the satisfaction of reaching your reps or steps goals. Being able to comfortably move our bodies (also called “mobility”) and sustain activity (“fitness”) can be the difference between staying home and feeling worse about our lives, or doing the things that make us feel better….like making a meal, getting up and making it to a medical or mental health appointment, or being able to do the jobs that pay for that food, home, or other basic needs. Not to mention if you are anxious, you might be tense, and therefore more likely to be sore and find it difficult to go about your daily life; or, if you are depressed, you might be physically inactive more days than not, and your body is not getting the movement it needs to feel good and manage stress. This is why many mental health providers recommend yoga or other stretch-based activities to those with mental health disorders, in addition to exercises that get your heart pumping and reduce stress levels, improve cognitive function, and more!
A good place to start to become more active is to start a basic stretch routine. Yoga with Adrienne on youtube has many accessible, short routines to choose from, including this routine for stress and anxiety. Next, finding the exercise method and plan that works best for YOU is crucial to the odds of you sustaining it…whether adopting a dog to take on walks every day, joining a chatty friend at the gym, watching your favorite shows or scrolling social media while walking on a treadmill, or blasting music while you work on the yard, FMHS is here to help you identify the creative solutions and resources that can help you feel better physically and mentally!
Nutrition
As a mental health provider, I cannot give medical advice… but I can point you to good resources and research to help you navigate this underserved area of our mental health! This article by Eve Selbud, MD of Harvard Medical Publishing summarizes the importance of good nutrition on mental health. Research shows magnesium supplementation has been effective in the treatment of depression and other diagnoses including patients with traumatic brain injuries, suicidal ideation, postpartum depression, insomnia, addiction, etc. Magnesium deficiencies—when combined with excess stress and calcium—was tied to insomnia, irritability, hallucinations, anxiety, and more. Many Americans are deficient in magnesium due to modern mass agriculture and water processing practices, and high intakes of caffeine, alcohol, and other dietary choices that deplete magnesium levels. Read more here !
Support System and Connection
In addition to what we can do for ourselves, having a solid community of support is not only helpful, but crucial for mental health recovery and well-being. From cultivating friendships and solid workplace relationships, asking our relatives for help, coparenting with our spouses and extended family, to asking a teacher for help organizing our homework—our ability connect, communicate, share, and lean on each other is a key area to focus on throughout our lives. While therapy should help immensely with mental health treatment, a good treatment plan should include developing and involving your support system in your communication skills, safety plans, and healing. For ideas on where to start, check out this article!
Hobbies
Having hobbies is an underrated way to boost mental health—frustratingly, for folks stressed by life necessities, it can also feel like yet another thing to feel guilty about not cramming into your life. However, finding small ways to bring joy in your daily life that do not feel important or necessary to you and your family’s survival can be incredibly important in addressing your mental health needs! Hobbies have been shown to reduce stress, enhance well-being, improve connections, reduce anxiety and depression, and improve mental health. From joining hobby-focused facebook groups and social media pages, to buying a few sketchbooks and pencils to use while you wait in the doctors office, hobbies can be big or small if you start where you are at!
Aesthetic
In addition, who you surround yourself with at home and at work, and the physical health of your surroundings including your access to green spaces or pleasing sights, sounds, textures, and smells can have a very real and physical impact on your mental health. In addition to the self care above, the spaces we spend our time in also count as impactful influences on our mental health! From using a visually pleasing water bottle to motivate you to stay hydrated, or putting your laundry in the washing machine or wiping down your counter to feel better about inviting guests over, addressing your environmental needs can have a powerful impact on your mental health!
So whether you feel ready to start addressing any of these needs on your own, or to reach out to a therapist for help, we hope this article gave you some ideas to try soon!
By Pilar Coppers, LCSW
