It seems that in the modern era the mental health of humans all across the world is slowly diminishing as each year goes by yet we seem to have all these things around us to supposedly keep us appeased and happy, or that’s what you’re led to believe! As to whether this is actually the case is a different thing entirely.
Since reading a great book, Lost Connections by Johann Hari, I’ve come to realise that why I was so easily getting into mental slumps thus bringing down my physical body too. It allowed me to reflect on the way I was living my life so that I could make adjustments to stop what appeared to be a downward spiral and start the momentum going in an upward manner.
The aim for this blog is to lay out ways you can improve your mental health, no matter what is going on around you, to help you become both more resilient and make life a lot more enjoyable compared to where you are now. The methods that I’m going to talk about are as follows:
- Time off technology
- Meditation
- Exercise
- Get outside
- Be social with people in real life
Before we get into things, there are a few key hormones that I would like to highlight that will be discussed during this blog and what they do. I realise this list isn’t exhaustive as we are complex creatures but I feel are the key players for simple understanding:
- Dopamine – A neurotransmitter that is used in the body’s reward system. Used for various different things but I’m going to concentrate on this aspect. It gets released when you do something you enjoy, when you eat something nice or manage something that you find rewarding. This was initially wired for survival to make sure you remembered where say a food or water source was.
- Endorphins – Your body’s natural painkiller. These are released to reduce pain and boost pleasure, paying another part in the body’s reward system. Released during exercise, sex or eating.
- Serotonin – A chemical well known for its relationship to depression and anxiety but also has many other uses in the body. Concentrating on its mental side, it is often seen that low levels of serotonin brings on depression and anxiety, stemming from another survival instinct related to challenging situations, be it socially or fighting.
- Cortisol – Designed to maintain levels of glucose in the body, this is designed for you to have optimum levels in the blood if required for fight or flight. However, it does cause immunosuppression and protein catabolism to maintain these levels.
Ways To Improve Your Mental Health
Time Off Technology
The constant stream of technology usage for either talking to people, watching videos, playing games or scrolling aimlessly does initially give you that feel good feeling when you get a like, a notification or watch something funny. The reason this happens is due to a hit of dopamine, which is your body’s reward system that has been developed over thousands of years of evolution. This system reinforces any behaviour that releases this dopamine, telling your brain to remember and do it again if and when it can. This was designed for our survival when finding sources of food and water, not for the modern era but it’s what Big Tech plays upon with their services and why people get addicted to their phones, apps or games consoles.
These methods of dopamine release give you a quick and easy hit, making them more appealing and more likely a habit for you to do when you come home tired from work, for example. You’re going to be less likely to do something that requires you expend energy when you can just lay in bed or on the sofa and watch something.
The issue with this though is you over burden the system by not showing self control these things down, by giving a constant stream of this hormone. With enough over stimulation, you will become desensitised meaning you’ll next to find something that’s the next level up or do it for longer to get the same feeling. In turn you’re pulling yourself away from what really fulfils your human nature, which could be genuine connection with other humans.
True time away from technology is firstly going to allow your dopamine receptors to have a break away from the constant hits and reset themselves, increasing the sensitivity again. Secondly, it will allow you to concentrate on human centric ways of getting that dopamine hit, along with other required hormones for good mental health. These could be any one of the following things I talk about.
The final thing that this will do is it will stop you comparing your life to that of others. Social media, films and TV both let us know what’s going on in the world, allows us a level of escapism and can educate on certain things if consuming the right things, even provide motivation.
However, they have a subtle, very dark side which mentally, is terrible for you. They leave you comparing your life to that of others around you, whether it be the physique someone has, the happy relationship that they portray, the money they have or the the experiences you want, you’re left wanting more and a feeling of inadequacy about your own life. This is simply not good for you if you’re consuming the wrong stuff all day, everyday.
Meditation
This is something that is probably overlooked quite a lot by people as a way to help them out and sometimes looked as a bit of a hippy thing to do but there’s a reason that certain cultures have used this for hundreds if not thousands of years to look after themselves. Don’t worry, there’s no need for you to shave your head and take yourself to a monastery for it either. Unless you want to, then go for it!
In life we have plenty of things that cause stress to us at various levels. Work, finances, self judgement if you’re on social media too much, health, lack of sleep… this could include anything that causes a negatively high level of stress on you and your body. Stress isn’t all bad though and a certain level is required as long as it’s the right kind and to the right level. Annoyingly,
When you are stressed, you create a hormone called cortisol. If you have too much cortisol in your body, this can affect the things you’re trying to solve, causing a kind of downward spiral if you don’t deal with the issue, instead masking it with something like a night of Netflix, only compounding the issue from maybe missing out on sleep. You can see how these issues easily compound but this compounding can be used just as well to reverse the direction of travel and send you upwards.
Reducing that bad level of stress is where meditation comes in. this will allow you to switch off your mind, forget those stresses and relax mentally and physically. This can allow you get to sleep easier, lower your stress levels and bring focus if you have too much raising around your head. Meditation is a simple practice to do and doesn’t take too much to get into it. All you need to do is find yourself somewhere quiet where you won’t get disturbed, get in a comfortable position that you can hold which could be seat or laying down, and then set yourself a timer of 5-10 minutes to start with.
Close your eyes. Breathe in deeply through your nose and out through your mouth, concentrating on just the breath. You can count them, focus on the bodily movements with each breath or even mentally imagine you breathing in clean, fresh air and breathing out the toxins and worries. That’s all you have to do until the timer runs out.
If your mind wanders to a thought or a stressor, don’t judge yourself for losing focus. Gently bring your focus back to your breath and observe the thought without getting attached to it.
You can use apps for this Headspace or Calm, which give you opportunity to go through guided meditation and build up to longer periods, as well as providing other useful services. There are a variety of other kinds of meditation for you to delve into that brings in things like movement or individually relaxing areas of your body should you wish to but my advice would be to keep it simple for now.
I love tying meditation in with journalling as a great thing to do to unwind at the end of the day, often helping me sleep better. If you want more information on that, I wrote a little something talking about it here.
Exercise
This is such a key thing for you to feel well both mentally and physically. If you’re physically well, you’re more likely to be well mentally and vice versa. Exercise is the perfect thing to do to improve both of these aspects. Mentally, it will release those feel good hormones, leaving you in a boosted and happier state, once you’re over that initial pain if it was a particularly tough session.
Physically, it will improve a variety of elements such as your general fitness and energy levels, leaving you feeling better about yourself as everyday tasks get easier. Releasing those endorphins as well are going to give you that added boost and prompt you to do it again and again.
If fitness hasn’t been your thing up to now, something as easy as a walk is sufficient enough to start with. Maybe you could find yourself an online yoga class/video to help loosen off some issues you may be harbouring, like sore backs, necks or shoulders whilst strengthening you subtly but effectively. Another suggestion would be to find yourself a programme to stick to, helping you embrace running like I had to a couple of years ago. There are plenty of resources out there for you dig into for any situation, time limit and fitness level!
Get Outdoors
On the the back of what I said about exercise, if you can get outside and do it, that will be even better for you! If you’re able to get into a green space, this makes the experience even better! The fresh air and the sight of greenery has a certain effect on the human brain based on the reactions and hormonal releases caused by this. Something that I need to really look into but if you want an in-depth explanation, follow the work of Dr Andrew Huberman on either Instagram or listen to his podcast with Rich Roll, episode 533.
Be Social With People In Real Life
We are animals and we are mammals. Mammals are social creatures in all senses of the word and this is seen through our closest relatives, primates. This means that socialising a key thing for us to live healthily. Having social interactions on their own with humans face to face brings about hormonal releases that are great for us. It allows you to build human connections, friendships and relationships, or even network for future opportunities. When you add in the sense of touch and the releases this brings, it’s all round mental health goodness! I mean, who doesn’t love a good hug or cuddle?!
Additionally to that, socialising is ultimately a skill that needs to be trained. Unfortunately, as we move more and more to conversations over digital mediums, we aren’t training this skill. Being able to understand tone, facial expressions and body language is something that needs to be trained or else you can easily end up getting lost in miscommunication. This has also built up fear of being social with new people and now has gotten to a point where people are simply scared of phone calls! The more you build the skill of socialising, the better you’ll get at it and the easier it becomes.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of things that you can do to start improving your health mentally but they are some of the most common and easily accessible ways to bring improvements to you. Even a small amount of progress in one area will have a knock on effect on other aspects of your life and create momentum for you towards a better place.
I genuinely hope that you have found this blog a useful one and able to implement some of the measures I’ve laid out so that you are able to improve how you feel mentally, becoming a catalyst for you to gain momentum to take yourself to bigger and better things. I realise that mental health is a serious issue and has come to the forefront more and more in recent years. Be sure to share these tips with your family and friends through social media so they can benefit too!
If you liked this as much as I hope, be sure to use the social media links below to follow me on the social media so you hear about my blogs the moment they are released! Whilst you’re here though, be sure to check out the recommended to links around this blog or use the links at the top of the page to find something you would be interested in.
