5 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health Right Now
2020 has been tough. Generally speaking, the pandemic has thrown our lives and plans out of whack, and we’ve had to make abrupt changes to our daily routines. Mental health struggles, which were rising even before the pandemic, are impacting pretty much everyone to varying extents. Constant isolation is eliminating many of our favorite coping mechanisms and unfortunately increasing the consumption of stress-inducing news related to current events such as racial tensions, the election, and COVID-19 related concerns. Throw in climate change to the list of stressors, and it’s nearly impossible for it not to feel like the apocalypse. At this point, we are all struggling. At scale, we are grieving the loss of loved ones as well as the loss of many celebratory events, such as birthdays, graduations, weddings and so on. Simply, the joy has been taken out of so many lives as we tread these unprecedented waters. It’s easy to hate the world right now, and it’s easy to feel apathetic and lose hope for the future.
This blog post will help you combat your negative feelings, by first acknowledging that you are supposed to be having such feelings. I truly don’t understand how a person couldn’t be anxious, stressed, or depressed on some level with what has occurred in 2020, and anyone who says they aren’t feeling even a little bit of psychological anguish is either a liar or oblivious. You are not crazy for having sad thoughts, or for feeling irritable on a daily basis. Accept your feelings as you fight your way through this never-ending list of stressors. Then, take action. This blog post will focus on the things that you can control, so that you can improve your mental and emotional health.
These few habits have been scientifically proven to change the wiring and neural pathways in our brains, and to ignore their importance would be to ignore science. I’ll spare you an overdose of fancy jargon, and just provide a relevant link to each habit that can provide further detail on its biological value. There are more habits I want to share, but I don’t want to overload you with all of them at once. Combined with my own personal anecdotes, I hope this blog persuades you to take action!
1 - MOVE YOUR BODY
Just get up and move! There is so much data linking exercise to increased mental and emotional health. By moving your body, especially early in the day, you immediately stimulate the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. These are chemicals that play a key role in regulating mood and enhancing focus. You don’t have to partake in a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson level workout to feel these effects, but taking out a small chunk of your day to incorporate an intense bodyweight workout will have positive short and long term effects on your mental and physical health. If you choose to do more than that bare minimum, POWER TO YOU!
I actually tried writing this blog post before exercising today, and it was a bit of struggle to get started. Then, I stopped being a lazy s*** and did a high-intensity ab workout. My focus is now enhanced and writing feels effortless. Enhanced focus is just one of the many benefits of exercise, and it is certainly one worth noting as we struggle to concentrate while taking classes and/or working from home. I also realize that if an entire work day goes by and I haven’t exercised, I start getting extremely agitated. The second I push my body to run, or do a body weight or weightlifting session, that agitation goes away. I feel as if this is a signal that my body is confused from the lack of movement and is aching to be worked.
We are biological organisms, and pushing ourselves physically is in our nature. It makes sense that your body and brain will rebel against you if you decide to ignore what it's primed to do. Whether you are introspective and mindful and engage in analyzing your mood and thoughts after a workout, or you just want to trust the science and see your physique improve and muscles strengthen, or both, we can all find that internal motivation to push ourselves. It just takes fighting through some discomfort to start these habits and eventually we won’t want to get rid of them.
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2- QUIT EATING PROCESSED FOODS
Okay, you’re going to hate me. “Kevin, I’m not going to die from a bag of chips. Who cares if I had a bagel for breakfast? It’s just a slice of pizza. I still have fruit sometimes. I had a salad, who cares if I poured sugar dressing all over it?”
Please, please, please. If you have any desire to improve your mental health, this is the lifestyle change you should care the most about. That’s why this is the longest section.
Eating healthy changed my life. It was the start of the spring semester during my sophomore year of college (boy do I miss those college days already), and for the previous nineteen years I had lived off soda, chips and candy, processed meals, and all the other garbage that satisfied those cravings. Mixing that with an ungodly amount of weed and alcohol and an insufficient amount of exercise, my first year and a half at college simply damaged my body. I got so depressed after a while, and not only did I practically have no motivation to push myself towards goals, I couldn’t even identify what my goals were. My brain had minimal power, and there was very little clarity as to what I wanted and to what I was even doing at school.
Over winter break, before my spring semester sophomore year, I came across an article about anti-anxiety eating. I was so miserable and depressed that I knew I had to try this. Basically, I started eating a diet consisting of whole foods, quality-sourced meats and fish, eggs, fruits, veggies, nuts and a few other healthy items. That’s it. Eliminate the processed junk. No more three Cokes a day. No more french fries with dinner. No more bagels and sandwiches. No more s***. I mean it when I say that it took about one week, after the sugar craving-induced migraines went away, for me to feel like a different human being. This proved to me, along with the endless science linking a healthy gut to a healthy brain, that we as human beings need to treat ourselves as exactly that, human beings, and not just succumb to these desires that only occur because we allowed them into our body in the first place.
To deny that my newly formed diet didn’t alter the course of my college experience and my life from the moment I went back for the spring semester would be silly. There were creative connections I had never experienced before and I worked with so much more efficiency. My days were no longer sluggish, and whereas it used to be difficult to complete assignments for class, I now had the brain power to fly through them, and finally, join student media organizations. This was even the turning point in which I created my New York Rangers podcast, which I always say led me to Behind the Mind and all the work I continue to do. I also started working out much more often, because the food I was eating was priming my body for energy.
Picture bad food as one of those ripped iPhone chargers that work just a little, where it’ll charge for a few minutes then stop. You’ll get some power for a bit, but it only takes a short amount of time before that phone is going to die. Picture good food as a new charger with a big fat block, gearing you up to 100% power in a short amount of time. Honestly, I could come up with a better analogy, but I’m eager to get this out to you stress machines right now. This positive cycle of eating well and exercising sparked a newfound joy for life and an ability to open my mind to new experiences. It simply improved the chemical wiring in my brain.
I won’t say that I haven’t had the occasional cheat meal, or that I feel superior for my dedication to diet, but for those who are looking to improve their mental health, and fight anxiety, stress and depression, you need to make sure that you don’t consume processed foods too often. The biggest challenge for me writing this is that some people might respond and say, “Well is one cheat meal, okay?” I’d respond with, of course it’s okay relative to eating bad food all day and every day. This comes down to self-awareness and will power. I’ll never suggest that for the average person, one candy bar is going to kill them, but I will suggest that habits are extremely powerful, and the more we engage in a certain habit, the more likely we are to continue that habit. It works both ways, positively and negatively, and that’s why it is so easy for me to say no to processed food even when I am around it. Additionally, on a biological level, I no longer desire such foods, until of course, I start eating them. This is proof that they have addictive properties and should be treated with caution like any other physically harming substance.
It’s been about three years of healthy eating, and the thought of going back to a life filled with junk haunts me. If you don’t believe me, believe Harvard nutritional psychiatrist (nutritional psychiatry is real!!!) Dr. Uma Naidoo on the link between the gut and the brain.
3- MEDITATE, MEDITATE, MEDITATE, MEDITATE, UH
Sorry, was listening to untitled 07 by Kendrick Lamar ^ (If you know you know).
“Who the hell wants to sit still and breathe for ten minutes?” No one. However, this simple activity has the power to change the course of your life when practiced regularly. I started meditating regularly about two months into the pandemic, and I genuinely feel like a different person. I think there are so many misconceptions about meditation, on how it’s supposed to be practiced and what it’s supposed to do. The way I see it, those five, ten, or twenty minutes of constantly “coming back to breath” when your thoughts start to wander, is mental training for all other aspects of your life. It allows you to recognize thoughts as exactly that, thoughts. I feel as though when thoughts aren’t recognized in this way, there is no gap between thoughts and emotions, and no gap between emotions and reactions, and this is where stress and anxiety can become severe. Being able to see thoughts for what they are is really only possible through meditation, and to someone who has never meditated consistently enough to feel these benefits, I understand how that concept doesn’t even really make sense. You can’t separate the idea of the self from your actual self until you partake in this activity.
Meditation is basically a superpower that allows you to be mentally stronger, more resilient, and happier. The only way to find out how it makes you feel is to try it, and even if those first few days don’t seem like they do anything, it’s the constant practice that physically changes the wiring in your brain, and it won’t be long before you realize you are a more grateful, calm and present person.
I highly suggest the Waking Up app, created by neuroscientist Sam Harris.
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4- JUST WRITE
Journaling is something I need to do more consistently, because when I do, I feel amazing. It’s like cleaning out the excess stress and anxiety from my brain.
There is actually science to support that the physical act of writing out your feelings activates the left brain (responsible for the logical functions), which allows you to sift through your anxieties, while calming down the right brain (where emotions run high and thoughts get sporadic). This simple act reduces stress both in the short and long term. Seeing your messy thoughts on paper can feel scary at first, but it’s the seeing them that allows you to separate yourself from them. Not only are you relieving your brain from holding them, but you can more accurately understand them and get to the bottom of why you are experiencing these thoughts in the first place. Whether you are writing formally for a blog, like I did with my last post, or on a random piece of paper or in the notes app of your phone, this act goes such a long way for your mental health. You’ll see!
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5- GO TO ONLINE THERAPY
One of the positive aspects of our rapidly advancing digital world is the ability to seek therapy online. You can stay in your bed, or at your desk, and have a trained professional help you work through your most pressing concerns, fears and insecurities.
I was actually in therapy at a very young age, due to my childhood struggles with bipolar disorder, but ever since I went to college, I thought I was past it. I thought my newly formed lifestyle habits, like the ones I wrote about here, and the support from so many close friends and family were enough to get me through. However, for the last month, I have been seeing a therapist online. It has done wonders for my mental and emotional health. Even when I’m not in crisis mode, having these two weekly sessions in place gives me added comfort that I will get through my struggles, especially as this pandemic causes so many stressors I never had to face before. Therapy is a form of self care, and I realize now that despite all of my progress throughout my mental health journey, I can always improve, and eliminate unnecessary stress and anxiety from my life. Therapy has helped me do this.
And if you’re a guy and think you’re too manly for therapy, well, Tony Soprano went for seven years…
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Top Rated Online Therapy Outlets:
https://www.verywellmind.com/best-online-therapy-4691206
Stay tuned for my next blog, highlighting more habits that promote mental and emotional health. They are just as important!