Mental Health that is resilient is essential for living a joyful and productive life. Mental health is every bit as important as physical health. Just like building a strong immune system can help to ward off cold and flu in the body, building a strong immune system for mental health increases the chances of avoiding anxiety and mood disorders when stress piles up.
Many people have compromised mental health immune systems and do not even know it. Only when stress piles up and is chronic does the weakness in their mental health immune system show. Elevated frequency and intensity in symptoms of anxiety and depression are common indicators of a compromised mental health system. Intense worry, agitation, short fuse, mild paranoia, excitability, distractibility, difficulty concentrating, elevated heart rate not due to physical exertion and being fidgety can be some symptoms of a compromised mental health immune symptoms. Furthermore, frequently feeling sadness, hopelessness, guilt, and loss of interest in enjoyable things can all be symptoms of compromised mental health immune system. Sleeping too much or too little; eating too much or too little; frequent and/or prolonged use of smart phone scrolling; mindless binge-watching can all be symptoms of compromised mental health immune system.
Building a strong mental health immune system is relatively simple, but like most things that are healthy, it takes consistent and repeated habits which accumulate benefits over time. Most people are able to significantly improve the resiliency of their mental health immune system by implementing 7 health habits for 30 days. Below are seven healthy habits. These are not the only healthy habits that can improve the mental health immune system, but these 7 habits, when practiced with consistency, can have significant and observable positive effects when practiced over 30 days. If 30 days seems like too much to swallow at first attempt, then do a quick start by doing a 7 for 7.
What follows are 7 Healthy Habits to boost your mental health immunity:
Breathe
Of course you are already breathing, but you are most likely breathing shallow and involuntary breaths. These breaths are functional and essential to keep you moving. The kind of breathing that is healthy are voluntary and intentionally deep breaths. In order to breathe this way, it requires doing nothing but breathing. It is actually really simple and only take a couples of minutes.
· Sit down in a comfortable chair or in a comfortable position.
· Close your eyes.
· Slowly inhale through your nose for 5 or more seconds.
· Let your chest expand to full such that it feels like your stomach is also filling with air.
· Hold that air inside for 3 to 5 seconds.
· Slowly exhale through your mouth for 5 or more seconds.
· When you exhale, let your jaw loose.
· When you let your jaw loose, let your whole body relax.
· When you let your whole body relax, you will be able to detect which muscles or areas of the body are stiff or hold hidden tension.
· On the next exhale, allow those specific tension holding areas to loosen.
· All it takes is 10 breaths like this to regain substantial blood oxygen which converts into physical and mental readiness.
Eat
Of course you already eat, but eating healthy energy makes a substantial difference. Eating low to no sugar, low carbohydrates, many vegetables, and some protein and fat significantly helps to regulate the sugar highs and sudden drops when the insulin kicks in. Eating lots of vegetables and not much sugar with a little protein and fat allows the body to burn energy more evenly. After three days of this eating regime, most people experience a surprising and welcome reduction in sluggishness, bloating, cloudy and distracted thinking, and food cravings which are usually just sugar/carb cravings.
Eat when you are hungry, not craving. It is important to distinguish between eating when hungry and eating for other reasons. People eat for lots of reasons beside nutrition. Stress eating, boredom eating, and anger eating are coping mechanisms that may serve some quick fix type of emotional resolve, but there is a steep accumulative cost over time. Furthermore, food cannot reduce stress, solve boredom, or reduce anger. Using food to fix these problems just pushes those problems into the future where they fester and grow.
Sleep
Of course you already sleep, but many people sleep out of rhythm or not enough. Get 8-10 hours of sleep every night and sleep at roughly the same times each night. Napping can be healthy too, but brief 10-15 powernaps are best. Extended day naps from exhaustion due to missing sleep the night before creates an unhealthy rhythm. Naps of exhaustion or desperation may be the indicator that you did not get enough sleep the night before. Getting 8-10 hours of sleep provides the body and mind a full reset for the next 16 hours.
Move
Of course you move already, but probably not much. 30 minutes of light exercise daily makes a world of difference. Light exercise can mean walking, yoga, or some other light workout. It does not require lifting weights, an expensive gym membership, or any equipment. It doesn’t even have to be 30 consecutive minutes. It could be three short walks for ten minutes each. Walk around the block, find a yoga youtube channel, go for a run. If walking is boring, put that smartphone to good use and find an interesting podcast or audiobook. You’ll feel extra productive while getting your body moving.
Speak
Speak positive and true words to yourself about yourself. This is easy and can take less than one minute. First, know 5 to 10 true and good things about yourself. If these are not readily apparent, then do some self-reflection and write those things down. Everyone has lots of good characteristics, attributes, and qualities. Write them down in a place you will revisit at least once per day and rehearse them. At least once per day, say these true and positive things to yourself, out loud is best. It is probably best to say these true and good things to yourself just before or after your 10 deep breaths.
This may seem like it is so simple or perhaps irrelevant. It is essential. Each day there are so many messages floating around in the narrative of American culture that wear away at each person’s positive sense of self that it can be like being stung by mosquitoes all day long. None of them kills, but none of them helps either.
Finally, saying true and good words about yourself to yourself is not about arrogance or pride; instead, it is about a humble and honest assessment of what good you carry into the world you face each day. Good and true words answers the existential questions that are present daily as they move in and out of our awareness: why am I here? What is my purpose? If you know what good you carry into the world wherever you go, then you have a true and ready answer for these ever-present questions. You also have some internal protection when people are unkind to you, bad things happens, or plans just fall apart.
Interact
Face to face interaction with people, especially people you like and who like you, has both physiological and emotional benefits. The effects of face to face interaction are different and much better than technology mediated interactions such as texting or e-mail or even Facetime. There is nothing wrong with those interactions, but they serve different functions than face to face interaction. Face to face interaction activates mirror neurons and helps with feelings of connection and intimacy. There are some subtle nonverbal “liking” behaviors that can only be detected in face to face interaction. Positive and engaging face to face interaction with friends, family members, classmates, and co-workers makes a significant difference. If you are on some level of a touching relationship with these people whether it be a handshake, hug, friendly should “slap” or whatever, do not miss a chance to appropriately touch or be touched. You cannot touch through technology or devices. Healthy touches activate the body and brain in specific ways that other connections cannot accomplish.
Initiate
Take initiative to create an agenda for each day and then take initiative to complete that agenda. There is enough uncertainty and ambiguity in life that adding to it by being passive to the whims of whatever context you exist in is not helpful for most people. Planning for the day helps to give confidence that you know what the day holds for you and what you hold for the day. You can anticipate breaks from work, know when you have done enough, and actually recall whatever it was you did that day. Also, planning is one of the very best antidotes to procrastination. Ounces of procrastination now result in pounds of stress later while ounces of initiative now result in pounds of satisfaction later.
Set and keep deadlines if you are not in a work, school, or life structure that provides them for you. And even if those are provided for you, make your own so you can make them your own – even if they are the same as those issued to you. Your deadline is better than their deadline even if it is the same deadline.
It is important when taking initiative to have some moderate level of flexibility. Rigidity can be as much of a mental health threat as ambiguity. Being immoveable can be as problematic as being rootless. Plan your plan and work you plan, but also use wisdom and discernment when unexpectedly things come up. You don’t have to do them all, but you don’t to reject them all either.
People who do not act in this world are often acted upon. If you do not write your story, a story will likely be written for you, and most likely the story written for you will not be as a good a fit. Taking initiative is not about always being right and it is not about never listening to anyone else; instead, taking initiative is believing that you are of value to your context and letting that value loose for the benefit of self and others.
Conclusion
The steps to creating a strong and resilient mental health immune system are simple to understand and easy to perform. However, in order for these steps to result in a strong mental health immune system, making these steps part of each day is essential. The more you accomplish of these seven steps over the next 30 days (or even the next 7 days) the more resilient you will be against anxiety, depression, and other symptoms that can develop when stress piles.