After the hustle and bussle of the holidays, January and February are great months for restoration and recovery in the form of Self-Care.
Mental health significantly impacts your physical health and recharging your mental health can protect you from developing chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes in addition to depression or anxiety. Positive mental health can help boost your immune system, reducing your risk of getting sick.
Tips on How to Improve Your Mind-Body Connection
Create More Emotional Awareness
None of us can be happy all the time. We all experience a wide range of emotions and learning from the highs and lows of our emotions can be beneficial.
How to Become More Emotionally Aware:
Take a Moment to Notice what you are Feeling in your Body…is it tightness in your chest, is it a flushed face?
Try to Identify Your Emotion: Do the boldily feelings feel like anxiety? Do they feel like anger?
Name the Emotion. By simply saying, “I feel anxious” or “I feel angry” you can start to respond productively instead of reacting unconsciously.
Practice Being Mindful of what your Body Feels like when Feeling Various Emotions. This will allow you to better regulate them. Meditation, stretching or yoga and deep breathing exercises allow you to be in a mindful headspace. They help you shift out of your thinking and into your bodily awareness. The more you practice, the easier it will become to notice and name your emotions.
Find Meaning in Your Life:
Our work, community interactions, hobbies and friends– can help improve your mind-body connection. In fact, having a sense of purpose offers many benefits, including:
Experiencing Joy
Longevity of Life
Improved Sleep
Improved Physical Health
How to Find Your Purpose?
Explore your interests:
Ask Yourself What Matters Most to You in Life?
What Organizations Would You Like to Support?
What are Your Favorite Hobbies?
Who Do You Feel Safest Around?
What Activities Have You Always Wanted to Try?
It simply means finding a passion or purpose that helps you live your life. It allows you to focus on the things that matter most.
Keep Healthy Habits a Priority
Your physical health and mental health are interconnected. You have to take care of your body in order to take care of your mind. Here are a few healthy habits that should always be a priority:
Eat healthy. A diet rich in plenty of fresh fruits and veggies are a strong foundation to any diet.
Stay Current on Your Doctor’s Visits. Ensure you stay healthy by doing an annual physical and other wellness visits.
Sleep well. Give your body enough sleep. Some people need 7 hours and some may need 10. Sleep allows your body to rest, recharge and function properly.
Manage stress. Long-term stress takes a serious toll on your mental and physical health. Reduce stress with some simple coping strategies like stretching, breathing, and exercise.
Our mental health plays an important role in our physical health. Focusing on habits that improve our mental and physical health makes us all healthier, happier, and stronger.
