Practicing Healthy Habits

To maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to create a habit of exercising regularly and eating a balanced, wholesome diet. The same applies to your mental health. If you’re not practicing healthy habits on a daily basis, it can be challenging to manage stress and anxiety, and maintain a positive, balanced disposition. That’s why self-care is such an important habit to form, not only when we’re feeling mentally strained, but always.

Here are some healthy habits to start practicing today.

Dedicate More Time for Learning

We are usually our own worst critics, and the way we speak to ourselves can be very harsh. This inhibiting self-talk is what contributes to low self-esteem and depression. But most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re doing it because these thoughts have become so ingrained in our psyche.

The good news is you can learn to retune those thoughts and transform them into positive ones. One great way to start drowning out that harsh self-criticism is by feeding your mind with new information. Whether you’re in the shower, doing the dishes or commuting back from work, throw on a TED Talk, pick up a book or a new podcast and choose a subject that you’re interested in. Learning about new ideas and skills rewires our brain, stimulates creativity, and boosts our ability to analyze life while gaining new perspectives about ourselves.

Make Exercising a Priority

Exercising is important for building endurance, strength and our mental health too. It allows us to blow off steam, clear our minds and feel good. If exercising seems like a daunting challenge, make it as easy as possible to just start. Give yourself a minimium of 10 minutes each day dedicated to exercising, and that’s it. When you do this, it will be much easier to motivate yourself to do it, and you’ll gradually be able to push yourself further while turning it into a new habit. 

Start a Gratitude Journal

Gratitude has been proven to be one of the most powerful ways of recalibrating the mind and making us feel happier. Practicing gratitude is also one of the easiest things to start. Just write down three to five things that you’re grateful for every morning, and try to describe them in as much detail as you can. This could include your pet, your partner or anything else in your life that you appreciate.

Meditate Daily

We have a lot of thoughts that float around in our minds each day. One way to tone them down, clear your head and give your mind a break is through meditation. Mindfulness meditation teaches you how to breathe deeply through the belly and to focus on the present instead of worrying about the past or future. 

Talk with a Therapist

When you’re feeling weighed down, sometimes the best way to lift that heavyweight is by talking it out. Talking with a therapist can give you the safe and judgement-free space you need to express and understand what you’re feeling.

When you’re ready to talk things out with a therapist, we’re here to listen at Ottawa Counselling. Book an appointment today.