Health, truly, is wealth.
In today’s highly stressful world (with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and all), it’s quite hard to keep one’s sanity and body in great condition. However, it shouldn’t discourage you from looking after yourself and ensuring that both your mind and your body are in an excellent state.
Fitness and wellness experts, mental health advocates, and psychologists are united in saying that having a healthy body leads to a great mental health condition and vice-versa. With this in mind, you should really strive to spend your waking hours following expert-recommended hacks to improve one’s body and mind.
Here are five tricks you should follow to keep your mind and body in great shape:
Indulge in food rich in Omega-3
Walnuts, wild salmon, flax seeds — these are some easily accessible food that contains a rich amount of Omega-3 fatty acids that are proven to promote a healthy tummy and combat mental health problems.
Too good to be true? Hardly.
As it turns out, Omega-3 fatty acids are known to lower the possibilities of schizophrenia and depression attacks. And if you’ll consider the added fact that psychiatrists charge a considerable amount of money for each counseling session, eating food rich in Omega-3 fatty acids is also great for your financial health.
Exercise regularly
Sure, it may seem likely a worn-out cliche but exercising regularly is truly a great way of keeping yourself physically and mentally fit without costing you a ton of money.
When you flex your muscles through exercise, your body releases a chemical called endorphin, which is known to relieve stress and improve one’s mood. Your exercise regimen doesn’t have to be rigorous or complex. In fact, the simpler it is, the better it would be for you.
You can begin with regular brisk walking, jogging in place, and lifting small weights. You can also just take a casual stroll at the park to get fresh air or do the laundry and dishes more often. No matter how mundane it is, the key is to establish and follow a regular physical exercise pattern so you’ll always have your body in active mode.
Read
It may not seem like much but reading is actually a great activity that would promote physical and mental well-being.
There are websites like cfsunravelled.com that feature helpful advice and resource materials for individuals with various illnesses such as fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and chronic fatigue syndrome that ultimately affect their mental and physical health. If you suffer from other types of ailments, you could read other helpful resources, whether online or in printed form, to help you deal with your illness towards full recovery.
By reading such materials, you won’t just learn extremely helpful insights about treatment options, you’ll also be more mentally at ease knowing that you have a trove of recovery solutions at your fingertips.
Stay away from vices
The last you’d want to do when you already have a physical or mental health problem is to try to escape your hardships by turning to vices like smoking, drinking, or taking illicit substances. While you may seem okay for a short time keeping a vice, you won’t be for long once the negative effects begin to show up.
Among the known ill effects of engaging in alcoholism, smoking, and illegal drugs are withdrawal syndrome, loss of sleep, liver problems, anxiety, loss of focus, foul mood, memory loss, and paranoia. There are also studies that show more adverse mental health effects like schizophrenia.
Judging from these negative aftermaths, it’s easy to see why turning to vice is not an escape but a way of plunging yourself deep into trouble.
Stick to a healthy diet
You won’t have a shortage of people who would tell you that a healthy diet is non-negotiable if you want to enjoy great physical and mental health. And this is one piece of advice that won’t lead you into any trouble if you’ll heed it.
Notwithstanding dietary restrictions due to allergies and other factors, a healthy diet typically consists of fruits and vegetables (particularly orange or dark green and leafy ones), calcium-rich food like milk, whole grains (pasta, wheat bread, and the like), and lean meat and poultry with a healthy serving of fish, nuts, and peas.
You could consult with a certified nutritionist-dietitian to create a custom diet plan for you so it would be perfect for your unique health and diet needs.
Enjoying a sound mind and a healthy body can be easy if you’ll follow these five simple tricks. The key is to ensure that you’ll devote yourself to it and make it a sustainable habit so you’ll reap all the positive benefits of great physical and mental health.
