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Lucy Turns Pages: 5 Daily Healthy Habits for Positive Mental Health

5 Daily Healthy Habits for Positive Mental Health

This post may contain affiliate links. However, all thoughts are my own and honest.

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Mental health is something that everyone has. These daily healthy habits are great ways to foster more positive mental health. They can be really helpful for managing anxiety and stress but they can also be great just for feeling more positive, more inspired and more relaxed. No matter what your situation is I would really recommend adapting some of these daily healthy habits into your routine.

1. Drink more water

man pouring water in glass

Ok I know we're always told to drink more but that's because it is actually good for us! If we don't drink enough we can actually get symptoms such as stomach problems, headaches, fatigue and dry skin. Lately I've started using an app called Plant Nanny where every time you drink you press on the app and it waters a plant then the plant grows! You can also set reminders. It's just a fun way to make sure I am drinking enough water because it is so easy not to.

2. Step away from social media

turned on gold iphone 6

In this current age it is so easy to be on our phones for most of the day but this can also negatively affect our mental health and it can cause headaches and eye strain. Sometimes we need to take a step back from being online to focus on other things that may make us feel more positive which leads me into my next point...

3. Take time to do the things that make you feel good

woman sitting on bed while holding book

This can be different for everyone. For me, one thing that distracts me from my thoughts and helps me feel better is reading. I love reading, I can get pulled into the story and not be in my own thoughts for a while and it actually makes me feel happier and more positive. It can be really hard to get myself to just read but I know that it makes me feel good so I am actively getting myself to pick up a book. I say to myself 'you can just read a chapter' but then I often read more than that. Think about what you like to do, what fills your heart with joy, what makes you happy and actively aim to do it more. 

This can also include watching a tv show or film without going on your phone the entire time. Get cosy and just enjoy watching something without constantly thinking about what else you need to do or what you are worried about.

4. Mindfulness

girl sitting on daisy flowerbed in forest

I know some of you are probably feeling sceptical about this and trust me I was too but wow mindfulness is something that everyone should try. Mindfulness is about focusing your mind in the present, it is a really effective method for reducing anxiety and making people feel happier. There have actually been studies done that show that through doing mindfulness, different areas of the brain have lit up and people have felt more positive in their lives. I listened to a mindfulness audiobook which covered all of this and it was actually really interesting. It was a short book and just a warning that some of what the author said can be triggering. 

So how do you do mindfulness? Well there are different methods, one is listening to a meditation soundtrack, for example, there are some on this website or you can try an app or YouTube. Another way is that when you are doing something like brushing your teeth, or even if you are just sitting somewhere, to focus on your senses. What can you hear? Smell? Touch? Taste? See? Try to fully focus on your senses and if your mind starts to wander, gently bring it back to focus on your senses. 

You can try a mixture of both of these or just one. If you try doing mindfulness twice a day, see if you do feel any different. I actually found myself to feel more relaxed and happier after a few days of trying this. When I didn't do it much at all, I found myself feeling worse. It sounds silly but if you're someone who has anxiety, starting to focus more on the now and pushing your thoughts aside can be so helpful. You don't need to have anxiety to try mindfulness, it can benefit anyone so try giving it a go and see if it helps.

5. Noting things down

woman writing on white paper

To do lists

If you often have a lot on your mind, I would really recommend making a to do list. Note down any things you need to do. Then think about what things you can do now and what things you can't do until a later date. Focus on what you can do now.

Mental health journal: worry time

So this is a really great strategy for tackling anxiety. You get a notebook or bit of paper and you can make three columns. In the first column, every time you start to worry about something, you write it down. 

In the next column, you write whether it is a current problem so one that you can do something about right now or if it is a hypothetical problem as in something that may not happen or something that you can't do anything about right now. If it is a current problem, work on tackling it but if it is a hypothetical one, the aim is to let it go. Now this is very difficult but through trying this method I have found it to be really helpful in reducing my anxiety. 

The idea is to delay your worry, you can then have a set time of day where you spend 20 minutes or so thinking about your worry or you can choose not to do the worry time if you don't feel like you need to. I have just found writing down my worries to be a really effective way to reduce how long I spend worrying and once I have written it down it's like my signal to go do something else. In the third column you can keep a tally of how many times you are worrying about that problem so if you worry about the same thing again later on, instead of writing it out again, just add to the tally. 

Regardless of whether you use the worry time or not, I would really recommend trying just noting down your worries.

So those are some daily healthy habits that I recommend trying, let me know if you've tried these/ your suggestions in the comments!

Liked this post? You may want to read How to Fight Anxiety and Improve Your Well-Being.

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