Use Your Body to Boost Your Mental Health

What's happening on HealthyPlace this week?

• Use Your Body to Boost Your Mental Health
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Adult ADHD and Embracing Chaos Over Routines
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• Mental Health Stigma Quote

Mental health is a full-body experience. Just as symptoms of any mental health condition aren’t “in your head,” optimizing our mental health isn’t confined to the head, either. You can use your body in different ways to benefit your brain and support and boost your mental health. Think in terms of nutrition, movement, and sensory input.

What you put into your body helps power your brain. Your body needs nutrients from foods to make mood-regulating neurotransmitters like serotonin. Eating healthy foods, including lean meats, legumes, eggs, whole grains, vegetables and fruits provides your brain with what it needs to operate properly.

How you move your body matters, too. Research shows you can improve your mental health through exercise. Exercise affects our hormone levels, increasing feel-good, mood-enhancing hormones like endorphins and regulating the production of stress hormones. Gentle movements like yoga or general stretching help release muscle tension and facilitate healthy circulation of blood to the brain.

Tuning into your body’s sensory organs (your eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue) is another powerful way to use the body to positively impact your mental health. The practice of mindfulness allows people to tune into their senses and focus attention onto the present moment rather than on racing or negative thoughts and emotions.

Gradually develop healthy habits around using your body to nurture your mental health. Start by adding one pleasurable experience to your daily life, and gradually add more as you seek to incorporate nutrition, movement, and mindfulness into your plan for a mentally healthy life.

Recommended Video

4-7-8 Breathing Exercise for the Body/Mind Connection - 4-7-8 breathing exercises are great for getting to sleep at night and relaxing anxiety away anytime. Watch to learn about 4-7-8 breathing exercises and feel better.

Articles Related to Your Body and Mental Health

• Which Foods Combat Depression, Stress, and Anxiety?
• What Are the Best Foods for Mental Health?
• Seven Benefits of Exercise
• Even Light Exercise Can Lower Anxiety
• Does Your Mental Illness Make Exercise Impossible? Try This!
• Using Mindfulness for Anxiety: Here’s How
• Does Mindfulness Improve Mental Health or Is It Fluff?

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: What body-related healthy habits such as eating healthy, exercise or yoga do you have to support and boost your mental health? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, experiences, and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page.

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Job Opening: Blogger for 'Debunking Addiction' Blog

We're looking for a person who has lived experience with addiction who is willing to share those experiences on the "Debunking Addiction" blog. Apply at Mental Health Bloggers Wanted.

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Staying Present When You Have Binge Eating Disorder
• Eating Disorders and Twin Dynamics: Is There a Connection?
• Forgiving the Past to Take Control of the Present
• How to Feel Accomplished on Bad Mental Health Days
• Hiding Self-Harm Scars in Swimsuit Season
• How to Help Children Who Are Exposed to Verbal Abuse
• How Photography Helps My Schizoaffective Disorder
• How to Support a Friend Through Sobriety
• 'Euphoria' Gives an Honest Depiction of Mental Illness
• Depression Says I Don't Care About Anything
• Am I Gaslighting Myself with Mental Health Self-Stigma?
• Blankets and Anxiety
• Introduction to Shubhechha Dhar, New Author of ‘Treating Anxiety’
• ADHD Overstimulation Gave Me a Panic Attack at a Festival
• Acute Panic — Looking for Answers Where None Exist
• How Do I Start Recovering from Binge Eating Disorder?
• Working with a Self-Harm Sponsor for Recovery
• Tips to Turn Around Internal Verbal Abuse
• Honesty Is My Best Weapon During Eating Disorder Recovery
• Anger and Postpartum Depression
• Are You Overwhelmed and Lonesome? Blame it on Depression
• Inside Hallucinations with Schizophrenia
• Clocks Springing Forward May Set You Back
• When You're an Anxious Introvert
• My ADHD Makes Multitasking Impossible

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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From the HealthyPlace YouTube Channel

If you have trouble sticking to any routines because of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), perhaps Austin's choice to embrace the chaos could be for you. Watch.

Subscribe to the HealthyPlace YouTube channel

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. Preventing an Alcohol Relapse
2. Plus-Sized Barbie Dolls Don't Promote Positive Body Image
3. Treating Dual Diagnosis: Mental Illness Plus a Drug or Alcohol Problem

If you haven't already, I hope you'll like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Stigma Quote

“I will never understand why every organ in your body get support and sympathy when it is ill, except for your brain.”

Read more quotes about mental health stigma.

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That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. Please share the newsletter on any social network you belong to. For updates throughout the week, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or follow us on Instagram.

Thank you,
Deborah

Community Partner Team
HealthyPlace.com - America's Mental Health Channel
"When you're at HealthyPlace.com, you're never alone."
http://www.healthyplace.com