Five Steps To Optimal Mental Wellness
Life is going to happen.
Having tools to help you ride out the ups and downs, and the moments of stress and frustration is invaluable.
The bottom line is that living in the twenty-first century brings with it a certain amount of unavoidable stress—and with that stress comes a certain degree of disrupted mental wellness. It's how you deal with that stress and what you do to restore balance that can make all the difference when it comes to your long-term mental wellness and how you feel on a daily basis.
Luckily, there are simple, natural ways to improve your mental wellness. Dr. Shawn Talbott has been writing about the S.E.N.S.E. program for over 20 years, and following these 5 easy steps can make a big difference in how you feel. Here’s a quick overview:
Supplementation
This is the first place to start! The reason? It’s the easy button to quickly help yourself feel better and give you the energy and motivation to work on longer-term lifestyle changes.
Did you know that we have two brains? Obviously, we all have a brain in our heads. And while you might not know much about the “second brain” (which is in your gut, by the way), you’ve probably “felt” it before—“butterflies” in your stomach when nervous, “sick to my stomach” when disappointed or simply a “gut feeling” about a situation. Caring for both brains is essential for optimal mental wellness!
What’s really cool is that our two brains also talk to each other through a complex network of nerves, cells, and biochemicals called the “Gut-Brain-Axis.” This network includes 100 trillion bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal system (our “microbiome”) and help promote good health in a variety of ways.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN ABOUT THE GUT-BRAIN AXIS
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2. Exercise
Getting enough exercise is one of those no-brainers that few of us follow through with. Aside from the feel-good, mind-clearing effects, exercise is important for general anti-stress benefits that help to control appetite, regulate blood sugar, curb overeating, and improve sleep.
Unfortunately, too many people avoid exercise simply because they’re not sure what to do, or because they think they have to be a professional athlete before they get started. Not true! You can do anything, as long as you actually do it! You simply need to get out there and move your body for at least three to six hours each week (thirty to sixty minutes per day, six days a week). While Dr. Talbott recommends a three-times-weekly regimen of interval training for maximum benefits, it’s most important to just get active, no matter what you do. Even a 20-minute daily walk has significant mental health benefits!
Being a certified couch potato myself, committing to a 20 minute walk every day has been a very manageable goal and has made me feel a lot better!
Here are a few other suggestions for how to sneak exercise into your daily routine:
At the mall or grocery store, add a few hundred yards of walking to your daily activity tally by parking in the middle or back of the lot instead of at the front.
If you use public transportation, try riding your bike to the train station or bus stop, or park your car a few blocks away and walk the rest of the way to catch your ride.
At the airport, be a rebel and take the stairs instead of the escalator.
Put a basket on the front of your bicycle so you can use it to run short errands to the store.
Get outside and mow the lawn, sweep the steps, rake the leaves, or shovel the driveway.
3. Nutrition
What is the first thing many of us do when the stress starts to pile up? We pile up our plates—and we usually do it with junk. I’m definitely guilty of this!! Nothing stimulates our cravings for sugar, salt, and fat like a stressful event, but attempting to “eat your way out” is not the right approach. The good news is that it’s possible to get dramatically positive benefits just from making a few small changes in your diet.
First, reduce the processed foods and sugary treats and snacks. Save them for a special occasion.
Next, focus on eating balanced meals of real, whole foods. The less processed the better!
A good rule of thumb is to compose each meal or snack by “fists.” Here’s how it works: Each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) is made up of one fist-sized helping of carbohydrates (pasta, bread, cereal), one fist-sized helping of protein (eggs, meat, poultry, fish, tofu), and another fist or two of fruits and vegetables (an apple, a banana, a side salad). Each snack (one each between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner, and between dinner should be built the same way, but the total size of a snack should be no larger than one fist.
One other consideration is to complement your diet with a high-quality multivitamin/multi-mineral supplement. In particular, the supplement you choose should provide adequate amounts of the most important anti-stress nutrients that are needed at increased levels during periods of high stress.
If you want a deeper dive, read my blog post, How To Eat To Support Mental Wellness.
4. Sleep
Sleep quality is one of the most important ways to improve your emotional well-being, mental wellness, and overall mood state.
When you get a good night’s sleep, the next day you will be more energetic, more cognitively flexible, more resilient to stress, and more able to handle all the things that come your way.
Sometimes, just getting a couple nights of good quality sleep can help you feel better when you are stressed, irritable, anxious, or in a low-mood state.
The goal is to get a full eight hours of sleep every night. To achieve this, try a few of these tips
Establish a regular bedtime and wake-up time (and stick to them all the time—even on weekends!),
Do something relaxing in the hour or so before bedtime (such as reading, drinking a warm cup of tea or doing a crossword puzzle). Avoid screen time before bedtime!
Avoid exercise within three hours of bedtime.
5. Evaluation
Now that you’ve learned the basics of promoting optimal wellness, it’s important to remember the critical last step of evaluation. Moving forward, it’s important to regularly assess (and possibly change!) your exercise patterns, nutrient intake, and supplementation regimen according to your exposure to stress and other factors that affect your mental, emotional and overall health.
So, how do you do this? TAKE THE HAPPY QUIZ every three months to re-evaluate where you stand.
Are you still experiencing higher-than-normal stress levels? If so, then you need to be especially careful about following these guidelines to keep your exposure to stress and other factors within a healthy range.
Remember, life's inevitable ups and downs don't have to derail your mental wellness. By taking small, consistent steps—like those outlined in the S.E.N.S.E. program—you can build a foundation that supports your well-being, no matter what comes your way. Whether it's through proper supplementation, regular exercise, balanced nutrition, quality sleep, or ongoing evaluation, these simple practices can help you navigate stress and maintain your mental health.
Start today, take control of your wellness journey, and experience the difference it can make in how you feel every day.
