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If you were in a place of depleted mind health which can include grief, anxiety, depression, or simply in a place of vulnerability, then making good choices with your mind health can be essen
Mind food.
It is true, that we are familiar with the ways in which our nutrition supports our body health. Our body health can be impacted both by what you choose to put in your mouth and what you choose to avoid!
However, have you ever considered the choices you make with your mind health?
What you feed your mind with what you read, your thoughts, what you watch and the conversations you have?
I recall experiencing this first hand when I found myself in a place trying to navigate the emotional rollercoaster of grief and anxiety. I discovered my mind was suddenly vulnerable to what I fed it! I noticed a distinct decline in my own mind health if I didn’t pay attention to how I was supporting it. My mind was in recovery and it needed nurturing.
So if you were in a place of depleted mind health which can include grief, anxiety, depression, or simply in a place of vulnerability, then making good choices with your mind health can be essential.
Here are four key tips they can help you decide what you feed your own mind.
1. Social Media.
Community noticeboards, public forums and opinionated debates can all leave everybody frazzled. Reading sensitive comments from strangers that only serve to trigger you certainly does not benefit your mind health! Unfollowing any pages or forums that do not support the health of your mind is a good idea.
That’s not to say that healthy debate is negative, in fact healthy debate can be wonderful. However, if you are in a place of vulnerability and looking after and nurturing your own mind health, then participating in opinionated and upsetting debates can only add to turmoil within your own mind.
The constant and unrealistic comparison’s that can occur on social media, can also leave your mind health vulnerable.
Choosing your social media platforms carefully and, even better, switching social media off to give your brain a break from scrolling is a healthy choice for your mind!
2. TV, YouTube, movies.
I can recall finding myself overly heightened watching movies that were action packed or dramatic. News events were constantly fear filled and negative leaving me with a sense of hopelessness and despondency. I soon realised I needed to ensure that I was not adding to my own emotional rollercoaster by making choices with what I watched on TV. Switching the TV off and not feeding it to my mind was a wonderful first step (the next step was getting out into nature and appreciating the present moment!).
So if you find yourself feeling frazzled, depleted, anxious or heightened after watching TV, then feeding this to your mind is perhaps not the wisest choice! Life will continue without you watching the news.
That’s not to say that keeping up with world events is not important, however you can choose how much of that you want to participate in, depending on how your mind health is being affected.
3. Conversations you have.
It is easy to roll into conversations with friends or family that involve negativity, bitching, resentment, blame. They circular conversations often go nowhere and only serve the purpose of allowing someone space to vent. Are these conversations supporting your mind health?
This is not to say that we do not need to share our difficulties with friends and family.
In fact talking through problems can be a very supportive journey for your mind health. However, you also need to be open to share the things that are going well in your life. Allow space for conversations that light you up, include gratitude, generate new ideas or insight, help inspire you to forge a pathway forward. Can you participate in more uplifting conversations and feed your mind with an equal balance of gratitude, grace as well as problem-solving?
4. The food that you eat.
In addition to what you watch, what you read and the conversations that you have, it is also important to know that there are several healthy choices when it comes to your nutrition and your mind health. Alcohol (although may appear as a nice relaxant at the end of the day!) in actual fact will only add to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Caffeine in the morning will also add to a heightened nervous system and symptoms of anxiety. Consider eliminating caffeine and alcohol while you are nurturing your mind health.
Like to learn more about developing resilience through life challenges?
Niky offer’s her Rise UP program for women online as well as her within her four day Rise UP retreat.
