Mental Health Signal
Optimise your mental health
What is mental health?
According to the World Health Organisation, it is the “psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment”.
What does poor mental health look like?
In this context, we are talking about stress, anxiety, depression or burnout. As well as suffering mentally, you might also be experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety like headaches, hair loss, weight loss or gut health issues.
This might be caused by difficulties in your life, relationship problems, being unable to shut off due to tech, feeling overworked, a lack of meaning or purpose in your life, or crippling perfectionism. You might be feeling overwhelmed, panicky, out of control, unfilled, unhappy and worried about your health. Suffering from poor mental health can be very frightening, and it’s important to seek professional help if you’re struggling.
How to optimise your mental health
Nutrition
What you eat will have a profound impact on your mental health. Eating a diet that is personal to you is so important, not just for mental health but for sleep, energy, body composition, digestion and fitness. Eating a diet based on your unique DNA will enable you to optimise your health, fitness and wellbeing, nourish your mind, and provide your gut and your brain with the nutrients it needs to flourish.
Hormones
One is thyroid; both hyper- and hypothyroidism have been linked to mood problems. The other is vitamin D3, which we synthesise from the sun. A deficiency in vitamin D3 is very common in people from the Northern hemisphere, and is linked to depression, fatigue and unexplained aches and pains.
Gut health
Fixing any issues that reside in the gut. A lack of microbial diversity in the gut has been linked with depression, mood disorders, autoimmune conditions such as eczema and asthma and even autism.
Mental Nourishment
The final thing is mental nourishment. Simple but incredibly powerful techniques such as gratitude journaling, meditation and breathing exercises can have a huge impact on the mind and mental health. The beauty of these is that they cost nothing to do but the health benefits are life-changing.