To live a life of joy and flow, practice these seven simple tips to boost your mental health and well-being.

One of my favorite mentors was Jim Rohn. He was known as a wise business philosopher. I saw him speak whenever he came to St. Louis.

One of his hallmark sayings was, “There are no new fundamentals.” He meant that there are basics | principals | rules that never change. He would give the example of the basketball great, Michael Jordan. He didn’t go to practice and attempt spectacular shots from half court. No, he practiced the fundamentals, dribbling, passing, free throws, etc. until those foundational movements were honed.

These seven tips to boost your mental health and well-being are fundamentals. They never change. They will keep you mentally healthy and give you a sense of well-being IF you practice them.

Tip Number 1 – Getting Enough Sleep Will Boost Your Mental Health and Well-Being

According to numerous Harvard Medical School studies, there is a sweet spot of seven to eight hours of sleep each night that is needed for mental health and well-being.

Getting less sleep, especially four to six hours of sleep, is putting yourself at risk for a host of diseases: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, and being less mentally alert.

While it seems kind of strange to sleep one third of our lives away, not sleeping for seven to eight hours each night has been proven to actually shorten the lives of some people.

The body needs that time to repair and rejuvenate.

Set Yourself Up for a Good Night’s Sleep

Our bodies have a natural clock called the circadian rhythm. It tells us when we are hungry and when we are tired.

When you listen to this rhythm, you can naturally practice habits like going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time each day.  

Light has a way of blocking melatonin, the hormone that helps you go to sleep. For a good night’s sleep, it’s best not to watch television within an hour of bedtime. The same goes for reading on your phone or tablet unless you can a screen that can dim the light. It’s best to sleep in a dark room.  

Tip Number 2 – Get Adequate Hydration for Your Mental Health and Well-Being

The body depends on hydration for the heart to pump blood to our organs, to help our muscles function, for waste to be eliminated from the body, and for the brain to function properly. Staying hydrated regulates our body temperature too.

It’s recommended that healthy people (those without a heart condition or other condition where fluids need to be limited) should drink between 30 to 50 ounces of water per day.

You can tell if you are drinking enough fluids that your urine will be pale or clear. If it is dark in color, you can be experiencing dehydration. That can cause cognitive issues, low blood pressure, lack of energy, and muscle cramps due to loss of electrolytes.

If you are thirsty, your body is already depleted. So, get in the habit of hydrating to boost your mental health and well-being.

Tip Number 3 – Get Good Nutrition

A poor diet is linked to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, inflammation, and hypertension. Plus, eating non-nutritious food like salty snacks, greasy cheeseburgers, little or no fresh vegetables or fresh fruit will leave you feeling sluggish.

Food is the body’s fuel. What you put into your body matters.

So find sources of lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates like brown rice and whole grain bread, and healthy fats like olive oil and avocados. 

If this lock down has brought up issues that you have with food, The Freedom to Eat – 10 Secrets for Lasting Weight Loss and Inner Peace can help. You can receive the first two chapters for free: The Secrets We Keep and Goodbye Diets, Hello Freedom.

Tip Number 4 – Practice Gratitude to Boost Your Mental Health and Well-Being

It’s hard to be angry or hard to be stressed if you start saying all the things that you’re grateful for and writing what you’re grateful for. If you practice saying three new things that you’re grateful for each day, you can actually rewire the synapses in your brain to cause you to be happier.

Tip Number 5 – Practice Meditation or Mindfulness

You may think of meditation as thinking about nothing. But meditation is really thinking on something.

The apostle Paul said, “Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things, and the God of peace shall be with you.

And if you think about it, think, think, if you’re watching the news every night, and we all need to be informed, but you’re really thinking for 30 minutes on everything COVID-19.

Even the “good news” that they’re showing is all related to the virus. So, I would tell you to stop. Step away from that, to get some time where you can listen to some music, you can meditate on scripture, you can get outside. If you need an easy way to escape from the world and escape to be in God’s presence, these guided meditations were created to do just that.

Tip Number 6 – Exercise to Boost Your Mental Health and Well-Being

It’s so important to exercise. When you move your body you help your heart and have more energy. You want to be healthy so you can fight this virus and just feel good more than anything. When you exercise you feel good because exercise produces endorphins that lighten your mood.

So find something you enjoy. The weather today was beautiful. Robert and I have been walking more than ever, and I’m still doing my exercises in my own basement gym, using what I have like soup cans for weights and good old fashion pushups and squats. So find a way to exercise. It will give you strength, strengthen your immune system, and it will also clear your head.

Tip Number 7 – Connect Socially with Others

Make sure that you are still keeping in contact with friends and loved ones. Do Zooms, do phone calls. And you know, I really don’t like this phrase, social distancing. I believe that it’s one more way of thinking about being isolated. What we’re really doing is we’re physically distancing.

I just don’t like that phrase being used over and over again, because it makes me think more of isolation thereby putting more of a strain on our mental health.

I hope that these seven tips will help you. They are proven fundamentals that will give you peace and help you to feel good not only during this time, but always. These seven tips will help boost your mental health and well-being.

Stay safe. Stay well. And most of all, stay encouraged.

Do you have any tips to share? Or how have these tips helped you? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.