Meeting your physical needs means eating healthy and exercising regularly, while also listening to your body. It’s not a myth that eating unhealthy foods causes you to feel sluggish and put on extra weight, but researchers are also now suggesting that the food we put into our bodies may very well be the leading cause for many internal illnesses, such as cancer. When eating throughout your day, stick to eating when you’re hungry and avoid eating when you’re not. Choose foods that re-energize your body with nutrients and vitamins, and steer clear from those high in fat and sugar. Those foods with little nutritional value can cause peaks or valleys in your mood and motivation.

It’s also important to have a routine that allows for 8-10 hours of sleep a night and incorporates at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. Clients are often quick to dismiss the recommendation for added exercise, but research has shown that even a moderate amount of daily physical activity, mild depression will decrease more effectively than using anti-depressant medication. Finding a way to structure your routine to make activity and sleep a priority is the first step in ensuring your body and mind is prepared for anything that comes it’s way. When you are well rested and well energized it makes it easier to fulfill both your mental and emotional needs.

Maintaining a positive mental state of mind involves maintaining healthy cognitive abilities, such as the ability to reason and consciously make good decisions. Often times in order to make a good, conscious decision your emotions need to be in check. Expressing your emotions in a healthy and appropriate way is the key to meeting your emotional needs. When your emotional needs are not being met, it can cause you to feel low energized and think irrationally, hindering both your physical and mental states. However, when we lack a healthy mental state and go about making poor or irrational decisions, this will then cause a negative emotional response, and even a physical response. It’s also no secret that when we eat too little, or over eat, we lack any energy to move or think properly in general. See how clear it is that all three departments of self-care balance off of one another, and that it’s important to attend to them?

To keep the positive vibes in and the negative vibes out to create a happy, healthy mental state of mind you need to take initiative of your life and start living for YOU! One way to do is this is by finding something you truly enjoy like a fun, leisure activity. Find an activity or hobby you love to do, and then DO IT! But, make sure this activity is done solely for your own happiness and no one else’s, that is key.

Mindful meditation and relaxation exercises are another great way of keeping your mental state positive. The University of Oregon researchers found that certain mindful meditation techniques, such as integrative body-mind training, can actually result in positive brain adaptations that can be protective against mental illness. These exercises and techniques not only protect the mind but also increase body-awareness, self-awareness, regulation of emotion, and regulation of attention. If you’re weary or unsure of exactly how to go about meditation and relaxation techniques, yoga is a great place to start, as well as the plethora of apps in the app store geared towards mindful meditation. Since licensed counselors do not prescribe medication, most will be skilled in helping you navigate relaxation techniques to naturally alleviate stress or anxiety.