As the leaves fall from their branches, our moods typically fall with them. If you find yourself struggling with the seasonal blues, you’re certainly not alone. More than ten million Americans experience a decline in their mental health between October and February. You can adopt small, yet significant lifestyle changes to keep your mental wellbeing balanced throughout the season. Here are three tips for prioritizing and improving your mental health this fall!
Regulate Your Sleep
Maintaining a regular sleep schedule is essential to your mental health. Irregular or obstructive sleep patterns can heighten your risk of developing anxiety and depression. Your sleeping habits directly govern your mood, your energy, and your concentration. Sleeping allows our bodies to recuperate from physical and mental strain. Logging your eight hours of restful sleep is critical to combating the seasonal blues. Try avoiding your cell phone, computer, or tablet before bedtime, as screen time inhibits your body’s melatonin production, and therefore obstructs your sleeping patterns.
Spend Time Outdoors
During the chillier months, the Moon is eager to take center stage at its earliest convenience. Daylight becomes fleeting, so take advantage of the sunshine as often as possible. Exposure to sunlight boosts your body’s serotonin levels, which are responsible for improving your mood and calming your nerves. Sunshine sparks positivity and alleviates symptoms of anxiety and depression. Being active outdoors lowers our stress levels and allows us to regroup and rebalance our minds and bodies.
Prioritize Self-Care
Dedicate a slot in your schedule exclusively to self-care. Utilize this time to do something enjoyable or relaxing to keep your emotional wellbeing balanced. Such activities can include meditation, reading, journaling, listening to music, and more. An extremely beneficial self-care activity is massage. You can either enjoy a self massage and target the areas in your body that are holding stress and tension, or, go ahead and pamper your partner or allow yourself to be pampered. Indulge in self-care at a consistent time every day to ensure that your daily routine devotes time to positivity.
Your mental and physical health is of equal importance. These positive lifestyle techniques will greatly benefit your emotional wellbeing, and allow you to enjoy the beauty of autumn!