Caring For Your Mental Health

As we go through perimenopause and menopause, many of us will experience mood swings and the impact of fluctuating hormones on our overall state of wellbeing. Low estrogen in particular can lend itself to feelings of sadness, irritability, and depression.

Given all we are juggling at this point in our lives, our mental health is as important as ever. It is as important as our physical health. So, in celebration of Mental Health Awareness month, I want to share my favorite pieces of advice which have landed in my inbox these last few weeks.

I hope some of these tips and strategies are helpful on your midlife journey.

Advice I liked Best

Forest Bathing

Immersing yourself in nature and grounding yourself using your 5 senses has huge benefits for your mental health. According to this article, the benefits of time in nature include strengthening the immune system, decreasing stress hormones, decreasing inflammation, enhancing mood, improving blood pressure and heartrate, and increasing relaxation.

Not that I needed another excuse to get outside but now I know why I love hiking and mountain biking!

Self-Care

I recently wrote about the importance of self-care, and I love this self-care checklist. What I like about Healthline’s approach is it is personalized. It doesn’t give generic recommendations but rather helps you figure out what you need most and how to get it. Practical!

Connecting In Person

In the words of Emily Fletcher, the founder of Ziva Meditation, “Social connections are shown to improve your quality of life, boost your sense of belonging and help you live longer.”

And as beautifully articulated in this blog post, connecting in person is vitally important. Human beings are social creatures and as the author points out, we have never been more isolated thanks to the pandemic, working from home, and the ability to solve many of our little to-do items with a click of a button.

Some easy ways to put this into practice, go on a walk or take a drawing class with a friend, invite people over for dinner, buy your groceries in person and get to know the people who work at the store (I’m friends with the fish guy at our local market), or go to your local bookstore and ask for a recommendation.

In other words, don’t outsource too much of your life to an anonymous click of a button.

Emotional Flexibility

Develop emotional flexibility. I came across this concept, which was new for me, in a recent Growth Equation post. It says emotional flexibility “is about holding everything at once — happiness, joy, and enthusiasm at the same time as anger, sadness, and frustration — and being able to feel differently at various points throughout the same day and perhaps even the same hour.”

This resonated with me as real life is a constant mix of emotions. The ability to toggle back and forth without getting swept away in one direction seems like a useful tool. As the author says, you should be able to “feel sad and down even though there may be a lot that is good in your life.”

To build more emotional flexibility the author says to give yourself permission to feel what you are feeling and then be present with these feelings. I know for myself it can be hard to let myself feel the more negative feelings because somehow, I feel I should not…but I am learning how important it is to honor and respect all my feelings.

Exercise

I am always amazed how moving my body generally improves my mood. I have this realization every weekend when I swim. I NEVER want to go and yet every time I finish, I feel great!

According to Mental Health America, “Just 1 hour of exercise a week is related to lower levels of mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders.” And “Among people in the US, those who make regular physical activity a part of their routines are less likely to have depression, panic disorder, and phobias.”  

If you feel you could use more exercise in your life, they are sponsoring a fitness challenge for the month of May. You can get more information here.

Diet

As you probably have guessed by now, I love food as medicine. And today’s recommendation? Eat more fish! A paper in 2015 found a “significant association emerged between those eating the most fish and a 17% reduction in depression risk compared with those eating the least.” I’m having salmon tonight!

Another strategy I use to make sure I am getting enough of the right vitamins and minerals is supplements. Two which should be on your radar for supporting mental health, specifically depression, are Vitamin D and EPA.

Inflammation has been linked to depression and these 2 supplements have been shown to lower inflammation levels. Best to talk with your doctor about dosage, but some suggest taking 5000 IUs of Vitamin D per day and getting 2-4 grams of EPA per day.

Digital Detox

I have long been a believer we all benefit from an occasional digital detox. And now with Holos, I spend more time on social media than ever before. To much time scrolling leads to less happiness and more anxiety.

Healthline and Psych Central have come together and are offering a 10-day Digital Disconnect Challenge. The purpose? To help you form a healthier relationship with social media. Seems like something worth doing although I am pretty sure my kids are not going to like this!

Parting Thought

Don’t forget stress management and sleep. While I didn’t come across anything specific so far this month related to these 2 topics, they are IMPORTANT too!

See you next week…