What to do for healthy mind in a healthy body?

When you read the articles about improving your health you see that they often focus primarily on just physical health. And while that is an absolutely legit point to make, there’s more than meets the eye when we are talking about improving our body’s condition. There is a famous Latin phrase ”Mens sana in corpore sano” which translates as “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. And that is exactly right: a healthy body is a healthy mind. Working to make your body healthier can and will make you mentally stronger in different ways.

So what steps could you take to build a healthy mind and body?

Exercise daily.

Apart from keeping your body in check, exercising results in the release of a lot of chemical stuff, including endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. These are chemicals that play a very important role in regulating your mood. Regular exercises help to stabilize the brain chemistry, improve sleep. If you are under stress, try to do some exercise during a break(i.e. go for a jog). You most likely would discover that you have a much clearer head when you get back. That is one of the quick practical examples of the benefits of exercising.

Eating healthy.

There is actually a deeper connection between what we eat and our mental capacities than you might think. We’ve already talked about the release of endorphins during the exercise. A healthy diet has a similar effect. Eating healthy can help you to keep your hormonal levels balanced and hormones pretty much control our mood and overall mental capacities.

Be curious and challenge yourself.

You might think that this has nothing to do with building a healthy body but picking a new skill and focusing on learning the details of that stimulates your brain. Learning how to play for example tennis requires you learning different tactics, think on your feet(both literally and figuratively), etc. This will help to prevent the cogs in your head from rusting. Solving puzzles and playing mentally challenging games is also a good way to give your brain some food for thought.

Social activity.

Being socially active is very important for such social species as humans. We need a certain amount of social interactions just to keep our sanity. If you can join some sports club – do it. Not only you would get the sense of being a part of a social group it would help you stay healthy and engage in conversations on common topics.

Relationships are good.

While this thing is not something you can do just because you want to this is a good way to strengthen your physical and mental health too. Building a healthy relationship includes spending time together and one of the best ways to do that is picking an active hobby. Having a healthy relationship helps to reduce anxiety and stress which is extremely beneficial to our overall health.

Find a source of inspiration.

Finding a goal to work forward to is a good way to train your concentration skills, willpower and focus. Setting milestones, achieving them, overcoming the hurdles on your way to your goal brings pleasure and harmony to your life.

Be eco-friendly.

A lot of eco-friendly choices are closely connected to changes in lifestyle that benefit our physical health and by association our mental health as well. Mostly it concerns the dietary choices but it would in general help you to make some more healthy choices. And the knowledge you are trying to do a good thing on a global level is a great thing to have too.

Have a good sleep.

Last but not least. Having a good night rest is crucial both for our body and our mind. Just look up how fast your physical and mental capacities break down if you are deprived of sleep. And prolonged sleeping disorders negatively affect blood pressure, hormonal levels, etc. Getting a regular and proper sleep is one of the things you absolutely must do. This proper sleep gives your body the necessary rest and keeps you focused.

There are a lot of big and small factors that you can incorporate in the formula “healthy body healthy mind”. Accept from the sleep, healthy diet and exercise all of us must do, the rest is more like your preferences. If the things you do are helping your body and mind – do what works for you. Your motivation to do something and the positive emotions you get from the activities should be the deciding factors.