In today’s world, both men and women face daily challenges that threaten mental well-being. Psychosocial risks stem from both professional and personal spheres, making it more crucial than ever to adopt regular practices to maintain this essential balance for our energy.
The keys shared here come from my personal practices, chosen to resonate with as many people as possible.
What’s stopping you, even now, from holding onto your serenity throughout the day?
3 DAILY KEYS TO IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH
KEY 1: Conscious Breathing
Well-known in yogic and mindfulness traditions:
Controlling your breath is controlling your life.
This practice involves focusing your entire being on your breath and regulating its rhythm. It aligns body, heart, and mind, fostering relaxation, inner clarity, and presence. It anchors you in the present moment, calms the mind, and harmonizes vital energy.
By inhaling deeply, holding briefly, and exhaling slowly, you create a space of inner calm and clarity. Science shows that conscious breathing soothes the vagus nerve, explaining the sense of clarity it brings.
Personally, during moments of stress, confusion, fatigue, or before a meeting, presentation, or even just to take a break on a demanding day, I do this:
I settle quietly, close my eyes, place my left hand on my solar plexus, and the fingertips of my right hand on my heart. I inhale for a count of 4 heartbeats, hold for 4, then exhale slowly for 6. I open my eyes only when I feel ready, present, grounded, and reconnected to myself.
KEY 2: Active Movement
Active movement, as I see it, is about getting your body in motion—whether through sports, yoga, Pilates, or dance—anything that engages your physiology.
Science confirms the benefits for both body and mind. Here’s what happens during active movement:
- Releases physical and emotional tension, reducing stress and anxiety.
- Boosts endorphin production, your body’s natural feel-good hormones.
- Improves sleep quality, vital for mental health.
- Enhances focus and mental clarity through brain oxygenation.
- Reduces depression symptoms by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Builds self-esteem through a sense of progress and achievement.
- Strengthens resilience to mental challenges through controlled physical effort.
- Improves emotion regulation via better neurochemical balance.
- Creates mindfulness moments, like during conscious walking.
- Reinforces the body-mind connection, key to lasting mental health.
After an accident, I gradually returned to movement through yoga. This slow comeback helped me move past pain, often more emotional than physical. Certain poses acted like a key, instantly releasing buried tension.
At the end of my days, just 15 minutes of yoga was enough to deeply relax my body. This practice transformed my quality of life, especially by improving my sleep, breathing new life into my mental health and overall well-being.
KEY 3: Sensory Reprogramming
What I call “sensory reprogramming” is a method that uses one or more senses to quickly shift your state of mind.
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), this is called an “anchor”: associating a sensation (like pressing a spot on your hand) with a positive state, such as calm or confidence.
By repeating this gesture, you can instantly access that state, like a shortcut to break free from negative thoughts and regain control of your emotions and energy. You can create sensory reprogramming through auditory stimuli (a sound or music), visual stimuli (a photo of a family vacation), or olfactory stimuli (the scent of a loved one). These sensations become powerful anchors for reclaiming calm and confidence.
Whenever I catch myself in a negative thought loop, I press a specific spot on my hand, programmed during meditation. Once set, it works for life. No matter the negative state or where I am, I instantly feel serene, at peace, and fully present with mental clarity.
NLP shows that anchoring strengthens brain connections, explaining this instant sense of peace.
I invite you to explore these techniques and find what works best for you.
Take good care of yourself.
Lotha
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