Sleep, Diet and Exercise For Better Emotional Health
If you are working hard to improve and maintain your emotional health, then there are three key factors that you must consider. Sleep, diet, and exercise are important components of your overall health and well-being. It makes perfect sense then that these three components are also key to improving your emotional health. So, let’s take a deeper look at how each of these can influence and improve your emotional health.
Sleep For Better Emotional Health
How do you feel when you have a rough night of sleep? Do you feel short-tempered, testy, a bit irritable? Everyone knows that a little sleep deprivation leads to a very short fuse. Most people don’t realize just how much chronic sleep issues like insomnia influence their emotional health. It affects your outlook, performance, relationships, and mental health, too.
When you are sleep deprived it leaves you more reactive emotionally. Your emotions tend to be more intense and impulsive. You are quick to snap at your children, partner or colleagues. It isn’t fun or pleasant, but getting a good night’s sleep is key to improving your emotional health.
A healthy sleep routine will ensure you have a more positive outlook on life. It will also leave you less worried about the future. A lack of sleep triggers the fear response so it tends to create a negative outlook that extends beyond your current situation.
A healthy sleep routine will also help you feel more connected to your partner and to others you have relationships with. All of this stems from how a lack of sleep negatively influences your emotions.
Diet For Better Emotional Health
Food is fuel so; you really are what you eat. When you eat healthy food, it improves your way of life and boosts your mood. If you have a food intolerance or allergy, it can negatively influence your mood and emotions.
When we think about food allergies we tend to think about the life or death ones; but many people suffer from milder allergies that are often called food intolerances or reactions. While they don't threaten your life they can absolutely leave you in pain, sluggish or depressed. Your mood and behavior are absolutely linked to your dietary choices.
You can get a food allergy test to help you make the right dietary choices. Or, you can keep a food journal and keep track of what foods make you feel terrible. It won’t take too long to recognize a pattern in the wrong decisions that you’re making. Simply remove those specific foods from your diet. Additionally, increase your intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and enjoy a healthy overall diet.
Exercise For Better Emotional Health
Exercise increases the presence of mood-boosting chemicals in your brain. Endorphins increase your self-esteem, reduce anxiety and improve depressed moods too. All of this is beneficial to your emotional health.
Exercise also gives you more energy. Exercise increases the flow of oxygen to the blood, thus improving circulation and providing you with the ability to think more clearly.
Additional benefits to your emotional health from exercise include a boost in your immunity which fights illness, a reduction of stress and healthier sleep patterns.
If you improve your sleep routine, change your diet for the positive and ensure you exercise regularly, then you will quickly see an improvement in your emotional health. There are many other steps you can take to gain better emotional health, these three will serve as the foundation to all of the other steps.
You can’t control the external circumstances that can influence your emotional health, however, you can control how you respond to them. By looking after your sleep, diet and exercise you can put yourself in a better position to do so.
