6 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health with Small Daily Routines

Life is busy, and it doesn’t mean you are supposed to neglect your mental health. Some of the activities that can make you feel a little better about your girl are just some little habits you need to build throughout your day. But you need to keep it light and loose and in control.Everything from starting some small morning habits, or even turning something into a little relaxing nighttime ritual can easily help affect your productivity, and your mental health.

1. Start Your Day with Gratitude

Before you even get out of bed to start your day. Think of 3 things you are grateful for. Feel the sun coming through the window on your face; your bed is warm, and coffee is brewing… It can be anything simple.

Choose to be grateful, and you will program your mind to fretting about things no more.

2. Create a Relaxing Evening Ritual

Allow yourself to relax both mind and body after a stressful day. Your mental health will thank you!

A hot tub soaking session is great for unwinding knotted muscles and frazzled nerves. The heat from the water coaxes us to soften into an undisturbed, non-critical zone, and the jets with bubbles bubbling up have a couple of extra arms, or so it seems. Therein lies the beauty of soaking. It just works!

3. Move Your Body

Exercise can benefit your body, and research indicates your mood, too. You don’t need to do a gut-busting workout to see improvement.

A stroll, some yoga or have a small dance party for yourself in the house. Low-impact exercises every day are enough to fire some of the endorphins up in the body and raise your energy and mood.

4. Practice Mindfulness

When you get a chance, catch your breath and appreciate it for a moment, or observe what happens in your surroundings.

Do a fast meditation exercise: sit down, close your eyelids, and take 10 deep breaths. Feel your body in space, and then follow the swirl of inhalations and exhalations. You need this small snippet of peace of mind during a brutal day. You will feel better afterward.

5. Stay Hydrated

Meaning, duh — but really, being dehydrated does have a HUGE effect on mental fog and clarity, mood, etc. Dehydration can make stress WAY worse and even make you more tired and grouchy.

If water is so “meh” for you… try adding lemon, cucumber, and mint to your water to make it sprightly and spritely. (Both words because stay hydrated.)

6. Celebrate Small Wins

Don’t wait until you’ve hit the big goals or the major milestones to feel good. Life is a bunch of tiny moments, and those are the things that create momentum. So celebrate the healthy habits you create and the small wins that get you through your day. 

Crossed everything off your to-do list? Nice! Got out of bed on a really challenging day? You’re amazing! You see when you acknowledge the small wins, regardless of how mundane they may sound, they will eventually pile up and add as a win toward the big goal you have in mind. 

Because you celebrate the small wins, you are likely to wire your brain to keep going, as well as recognize that you are, in fact, moving forward, and any progress the work you put in is, in fact, progress from where you were! So, don’t wait until the big goals end; celebrate the tiny wins that get you through and see how much you are really capable of!