The bridge between the life you want and the life you currently have.
We’re ambitious. Every single one of us. If you’re reading this then you’ve probably tried something in an attempt to get you from one place to another.
Whether it be your business endeavours where you tried signing clients or making blogs.
Or it is your social life where you’ve tried to cold approach a few strangers or strengthen your current relationships.
Or maybe it’s your physical endeavours where you’ve tried to stay consistent or eat well.
You may not be seeing results right now, procrastinating or are held back by something your mind feeds you.
This can be frustrating, maybe even mind-numbing. You might have even been experiencing a plateau of some sort lately.
So how do you fix this?
Well…
All of these three have one thing in common.
There’s a bridge between your current life and the life you desire.
And that bridge is…
Mental Health.
The Bridge
Mental health unbinds your mind from negative thoughts that hold you back. It screams ‘Go away!’ to negative barriers; giving you a chance to navigate your way around it. If you have great mental health, you’ll eventually figure out anything.
You can’t excel externally if you’re a mess internally.
Fix yourself up and you’ll be able to fix up your life circumstances.
So how will we do this? Improve mental health of course! Assisted by our good Neuroscience podcaster Andrew Huberman, we’ll go through his 7 pillars of Mental Health and an actionable step for each.
Let’s stabilise the bridge together by strengthening the pillars.
1) Sleep
“Sleep is the greatest legal performance-enhancing drug that most people are probably neglecting.” — Matthew Walker
Sleep is powerful, it gives you the energy and necessary resources to face the day. Waking up in the morning all energised… Man, that feels great. You’ll be able to get more work done.
Not only that, it also assists with mental health. If you have poor sleep, you’ll feel fatigued, which means you’ll struggle throughout the day and that means you could wind up feeling overwhelmed. This could result in not being able to sleep well and the cycle repeats and worsens.
This poor sleep cycle consistently feeds you with negative experiences and beats you up. If you don’t disrupt the poor sleep cycle, your mental health could worsen.
Actionable Step
Change your day by changing your morning. As soon as you wake up, get some early morning sunlight exposure. Get bright light into your eyes.
“The simple behavior that I do believe everybody should adopt… is to view, ideally sunlight, for 2–10 minutes every morning upon waking. So, when you get up in the morning, you really want to get bright light into your eyes because it does two things. First of all, it triggers the timed release of cortisol, a healthy level of cortisol, into your system, which acts as a wake-up signal and will promote wakefulness and the ability to focus throughout the day. It also starts a timer for the onset of melatonin.” — Andrew Huberman
Consistency in your sleep also helps; meaning you sleep around the same time every night. This regulates your mood and cognitive performance, which will contribute to your mental health.
Not only that, but a thing that has helped me with my sleep was making the room as dark as possible. Light disturbs my sleep so limiting that really helps. If you’re unable to do that, get an eye mask.
2) Light
We cannot live without light. It signals to our circadian rhythm what time of day it is and this helps us prepare our bodies for events such as activity or sleep.
Without taking care of your light intake, you aren’t taking care of your body and living like how a human should.
For example, if you’re staying inside all day, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you had horrible mental health.
Going outside is one of the best simple solutions to such an important problem.
Actionable Step
View morning sunlight!
“…morning sunlight helps regulate your “circadian clock” — the body’s mechanism for anticipating when to wake up and go to sleep — and it manages other biological processes like hunger and body temperature.” — Andrew Huberman
(You might have started to sense a pattern. Morning sunlight.)
Not only morning sunlight but reminding your circadian rhythm throughout the day can be vital. Get outside in the afternoon as it communicates to your circadian rhythm to prepare your body for sleep soon.
3) Movement
Sitting on your desk like a gremlin, typing madly into your keyboard? Well well well. That isn’t what I mean by movement.
Movement is exercise and anything related to physical activity.
And yeah sure, I may be biased as a writer but even we writers should take a break from the computer and go outside to move around.
This quote embodies this pillar:
“A strong body makes the mind strong.” — Thomas Jefferson
Actionable Step
Huberman recommends the following two:
- 180–220 minutes of zone 2/moderate cardio per week. Enough to tire you out but also enough to converse with someone.
- Any high-intensity exercise once a week to help increase heart rate.
Don’t just do cardio! Compliment this by adding some resistance training.
4) Stress Management
How can we manage our emotions if we can’t even deal with our own stress? Learn to deal with stress and you’ll be able to deal with occasional negative thoughts from your head.
Stoicism, though it is a fantastic philosophy, may not be enough and will need to be complimented by extra stuff to help us control our emotions better. Yes, it lays out the necessary mindset, but what I’m about to give you are extra actionable steps you can take.
Talking about Stoicism, I go over it here (Which you can check out after this post):
Actionable Step
Deliberate cold exposure is important. Yes, you may have heard this millions of times. Self-improvement people are doing this all the time! And for good reason too.
This triggers the stress response and helps you build resilience so when push comes to shove, you won’t be as startled.
Utilising the physiological sighs. I’ve used this many times in my life and it has helped me by calming my raging thoughts. Basically, you take a deep breath through your nose, before reaching the top, do a quick second inhale followed by a long exhale through your mouth.
If that doesn’t make sense, there are many guides out there that teach you how to do this simple but effective technique.
5) Relationships
You might realise that many of your goals are a part of this bridge. Things you need to improve. First, remember to get the essentials before trying to tackle stuff like this.
Assuming that you’re ready...
Positive relationships can help you with a deep sense of belonging. I feel that I am in the moment and away from hurt when I’m in a positive environment. It feels amazing to be around a group that includes you, especially, with people who like you and respect you as a person.
Relationships don’t just mean other people either, they also mean a relationship with yourself. How well do you treat yourself?
Treat yourself how you would treat a good friend.
Actionable Step
Do the following three and you’re on your way to improving your relationships:
- Limiting interaction with people who seem to drain your energy and those who are negative.
- Be outer directed — In a world full of talkers, it’s refreshing to be in the presence of a listener — people will like you more.
- Take some time to be by yourself — Take nature walks, meditate or journal.
I talk more about relationships in some of my other posts:
6) Nutrition
‘You are what you eat.’
If you eat horribly, you’ll end up feeling and potentially looking worse.
Eat good and healthy, you will manifest a more positive and healthier you.
Don’t eat poison, educate yourself on them. And when I talk about poison, I talk about foods with horrible and weird ingredients…
Actionable Step
Eat a balanced diet with sufficient nutrients. Always include fruits, veggies and meat.
Avoid very processed foods if possible. Read the ingredients list and know what you are consuming.
Ensure you don’t overeat (Follow the 80% Hara Hachi Bu rule in regards to overeating).
I talk more about this rule in one of my posts that you can check out after this (It’s really short!):
7) Oral Health
If your teeth feel bad, you’ll probably feel bad as well. Take care of your teeth and your body will thank you.
Your oral health isn’t just determined by how well you brush it, it also is determined by what you put in your mouth! For example, drinking alcohol. It kills healthy cells of the mouth!
I have a whole post on actionable oral health stuff you can check out after this. (It’s really short!)
Actionable Step
Consume wisely. Be mindful of what you put into your mouth!
If it’s bad for your teeth, then it must be bad for your body as a whole.
Live like a human should
The pillars all have one thing in common. They are based on what we humans should be doing. If you’re not living like a human, your brain will let you know by putting you in a down state.
Mental health issues, if not solved by these, could be caused by trauma. The rest of your problems can be solved by strengthening these pillars but if you haven’t solved something deep inside you, you won’t be truly free.
Last Actionable Step
Practice breathwork and reflect in silence. Go and try nature walks.
Don’t overstimulate yourself, give your mind time to speak up.
Try to learn yourself and address those traumas. Once you know what is holding you back, you can figure out how to resolve those embedded issues.
Choose one of the actionable steps above and work on it. Once you have finished that, try and implement the others. Soon, you’ll have a full arsenal of tools ready to battle bad mental health!
