Mental Health and Lifestyle

Your lifestyle impacts not only how long you live but also how well you live. Lifestyle is not only about adding years to life but also about adding life to the years. Though we want to live long, it’s equally important that we can live well, have the best possible quality of life, and be able to do and achieve what we want in life. A healthful, balanced lifestyle is not a guarantee against physical or mental illness, but it increases our chances of enjoying more years of health and happiness. And although it might be somewhat overlooked, lifestyle is as important to the mind as it is to the body. If you want your mind to be well, healthy, and happy—which in turn helps your body to be healthy—there are some key lifestyle principles I would recommend that you implement and practice.

Sleep

Getting adequate amounts of sleep is one of the best things you can do for your mind and body. The reason you feel better after a good night’s sleep is because your brain and your body are doing better. Sleep is restorative and rejuvenating. Although you’re not fully conscious, a lot of positive and absolutely necessary things are going on while you sleep. On the opposite side, the reason you feel sluggish after one or more nights of insufficient quantity or quality of sleep is because your brain and body are suffering. Sleep deprivation destabilizes the brain, impairs memory function, and makes you more likely to swing between extremes of emotions. When the brain is under-slept, the frontal lobe’s ability to control the centers of the brain that drive emotion, impulsivity, and reward-seeking is significantly impaired. Thus, the risk of negative mood, irrational actions and decisions, aggression, behavioral problems, and addictions is significantly increased. Sleep disruption is a symptom of most mental illnesses, but beyond being a symptom, insufficient sleep in itself may lead to mental illness. And a lifetime of insufficient sleep may also increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.[i]

Almost all adults need somewhere between 7-9 hours of quality sleep every night. And that means 7-9 hours of actual sleep time, not simply that many hours in bed. Kids and teenagers need more. Unfortunately, many fail to get adequate amounts of sleep. When kids and teenagers don’t get enough sleep, the effects on mood and behavior are usually quite evident. Sleep deprivation also has the same effects on adults. The price to pay is immediate in the form of tiredness, fatigue, irritability, forgetfulness, irrationality, decreased productivity and creativeness, and so on.

Sleep is not a waste of time. It is one of the best investments you can make in your health and well-being. Being well-rested is a prerequisite for functioning well. From the beginning, as we read in the book of Genesis, the day starts at sunset. Also, the first whole day for man was the Sabbath. This may be a reminder to us that in God’s creation, rest precedes activity. To rest and sleep are not what we do when all is done and there’s nothing left to do. Rather, let it precede everything we do, that we may do what we do well and enjoy life.

Exercise

Physical activity is one of the quickest ways to boost your mood. Within a few minutes of just about any activity you will be reaping benefits. Many who exercise regularly will say that the positive effects it has on the mind are as important to them as the beneficial physical effects. But there’s more to exercise than instant, desirable, short-term effects. The long-term benefits of exercise are well proven. People who exercise report significantly fewer days of poor mental health than people who don’t exercise.[ii] Exercise may have preventative as well as therapeutic benefits on various mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and others, as well as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.[iii]

Our bodies were created to move and to be physically active. But all around the world many are living very sedentary lives with little if any demands for physical exertion. Physical activity has become optional and no longer a prerequisite for daily survival. But for well-being and long-term survival, physical activity is not optional. We need the activity our bodies were created for, and if we don’t get it through our regular daily activities, we need to add exercise to our routines.

Have you ever watched how excited a dog usually becomes when it’s taken out for a walk? Our bodies are truly as happy for exercise as the dog anticipating the walk. It’s just that our minds don’t always get it. And when you are tired or somewhat depressed and feel the least like exercising, that may be when you need it the most. Unfortunately, when we need it the most, that’s when we may be most likely to skip it. The good news is that anything is better than nothing, and whatever you decide to do, gradually increase from where you are until you get to where you want to be.

Nutrition

The foods we eat and the fluids we drink become the bodies we are. If you want to build a good body, make sure to use good raw materials. Likewise, if you want to build a well-functioning brain and healthy nervous system, you do well in being mindful of what you eat and drink. What we eat and drink not only affects our general well-being, it also affects our vulnerability for mental illness.

“Diets higher in whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, wholegrain cereals, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, fish and olive oil are consistently associated with a reduced risk of depression.”[iv] On the other side, “[d]iets higher in ‘junk’ foods, such as sugar-sweetened drinks, fried foods, pastries, doughnuts, packaged snacks, and processed and refined breads and cereals are consistently linked to a higher risk of depression.”[v] Similar results have been found of anxiety and other mental disorders. The good news is that a diet that is good for the mind is also good for the body.

Relationships

Beyond what happens inside our bodies, what happens between us, others, and God is of utmost importance for our mental well-being. We need to be connected to other people and to God. We were created as social beings, created for fellowship with God and one another. Even before sin entered this world, God declared that there was something that was not good, namely: “ ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ ” (Gen. 2:18). This is a fundamental truth of the nature of humans. We need to be connected. We need intimate emotional bonds in nurturing relationships. In this world where we all experience hardships, we need the support and comfort of someone who is with us; the Lord above us and fellow men and women beside us. Thus, Jesus’ command to love God and one another is also most excellent advice for sustaining good mental health:

“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30, 31).

[i] M. Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (New York: Scribner, 2017).

[ii] S. R. Chekroud, et al. (2018) “Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1.2 million individuals in the USA between 2011 and 2015: a cross-sectional study,” The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(9), 739–746.-

[iii] Walsh R. Lifestyle and mental health. Am Psychol. 2011;66(7):579-592.

[iv] F. Jacka, Brain Changer: The Good Mental Health Diet (Sydney, Australia: Macmillan Australia, 2019).

[v] Ibid.