Supporting your wellbeing, especially in times of crisis can be difficult. We often ignore how we feel until it gets too overwhelming. Stress is a normal and natural response to a difficult situation, but too much stress can be physically bad for our bodies and impact our wellbeing. It is important to learn how to manage stress in a way that best suits you and your needs.
You don’t need to break the bank to improve your well-being and nor should you have to. So, we’ve come up with a few cost-effective ways to improve your wellbeing on a budget, from meditation to moving your body.
Meditation
Meditation is the practice of focusing on your mind for a length of time. Whilst there are many different forms of meditation, a common result is a feeling of relaxation and inner peace, which can improve mental health. There is also a growing amount of research to support the meditation–mental health connection. In an article published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers reviewed more than 18,000 scientific studies looking at the relationship between meditation and depression and anxiety. Forty-seven trials with data on 3,515 patients met their criteria for well-designed research. The results showed that mindful meditation programs over an eight-week period had moderate evidence in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Physical activity
Exercise is a great for both physical and mental well-being! It can help to improve sleep, reduce stress, promote relaxation and of course, keeps our bodies healthy. To stay healthy, the UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines advise that adults should try to be active every day and aim to do at least 150 minutes of physical activity every week.
Simple day-to-day changes like walking instead of driving, an at home workout or hitting the gym during your lunch break can make a huge difference. And the good news is that if you’re wanting to join a gym to improve your well-being, there are plenty of great budget options available today!
Diet
A healthy diet helps to protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as certain diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Plus, research now suggests there is a key link between a good diet and your mental health. Felice Jacka, Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry and Director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University says, “Extensive and consistent research tells us that healthier diets protect against depression.” She adds “a balanced diet feeds the brain, providing it with the nutrients it needs to support a positive mood, and improve signaling pathways between brain cells for optimal brain function. The nutrients required to support a healthy mind and brain are so vast and it’s important to consume a varied diet and supplement nutrients that are low or missing in the diet.”
Learning new things
Learning new things is crucial for the brain to stay active. A lot like physical exercise, mental exercise can help boost positive feelings of self-esteem and motivation which will keep you healthy by reducing the risk of developing diseases. Learning new things could also help you meet new people by joining a class or group to learn together with others.
There are plenty of ways to keep the cost down these days when it comes to learning new things. The internet is a great place to learn for free! Blogs, documentaries and articles are all just a click away!
