Top Tips to Maintain Your Mental Health
This article is taken from the Amen Clinics Website, this is a condensed version, for the full article please visit their website HERE.
Most people don’t think about their mental health until something breaks. If you’re not overwhelmed, burnt out, or emotionally spiralling, it’s easy to assume you’re fine. But waiting for a crisis is one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to their mental well-being.
You don’t need drastic changes or trendy hacks to improve your well-being and feel good. Small, and consistent habits can support your brain health before problems take hold.
These top 10 tips are science-backed actions that stabilise your emotions, protect brain function, and strengthen your resilience to everyday stress—without adding more pressure to your life.
Tip 1: prioritise consistent, restorative sleep
As one of the most powerful tools for protecting mental health, sleep is a basic need that, often people fail to prioritise. However, sleep plays a central role in the biological foundation of maintaining mental health and emotional regulation. It also determines things like hunger cues and maintaining energy.
Research shows that deep sleep helps your brain consolidate memories, regulate hormones, and clear metabolic waste through the lymphatic system. When you ensure you get quality sleep, you are essentially supporting learning, emotional balance, stress resilience, and decision-making.
Chronic sleep loss, on the other hand, disrupts neurotransmitter balance and increases activity in the brain’s threat-detection centres, which heightens anxiety and increases stress. A 2024 study showed that having a chronic sleep deficit is associated with heightened anxiety, irritability, depression risk, impaired focus, and reduced impulse control.
When you can’t fall asleep, stay asleep, or sleep too little, your brain can’t effectively consolidate information or clear hormonal byproducts and metabolic waste. This increases feelings of mental overload and emotional strain.
Tip 2: eat to support better brain function
The brain is metabolically demanding, using roughly 20 percent of your body’s energy. This energy comes from the foods you eat, which fuels how you think, feel, and act. A balanced diet rich in nutrient-dense foods provides the building blocks for neurotransmitters, stabilised blood sugar, and reduced inflammation (linked to mood disorders and cognitive decline).
These seven brain-healthy foods are recommended to help you build a foundation that benefits your brain and keeps your taste buds satisfied:
- Wild-caught fatty fish (such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines) – delivers a healthy dose of brain-boosting protein and fats
- Blueberries – provides a burst of antioxidants
- Dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, and arugula) – hydrates and quells inflammation
- Avocados – offers healthy fat and dietary fibre
- Nuts and seeds – provide a perfect nutrient-dense, powerhouse snack
- Olive oil – delivers neuroprotective polyphenols to fight inflammation
- Beans and legumes – provide a rich source of fibre
These foods supply your brain with essential nutrients to support your memory, mood, and executive function.
Tip 3: move your body daily
Movement is about more than physical health. Taking time each day to exercise is one of the best things you can do for your mental health.
The hardest thing for people to do is to start doing something, especially when it comes to exercise. But if you needed a sign to take your mobility seriously, this is it. Research shows that physical movement increases blood flow to the brain, stimulates growth factors like BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), and improves mood-regulating neurotransmitters. Your mood is truly influenced by how often you move your body.
Movement doesn’t have to be intense to be effective. You can choose something that you enjoy and will be sustainable for you to keep doing, no matter how busy you get. Try some of these daily accessible practices to make the start of your daily movements easier – walking, stretching and light exercise.
Note: Always consult a healthcare professional to ensure the movement you choose supports your individual health goals in a safe and comprehensive way.
Tip 4: build strong social connections
The sense of belonging we receive from human connection is a biological need, not a luxury. However, it’s not the quantity of friends that benefits your mental health, but rather the quality of connection. Be intentional about who is in your close circle of friends by spending time with the connections that are healthy and supportive.
Studies confirm that having supportive relationships you trust can buffer stress, reduce inflammation, and lower the risk of depression and cognitive decline. Regular check-ins with trusted friends or family, even if they are brief, can help regulate emotions and reinforce a sense of safety and belonging.
Tip 5: practice stress-reduction techniques
Chronic stress is the cause of a host of preventable diseases. It’s essential to pay attention to the stress signals your body gives you. When stress goes unchecked, it can lock your brain and nervous system into a threat-focused state, making emotional equanimity and clear thinking more difficult over time. Chronic stress elevates cortisol, impairs memory, disrupts sleep, and weakens emotional regulation.
Start with one, or more, of the following stress-busting techniques and practice consistently. Observe how your nervous system responds and build a personalised mental health toolkit that works best for you – deep breathing, mindfulness, journaling and grounding techniques. Visit HERE for more details on these techniques.
Tip 6: limit negative social inputs that increase stress
Be careful about negative social interactions online or in person.
Digital device use can be incredibly useful in so many ways; however, unmanaged exposure can overload your brain. Excessive stimulation has been shown to increase anxiety, disrupt sleep, and fragment attention. Try setting time limits (through your own willpower or apps developed for this practice) to keep your brain balanced and stress-free.
Be especially careful of the following social inputs that can harm your brain and mental health – doom scrolling, excessive screen time, and draining social interactions. Visit HERE for more details on these techniques.
Replace stress-inducing social interactions with restorative activities (such as reading, nature exposure like gardening, or other creative hobbies) to provide an opportunity for your brain to calm and recover.
Tip 7: set healthy boundaries
Boundaries protect your mental energy and physical well-being. They reduce burnout, prevent emotional overload, and create space for rest and clarity. Learning how to say “no” supports your emotional balance and long-term mental health.
Tip 8: engage in activities that bring meaning or joy
Meaning-based activities strengthen psychological resilience and reduce stress-related brain changes. Creativity, time in nature, spiritual practices, and hobbies improve mood and cognitive flexibility. Joy doesn’t have to be productive; it just needs to be nourishing.
Tip 9: ask for help early instead of waiting for a crisis
Early intervention prevents symptoms from compounding. Research shows that timely mental health support improves outcomes and reduces symptom severity. If stress, anxiety, or low mood interferes with your daily functioning, it is essential to seek help from a qualified mental health professional or medical doctor.
Whole-person wellness
Mental health is shaped by interconnected systems. Dr. Amen’s mental health tips highlight how small habits compound over time to deliver whole-person well-being. Learning how to support yourself will help you to achieve and maintain better brain function and overall mental health.
This article serves as advice only, please consult a healthcare professional for mental health advice and support.
Source: https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/top-10-tips-to-maintain-your-mental-health-for-daily-practice/
