What You Can Do Daily For A Healthy Mind

Staying mentally healthy and positive is as important as physical fitness. The same way you need to work for your physical fitness, your mind also needs to be exercised, nourished and given breaks. In this Blended For Wellness news, we're sharing tips on what to avoid and what to do for a healthy, focused, energized mind.  

1. Control Stress: stress-induced emotions consume huge amounts of energy (mental and physical).  We know prolonged chronic stress has severe impact on our mental and physical health, so don't hesitate to get support if you need it: talking with someone you're close to, joining a support group, one-on-one therapy can all help diffuse stress and help you manage it.  The regular practice of therapies like meditation, self-hypnosis, yoga, and tai chi are also effective tools.  Meditation has proven to have significant positive impact on brain health, which will be getting into next month. 

2. Eat for a Healthy Mind: brain boosting foods such as berries, nuts (walnuts & almonds), omega-rich fish like salmon, green veggies, unsaturated oils (eg. olive & avocado) are all foods that top our brain-love list. Avoid: refined sugars, alcohol, processed foods - foods that have low nutritional value will negatively impact your brain function and overall health.

Pro tip: if you start the day with brain-boosting and nourishing foods, you're more likely to stay both mentally and physically energized and practice healthy habits through the rest of your day (sorry, morning doughnut & bacon lovers). The Blended Green Beginnings anyone?

3. Sleep Right: your brain needs those “off” hours to help clean up neurons and synapses and make memories. When you don’t get quality sleep, your brain health is significantly impacted and can result in the inability to focus, loss of memory, irritability and overall poor brain health.  Aim for 7 to 8 hours on a regular schedule (for example, 10:30 PM to 6:00 AM every night vs varying your bedtime or taking naps to supplement your total zzz time).

4. Keep Learning & Challenging Your Brain: challenging your brain with mental exercise is believed to activate processes that help maintain individual brain cells and stimulate communication among them. Many people have jobs that keep them mentally active, but pursuing a hobby, learning a new skill (is there a language you've always wanted to pick up?), or volunteering for a project at work that involves a skill you don't usually use can function the same way and help improve memory.

5. Be Grateful: like the other tips above, practicing gratefulness takes daily work, but can have hugely positive impact on maintaining a healthy mind.  It will help you think more positively and steer mental energy away from consuming negative thoughts.  Start by taking 15 minutes each day to write down 3 to 5 things you're grateful for.  

6. Get Active Outside: fresh air exercise supports a healthy mind by triggering feel-good endorphins, reducing elevated stress-hormones, and increasing oxygen flow to the brain.  It's also a great way/time to 'declutter' your mind, set intentions, and give your brain a break. 

Make The Blended Brain-Boosting Smoothie Bowl

Quick Base Prep

Use The Greens Daily Dose, Be Green, Green Beginnings, or Matcha Morning Blends. 
You can find them here. 

We've already done the work of making sure you’re getting a good level of carbs, protein & healthy fats in each of the blends, so you just need to quick-prep, add the toppings, and get down to enjoying.

Let pack soften partially (so you can just break the smoothie pack in half) & add to blender.  Fill the empty pouch about 1/3 to 1/2 way with your preferred liquid (we love coconut, oat & cashew milks), add to blender with 1/2 banana, blend.
Smoothie texture should be thick.

Toppings: walnut or almond pieces, 1/2 cup blueberries, raspberries or blackberries, and 1 tbsp chia seeds.  

Dig in!