World Mental Health Day

 I want to take this opportunity to use this platform as a way to bring positive messages on all aspects of health. As I have mentioned in near enough alot of my posts, looking after our mental health is so important. This became so much of a priority during the covid-19 pandemic, where I felt mental health is a top priority. I am going to use this to summarise the ways we can improve our mental health as we celebrate world mental health day. Here are my 5 top tips:

1.  Sleep- Sleep is a time where our bodies (including our brain) need to recover from the stresses of life during the past day. It is also the opportunity for our organs (as well as the brain) to repair, and be prepared for the following day. We need on average between 6 to 8 hours of sleep a day. I sometimes do not get that, I have functioned on 4 hours of sleep, and believe me I could not concentrate at all, I was moody, depressed, tired, and unmotivated. Finally I ended up going to sleep at least 2 hours earlier than planned. This was challenging for me, as I still had activities to do, but because I was so tired I could not go on any further, and had to stop to finish the project the next day. 
2. Exercise- This is to follow in my next post, but this is so important, not only to keep the heart rate functioning, but it really does boost our mood (called endorphins) which can make us feel happy. When we feel happy, we feel good, confident, and ready to start the day. It also helps to keep  our mind to feel good.
3. Laughter- whether this is with friends, or by watching a film or a comedy show. Anything that can make us laugh would produce the happy hormones called endorphins. This again can make us happy. When we laugh, we feel happy, which again can make us feel good. I am a big fan of the show only fools and horses, which i watch on the tv channel Gold. That show never disappoints, and it is over 30 years old. I am also a fan of comedians including Katherine Ryan, and Jimmy Carr, they really do know how to make me laugh. 
4. Affirmations- These are great for the mornings when I wake up. I read the Katie Piper daily Affirmation book , which is packed full of affirmations 365 days of the year. I read this every morning. These are great to boost my mood, especially if I have had a bad night, the night before. Katie has a new affirmations book called a little bit of faith, which I have just purchased, and will review this in a future blog post. Katie Piper 

Self Care- I saved this one until last, as this is my ultimate favourite thing to do. I really do love to pamper myself. I use a range of homemade  beauty products to look after my skin, especially my face and hands. I regularly use facemasks, then I relax by listening to meditation music. As I have mentioned before I  listen to Jason Stephenson or Michael Sealey on You Tube. I use face sheet masks, either by the brand Soap And Glory or by L'Oreal, which contains Hyaluronic acid. Beauty is not my expertise but I heard that hyaluronic acid is great for the skin to fight anti ageing. I have also started using hand masks. At the moment I am using Neutrogena hand mask. It really does leave my hand soft and supple. I just put them on my hands, and relax for 30 minutes. I have attached a picture of the beauty products I tend to use quite regularly. These are the go to products at the moment. 

 I hope that those points are useful, and can help. Feel free to make comments, and to share other ideas you may have.