Holistic Psychiatrist, Ellen Vora, MD just wrote an article on the tips & tools you need to help manage your emotional symptoms and feel vibrantly healthy. I found them so clear and helpful, I am listing them here. She list diet and lifestyle approaches to healing depression before taking the first pill. In her clinical practice, she has seen them make a significant difference,Disclaimer: She recommends that you be in treatment with a good mental health provider who can help you navigate these choices, balancing them with the need for other intervention.
- Go to bed by 10 p.m.
If you’re serious about wanting to feel better, give yourself the gift of a week where you’re actually asleep by 10 p.m. (which for many of us means you’re in bed reading by 9:30 p.m.).
2. Eat an antidepressant diet.
So what does an antidepressant diet look like? It’s a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, real food diet. Essentially, you eat a balance of vegetables; well-sourced meat, fish, and poultry (go to the farmers market or a good butcher and have a conversation about their practices); starchy tubers (translation: sweet potatoes, white potatoes, plantains); fermented foods; nuts and seeds; fruit; and plenty of healthy fats such as ghee, olive oil, avocado, coconut oil, and fatty cuts of meat and fish. What’s not there is what most Americans are eating on the reg—sugar, refined carbs (i.e., bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, even seemingly healthy vegan baked goods and gluten-free replacement foods), and inflammatory oils, such as canola oil.
3. Avoid foods that make you sad
This includes anything that takes our mood for a roller-coaster ride (sugar, alcohol, and caffeine are the primary players), anything that inflames us (gluten, industrially processed vegetable oils, all processed foods, and dairy for some people),
4. Be in nature as often as possible
weekly, daily, constantly—whatever it takes for your soul to wash away the residue of that air-conditioned, fluorescent cubicle.
5.Get honest about your daily schedule
It might be as simple as working one fewer day per week, creating healthy boundaries with your email account, turning down a promotion, building in more time in nature, or downsizing your home to free up some cash flow.
6. Start finding your tribe by doing activities YOU enjoy.
Begin by thinking about the people you know who are amazing additions to your life. These are the people that are kind and push you to be a better version of yourself while always making you feel worthy and like you belong.
7.Commit to Daily Movement
Commit to doing something quick, free, easy, convenient, and pleasant in your living room for a few minutes most days of the week.
