Our mission is to help you Feel Good.
During Mental Health Awareness Week & Beyond.
For this reason, we have collaborated with Heights - creators of science-backed Smart Supplements containing everything that your brain needs to thrive. Their combination of bitesize expert content and supplementation ensures that the Heights community reach their Heights.
Meet the founder:
Dan Murray Serter is a multi-award winning serial entrepreneur, who talks openly about failure, mental health, mental performance, and 'brain care' - which includes his journey using science to build habits, cultivating a positive mindset & nutrition for optimizing his brain's health.
In celebration of Mental Health Awareness Week 2021, Dan kindly shared his top techniques for staying mentally well in the blog post below. Bethan also chatted to Dan on IGTV Live, discussing a variety of topics including how nutrition is one of the simple yet often neglected ingredients for good mental health, how we should be trying to change our mindset away from cure to prevention, and how doing things for pleasure is key to feeling fulfilled and balanced.
How Dan stays Mentally Well:
Rest
Hustle isn’t as cool as it sounds. Science shows you get more done when you work less, and don’t push yourself beyond your limits.
As a past anxiety-sufferer and insomniac, this one is huge for me.
Sleep is a huge priority for a healthy brain. Instructions for a daily rest are hard-wired into our DNA. We can survive for longer without food than without sleep.
For today’s workaholics, the idea of ‘switching off’ for the recommended 7-9 hours each night can feel like a threat to career survival. But we need to stop thinking about sleep as switching off. It’s the opposite. Sleep is an active process for repairing and enhancing brain performance.
I now schedule in naps through the day and it’s been a game-changer.
Vitamins
My personal stack is the Heights Smart Supplement (it has everything you need to feed your brain, in fact, that’s the whole reason I co-founded Heights), vitamin D, and magnesium.
Did you know that 99% of us don’t get the nutrition our brains need from our diets? Supplementing gives me peace of mind that I’m covered.
Kindness
This is the simplest. Just be kind. To yourself. To others. To animals.
The act of caring—either for yourself or others—triggers the parasympathetic nervous system. When this is engaged is when we are at our healthiest.
We can positively affect our health by consciously making this shift into compassion, but it does take some work.
With time and practice, kindness and compassion can actually shrink the area of your brain associated with the flight or fight response—the amygdala—making room for other areas of the brain to increase in size.
Being genuinely kind and compassionate can even help you to live longer. Seriously.
Walking
I cannot live without fresh air. I walk everywhere, rain or shine. While in meetings, listening to podcasts or audiobooks, or simply soaking in the atmosphere, for at least an hour every day I’ll walk. It’s so good for my mental well-being.
Our bodies and brains are designed for, and need, lots of regular movement throughout the course of the day.
So yes, absolutely leap around your living room, do your downward dogs, and squeeze in a quick 5K—but it’s important for your brain to make sure you’re generally moving throughout the day too.
Walking is an easy solution our brains adore and are built to profit from. Lots of regular, up-tempo walking throughout the day stimulates the production of molecules promoting brain health and even brain resilience to the effects of chronic stress.
Gratitude
Morning: I wake up and say, “I’m grateful for waking up today.” (I have a note by my bed, so I always remember.)
Evening: I write down 3 things that went well that day in my journal. Every day, without fail. When I’ve had a terrible day and can’t think of anything is when this is the most important.
Of all the types of journaling, gratitude is the most widely studied for mental health. Not surprising really, as it is connected to both mental and physical well-being, with links to processes within the brain that have long-term impacts on our overall health.
Studies have shown that it can improve well-being throughout your life, increasing self-esteem and life satisfaction. It can also alter the actual shape of your brain over time (in a good way), and make you a better learner.
This is such an easy habit to start and only takes 5 minutes out of your day. Try it, you might be surprised how big an impact it can have.
Heights have kindly offered our community 10% off their supplements. Simply enter the code ‘MOTHERROOT’ at checkout on their website.