Improve Your Mental Health with Five Simple Daily Habits

Improve Your Mental Health with Simple Daily Habits

Imagine waking up each day with a sense of calm. As the day goes on you navigate challenges with ease, feel fulfilled in your relationships, and lively in your pursuits. That’s the power of prioritizing your mental health through simple daily habits.

You do not need to overhaul your life to improve your mental health.

Daily habits are the key to making lasting changes. By incorporating small, manageable practices into your routine, you can steadily start to improve your wellbeing.

These habits aren’t just quick fixes — they’re sustainable strategies for cultivating resilience, fostering positivity, and unlocking your full potential.

In this blog, we’ll explore five simple daily habits that can help you build a happier, healthier life from the ground up. Get ready to invest in yourself, because the journey to better mental health starts right here, right now.

Improve Your Mental Health with 5 Simple Daily Habits

+ Guided Breathing for Improved Mental Health

In the video below, a mental health expert breaks down five simple daily habits for improved mental health.

Stay until the end for a mindfulness practice designed to help you tie it all together and experience the benefits in real time. Carve out a moment of calm.

Olivia Schnur, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor, and Certified Yoga Teacher explains how 5 simple daily habits can improve your mental health.

Simple Daily Habits to Improve Your Mental Health:

Focus on your thoughts
Shift your perception
Change your environment
Improve your posture
Regulate with your breath
BONUS: Focus on what you CAN control

Read on to learn how each of these simple habits can help improve your mental health.

Habit #1: Improve Your Mental Health by Changing Your Thoughts

Your thoughts play a big role in your mental health.

The way you view the world is not always accurate. In fact, your thoughts may be influencing the way you perceive your environment, relationships, and even your own potential — for better or worse.

The good news is, you can change the way you think.

How Therapy Changes the Way You Think

Change Your Negative Thoughts with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Many evidence-based therapies, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (or CBT), focus on changing thought patterns. CBT is based on the belief that thoughts lead to behaviors, which influence your mental health.

Your thoughts can keep you stuck in a rut. These are called “automatic thoughts” in CBT. They are thought patterns that unconsciously reoccur.

Your thoughts set that stage for your life. CBT helps you notice and take control of your thinking patterns. You learn to replace negative thought patterns with more positive and realistic ways of thinking.

Change Your Negative Thoughts with Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

In Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (or EMDR) therapists work to shift “core beliefs.” Core beliefs are the ideas about the world that you created in early childhood, and you carry them with you throughout your life.

For example, if your core belief is that you are “not good enough,” you’ll be triggered by situations that make you feel inadequate. Not only that, but you’re more likely to perceive neutral comments as negative. When your core beliefs are negative, your mind often categorizes neutral experiences as a reflection of your inadequacy.

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help “reprocess” old wounds and help your brain make new neural networks. You are essentially re-routing your brain from old conditioning into new ways of being and thinking.

How to Change Your Thoughts for Improved Mood

Changing thinking patterns is not as complicated as you may think. However, it does take time and dedication.

Fortunately, there is a simple three-step process you can follow. A trained therapist can help if this proves too challenging on your own.

Step One: Notice Your Thoughts

Before you can change your thoughts you must become aware of them.

Practice paying attention to your thinking. This is a process called “metacognition,” where you are thinking about your thinking. It might sound strange but you have the ability to listen to or observe your thoughts.

For some people thoughts might sound like an internal dialogue. You’ll hear clear sentences. For others, it might be a barrage of feelings or images.

Start paying attention to whatever your thoughts sound, feel, or look like.

Step Two: Notice Themes

Start to notice themes that emerge in your thinking patterns.

Questions to Help you Notice Negative Thinking Patterns

What images, beliefs, or stories reappear?
Are there any feelings that continually resurface?
What stories am I telling myself that contribute to a negative mood or mindset?
Are there patterns in the things that people say or do to trigger me?
What thoughts continually block me from taking action?

Themes will not be obvious right away. It takes regular thought observation to truly recognize patterns.

Sometimes thinking patterns are so deeply engrained or subconscious that they are unrecognizable. In this case, it can be helpful to work with a licensed therapist.

Step Three: Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Thoughts

EMDR therapists help you replace negative core beliefs with positive core beliefs. Using CBT, therapists might help you replace automatic thoughts with more true or accurate thoughts. In both cases, you’re replacing a negative thought pattern with a more neutral or positive one.

How to Think Positive for Improved Mental Health

To replace a negative thought with a positive core belief you can simply look for the opposite.

For example, if you carry a negative core belief around inadequacy or “not good enough,” a more positive belief would be “I am good enough.” Other variations might be “I am competent” or “I am not the best at this yet, but I believe that I can be.”

This is challenging work. Some people struggle to allow positive thoughts, feelings, or experiences in. This is called “positive affect intolerance.”

If you struggle with positive affect intolerance consider working with a professional.

A Three-Step Process for Changing Your Thoughts:

Practice noticing your thoughts.
Recognize themes or patterns in your thinking. These are your automatic thoughts or core beliefs.
Start to replace negative thoughts with more positive or encouraging thoughts.

Habit #2: Improve Your Mental Health by Shifting Your Perception

Perception is two-fold. First, we become aware. Second, we make meaning.

Just like we can change our thinking patterns, we can also change our perception.

Not all situations are positive. However, (almost) all circumstances have a positive within them. The harder is it to detect the positive, the more opportunity we have to prime our minds to notice the positives in any given situation.

One powerful practice to help shift your perception is gratitude.

How Gratitude can Shift Your Perception

It’s easier to be grateful when things are pleasant. If you receive a generous gift, you feel gratitude. If someone performs a kind gesture for you, you feel gratitude. But what about situations in which gratitude does not naturally occur? That is when we must practice gratitude.

One caveat, there are situations in which thinking positive is not appropriate. If you are unsafe, the goal is always safety. That includes threats to your mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and financial state.

Assuming you are safe and your basic needs are met, you can improve your mental health with a gratitude practice.

How to Practice Gratitude

Start simple. Consider your basic needs. Things like food, water, and shelter are always something to be grateful for.
To reach a little further think about any relationships in your life that you are grateful for. This can include pets.
Then, start to think about the things that bring you comfort. What are the luxuries in your life?
You can also consider moments throughout your day that brought you comfort, ease, joy, fun, or contentment. Relish in those memories.
Once you’ve cultivated a feeling of gratitude in your body take some time to bask in that feeling. Breathe into the feeling of gratitude.
Repeat this practice daily for best results.

Habit #3: Change Your Environment to Improve Your Mental Health

There are situations that are simply not conducive to mental health. Many factors that influence your mental health stem from the environment in which you live, work, or spend time. Consider how changing your environment can change your mental health.

Some situations require the help of a professional. This includes situations involving a toxic work environment, an unsafe romantic relationship, or an unstable housing environment or financial situation. These circumstances are not easy to change and they take time.

There are also situations in which we have complete control, but our daily habits get in the way of change.

Environments that negatively impact mental health:

Toxic or hostile workplaces
Negative or complaining coworkers, friends, spouses, or acquaintances
Loud office spaces or apartment buildings
Cramped office spaces or apartment buildings
Messy, disorganized, or unclean living or office spaces
A long and chaotic commute
Sterile spaces disconnected from nature
Urban areas with little access to nature

The list is not comprehensive, but you get the idea. Your environment matters. It influences your thoughts, mood, and perception.

In circumstances (mostly) outside of your control (like a hostile work environment or loud apartment building) there are still things you can engage in to help offset the negativity you experience.

Environmental Shifts to Improve Your Mental Health

Use headphones or earplugs to help dim the volume on noise or negativity
Try to find the positives in negative situations
Try to get outside and spend time in a quiet, natural area daily
Stay present with mindfulness
Take time to maintain clean, organized, and inviting spaces
Decorate your space with things that make YOU smile
Surround yourself with positive and encouraging relationships
Find a podcast or book that helps you feel positive or inspired

Habit #4: Improve Your Posture to Boost Your Mental Health

Your posture impacts your mental health. Your posture influences the way you breathe, think, feel, and even digest food.

Notice what poor posture does to your mind and body.

See for yourself: slump your body down in your seat. Let your head hang heavy. Allow your spine to curl. Let your limbs go limp. Roll your shoulders inward. Hunch forward.

Now, fix your posture. Sit upright. Stack your ribs over your hips and your head over your ribs. Notice your spine grow tall and straight. Feel your shoulders roll back and down your spine. Relax your belly. Breathe.

Your posture relates to your nervous system.

Good posture tells the body and the brain that you are safe. It allows the breath to flow smoothly. It allows the digestive system to work as it should.

Not only that, but when the muscles are relaxed, so are we. Posture matters.

How to Improve Your Mental Health By Improving Your Posture

You can improve your posture by strengthening your posture muscles. Exercises like pilates, tai chi, or yoga can help.

It’s also important to ensure your office or home equipment is ergonomic. Take an audit of your daily systems and ensure they allow you to practice good posture. Adjust accordingly.

Remember, simple changes repeated over time lead to transformation.

Relaxing your body and focusing on your posture is one great way to help relax your nervous system. Your breath is another great strategy for relaxing the nervous system.

Habit #5: Your Breath is Your Greatest Tool for Improved Mental Health

Breathing is the number one simple daily habit you can do to improve your mental health.

The way you breathe sends signals to the brain. The brain interprets those messages and uses that information to determine whether to go into fight-or-flight or rest-and-digest.

Focus on long, slow inhales and exhales to help your body relax.

A Breathing Practice for Improved Mental Health

Sit with a tall spine and relaxed muscles. Good posture helps the breath flow with ease.

Try to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Breathe in . . .

Breathe out . . .

Count how many seconds you breathe in . . .

Count how many seconds you breathe out . . .

Inhale . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . .

Exhale . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . .

Stay with the breath. Stay with the counting. Let everything else fall away. Just breathe. And count. Breathe . . . and count . . .

To take this a step further, focus on extending the exhale one second longer than the inhale.

Breathe in . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . .

Breathe out . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six . . .

Inhale . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . .

Exhale . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six . . .

Stay with this as long as you like. The elongated exhale is said to strengthen vagal tone, enhance relaxation, and help you transition into rest-and-digest (the parasympathetic nervous system).

Deep Breathing Improves Mental Health By:

Quieting the mind before bed and allowing you to fall asleep faster
Calming the mind and silencing worries
Promoting relaxation and emotional release
Clearing your mind
Easing negative thoughts or feelings
Stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest)
Assisting with observation of thought patterns

If you struggle to breathe in a way that promotes improved mental health a yoga teacher or mindfulness practitioner can help.

There are a variety of breathing and mindfulness strategies. So, if one breathing practice does not work for you do not give up. You will find something that helps.

Bonus Habit #6: Recognize What is Within Your Control to Improve Your Mental Health

Realizing what is controllable and uncontrollable is crucial for your mental health. Then you can practice accepting what is outside of your control and changing what you can control.

Many things outside of your control can influence your mental health: genetics, environmental factors, socio-economic status, race, gender, politics, etc.

Whether you like it or not, the outside world influences your mental health. That’s why it’s important to understand there are times when medications or therapy are necessary for improved mental health.

It’s equally important to recognize what is within your control: relationships, job, location, thoughts, behaviors, self-care, etc.

This is also nuanced. Take for instance your job. Many factors may be out of your control. Your life circumstances leading up to this point likely pushed you into this position. However, if you believe your job is completely outside of your control you miss opportunities to make a change. In this situation behaviors like saving money, budgeting, developing new skills, networking, asking for a raise, seeking out a mentor, or going back to school could help you change your career path.

An Exercise for Evaluating What is (and is Not) in Your Control for Improved Mental Health

On a piece of paper make two columns. On one side, write down everything that is bothering you that is within your control. Then, on the opposite side, make a list of everything that is bothering you and outside of your control.

For the things that are outside of your control, practice acceptance. You might even use the gratitude practice to help shift your perception of the event. Ask yourself how you might improve situations outside of your control. Seek the help of a friend or therapist if you feel hopeless. They can also help you consider alternatives.

For the things that are within your control, pick the top things you need to change in order to improve your mental health. Start to break down each problem and come up with solutions.

Change takes time but it is worth it. Anything is possible with enough time and dedication.

Committing to a Simple Daily Practice to Improve Your Mental Health

You do not need to engage in all six habits listed above to improve your mental health. Simply choose one to practice that you think will make the most impact.

Try Combining Mental Health Strategies:

Engage in deep breathing while you focus on gratitude
Practice yoga to improve your posture while you breathe deeply
Notice your thoughts as you engage in deep breathing
Practice gratitude while making a plan to change your environment
Practice gratitude and notice how your thoughts shift
Replace negative thinking patterns with gratitude
Shift your perception by improving your posture, breath, and thinking patterns
Shift your thinking patterns by changing the way you perceive the world

. . . you might have noticed that many of these habits have a reciprocal relationship. Engaging in one practice benefits other areas of mental health.

There is no right or wrong way to practice any of these strategies. Find what works for you.

The most important part is committing to a daily practice. Very few things can be changed in one day. That includes your mental health.

A daily, consistent practice is required to create lasting change. However, simple daily habits compound. One day of deep breathing can help you in that moment. But one year of daily deep breathing can create a deep shift.

Improve Your Mental Health

Improving your mental health is a process. For mentally healthy people, choosing a daily practice to commit to can be a simple way to improve your mental health.

For people who struggle with a mental health disorder, it’s important to work with a medical or mental health professional along the way.

Regardless of where you are at in life there is hope. You can improve your mental health. Continue experimenting with simple daily practices. Do not be ashamed to seek the help of a professional along the way. You are worth it.

About the Author

Olivia Lynn Schnur holds a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor, and an EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist. She is also a Certified Yoga Teacher and Reiki Master. To learn more, visit oliviaschnur.com

Disclaimer:

This blog post and additional information posted on oliviaschnur.com represent Olivia Schnur’s personal views and should not be treated as professional guidance. The views in this blog post do not represent clinical treatment guidelines or recommendations and should not be treated as medical or mental health guidance. Furthermore, the views expressed on this blog and website do not reflect the views of any professional companies by which Olivia Schnur is employed.

Note to current and former mental health clients: Any contact made via oliviaschnur.com is not considered a confidential means of communication. Furthermore, as a result of ethical and legal requirements, Olivia is unable to respond to current and former clients who attempt to make contact via social media, personal email, or website. Posting comments on blog posts or other web pages can compromise your confidentiality. It is recommended that former or current mental health clients avoid interacting with, commenting on, or making contact via this blog or website.

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