Sian Victoria © - Working from home, Scandinavian office desk, Plants

Best self-care tips to improve mental health

Every year it seems that as soon as Autumn arrives, life gets busier and more stressful. The trains get delayed (or cancelled!), the days go quicker and darker earlier, so the streets and roads are busy with people rushing to get home out the cold.

Work-life gets more stressful with end of year tasks that need completing and your personal life involves saying goodbye to your free time with needing to visit family, shopping for Christmas or being invited to after-work drinks.

Having less time on our hands during Autumn-Winter can usually result in neglecting ourselves by turning to unhealthy comfort food for convenience and skipping the gym or avoiding getting any form of exercise or self-care time.

So, I’ve put together 8 slow living tips to improve mental health and wellbeing during Winter to help relax and recharge our minds and bodies.

1. Make time to pamper

Give yourself at least one day a week where you can lock yourself away from the world and enjoy a warm bubble bath by indulging in scents from aromatherapy oils. Whether it’s to de-stress to massage muscles, soothe anxiety and refresh dry tired skin.

Whatever you choose your bound to feel relaxed and recharged after a soak, be sure to dim the lights, add candles and block out any feelings of stress going on in your mind.

2. Take supplements to beat winter illness

Since we tend to choose unhealthy meals and snacks during the cold and dark season because it’s convenient and comforting it can often result in us having a lot less nutrition making us more prone to catching the flu and other sickness bugs that are lurking around this time of year.

So, to fight off illnesses this season take a multivitamin every day and ensure it is packed full of all the essential vitamins, antioxidants and minerals your body needs to stay healthy. Ideally from vegan and cruelty-free supplement brands so you know its going to contain less fillers and more of the benefecial stuff you need to thrive.

3. Batch cook healthy meals

To avoid eating unhealthy foods during winter batch cook hearty and notoriousness meals in advance so that all you need to do is warm it up once you get home. This is something I’ve been doing for years and it saves me so much time and money. Making curries, casseroles, stews and soups from scratch packed full of vegetables.

Utilising my essential plant-based pantry ingrediants, these meals are perfect to freeze in reusable containers, which can also help to control your portion size too. Preparing natural foods for breakfast, lunch and snacks will make all the difference too how you feel and will save you time, money and the unwelcome winter weight gain.

For an added nutritional boost, sprinkle some healthy organic nutritional yeast over soups, pasta, and salads. It’s a great dairy-free cheese alternative that adds to the flavour while providing B vitamins and protein. Also, avoiding caffeinated drinks and swapping them for natural energising smoothies or herbal teas with health benefits will make you feel loads better.

4. Have time away from social media

There’s no denying that social media plays a huge role at negatively affecting our mental health, whether its the FOMO or not feeling good about ourselves because we aspire to look and live like the influencers and celebrities on our feeds. When in reality the photos are most likely to have been airbrushed, staged and exaggerated so should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Instead of scrolling through your feed feeling sorry for yourself (me always!) fill your time with being productive. Think about what people did in their free time before the internet consumed our lives?

Maybe you could read a book, play board games, watch a series, learn a new skill or gain a qualification, listen to music, get a hobby that involves getting out and meeting new people or a hobby that involves being active or creative such as starting a fitness class, painting, jewellery making or writing stories. Or simply start selling your unwanted items, as they say, ‘tidy room, tidy mind’ you’ll be surprised how much decluttering can help. You may find my Depop selling tips useful.

Also bear in mind that consuming too much blue light from our electronic devices is also known to affect our mood as well as damage our eyes and skin, so limiting the time you spend consuming content across your mobile, laptop and TV will be good for you in many ways.

5. Get active

Don’t become a coach potato this season, get active. My partner and I go to the gym 3-4 times a week, but since the cold dark nights have dawned in we are starting to slack a lot more by either not doing our full workout regime at home or skipping the gym completely as it feels horrible going outside in the cold once you’ve worked up a hot sweat.

So, to compensate for this we have started to get up earlier to walk the dog for longer while its light and exercising indoors by working out to fitness videos on YouTube.

6. Get more natural light & plant life

Its scientifically proven that surrounding yourself with nature and natural light will improve your mental wellbeing. So, add real lush green houseplants to your work environment and if you can move your laptop or desk to a spot near a window or get outside on your lunch break to somewhere with a bit of greenery it can improve your productivity.

If that’s not possible where you work than add plants to your home and sit in natural lit areas and make the effort to go on long winter walks at a nearby forested area.

During winter we are more prone to be SAD - as in the Seasonal Affective Disorder kind. So, don't forget the benefits of natural light for health and get as much as you can to prevent or reduce these feelings of unhapiness.

7. Plan to make time for you

So that life doesn’t get you down, plan your time effectively using a weekly planner. I find that writing a to-do list each night and getting things I need to do down on paper, helps to clear my mind, so it's a great way to improve sleep for a better nights rest.

When planning the week ahead be sure to make time for yourself as a priority alongside family time, work and life chores. This way you can create a healthy work-life balance.

8. Spend quality time with animals

Regardless of whether you have a pet or not, visiting a Cat café or volunteering at a dog shelter to take our furry friends on walks can have many benefits. There is no denying that pets benefit our mental and physical health.

Firstly, it feels great to support local independents especially if its charity and secondly spending time with animals can be beneficial to our mental health and the wellbeing of the animals. I would much prefer spending an hour cuddling and playing with animals than scrolling social media!

To conclude

So, there you go, my essential self-care tips. I hope you find them helpful to improve your wellbeing during winter.

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