5 Proven Ways For Overcoming Obstacles

Ways For Overcoming Obstacles

Overcoming obstacles can be difficult. By definition, an obstacle is defined as something that obstructs or hinders progress. Obstacles come in many forms, both at work and at home.

According to Kevin Daum, obstacles naturally fall into three categories:

A. External obstacles. External obstacles are those that are outside of your control. Examples include the economy, natural disasters, physical limitations and the actions of the people around you.

But just because these obstacles are outside your control, it does not mean you simply throw up your hands and give up. What is in your control is your own behavior and how you react and deal with the external obstacles that are thrown at you.

B. Internal obstacles. Internal obstacles are those that you do have control over. Some common examples of internal obstacles are needing more money, wanting a promotion at work, trying to lose weight, and improving a strained relationship with your family member or other loved one.

C. Habitual obstacles. Habitual obstacles apply more generally in your life and may only be eliminated by making a global change. Common examples of habitual obstacles include feeling constantly stressed out, getting angry too easily or being prone to procrastination.

1. Understand the obstacle

We naturally tend to move quickly to a solution without first fully understanding the issue at hand. This is an easily understandable impulse – your to-do list is a mile long, and you want to quickly finish this task and move on to the next one.

Let’s say you are trying to complete a project and an obstacle arises that must be dealt with before you can go on to the next step. Your typical thought process probably goes something like this:

A.) You evaluate the problem briefly.

B.) You think that you know what to do, and without much further thought, you start to implement your solution.

C.) After some significant period of time passes, you realize that you have been going about this all wrong as your solution is not working.

D.) Back to the drawing board!

Our goal is to help you avoid this. It may sound obvious, but taking the time when first faced with a new obstacle to carefully consider the best resolution is critical, and is a step that most people skip. Why do we skip this step? We think it is because we don’t want to face the hard reality of a daunting problem.

But the truth is that it is an investment of time that typically pays off very well in terms of overall savings in time and expense spent. After all, if you don’t completely understand all aspects of the obstacle you are trying to overcome, how can you ultimately be successful?

2. Dealing With Health 

Another major problem that might come up in your life is a health crisis. This is not far-fetched because our body systems work round-the-clock, even when we are sleeping. As a result of this, and if you don’t maintain routine health habits, health deterioration might begin to set in. Things might even get serious if you don’t attend to it early.

3. Relationship, Marriage, and Family

There may not be anything as sweet as love and family life, but it can also be the source of pain for some. Human imperfections in a relationship can cause a major crisis in life. This has been a stumbling block to many on their path to fulfillment.

Solution

The best thing to do is to prevent relationship problems from happening, but if they do happen, you need to face reality and begin to take steps towards addressing them. Do your best to keep the lines of communication open as this can help in strengthening your struggling relationship. Talk about the challenges with your partner and look for common grounds.

You can also arrange to see a counselor together or read books that address the specific challenges you are facing. The worst thing you can do is to end a relationship and that’s only when you have exhausted all other options.

4. Workplace problems

The workplace is supposed to be a place where we dutifully render the services for which we’ve been hired.

However, it is not impossible to face animosity at work—dealing with toxic people who would rather not see any good in what you do. It might be caused by differences in background, attitudes, and unhealthy competition that can result in personal conflicts. This can create undue stress and reduce productivity.

Solution

Be as professional as possible when dealing with toxic people. Be kind and show understanding, and try to avoid personal confrontation.

You can even try to reach out to the persons and invite them over for a coffee and get to understand their worldview. This can help you to connect with them at their level so that you can avoid unnecessary stress for yourself.

5. Emptiness and Boredom

When you are in a rut, everything becomes normal, dull, unproductive, and yet difficult to change. This can lead to feelings of emptiness and boredom. This may not seem like a serious life problem, but it can have a great impact on your life.

Solution

To overcome boredom and emptiness, break out of your routines, and deliberately create a new experience for yourself. If you can’t leave your job to find a new one, start doing other things that reflect your true passion. Sometimes, the things that give us the needed drive in life are not our day jobs.

   

There is always a benefit and/or positive side to solving problems. Remember that if you solve a problem, even a difficult one, it is one less thing to worry about, and one less problem on your problem list! 

Remember the goal is to find the best solution to your problem, NOT the perfect solution. If there was a “perfect” solution, you would have already found it.

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5 Steps On Plan Your Career and Future

Planning Your Future

Are you in a quandary about how to meet a huge set of goals? Do you feel stuck and don’t know what to do next?

Try these steps and get the clarity and plan you need to move forward.

1. Get quiet to get focus on your essential goals. At times it is just one main goal, yet life often presents situations where you have several, and may seem mutually exclusive at first. Ask:

• What does the best outcome look like – for yourself, your family, your stakeholders
• What are the possible solutions and options? Remember that eliminating objectives is a possibility – for example, I could have declined the opportunity to co-chair the integration team.

2. Write it down – make it happen.  Include your objectives, options, obstacles; it doesn’t need to be perfect. Brainstorm. Writing it down sets things in motion and sets you up for the answers and solutions that wouldn’t be obvious otherwise.

3. Ask advice of someone you trust. My sister, who has my highest and best interest at heart, and who is a small business owner and working Mom, came up with the ideal solution.

4. Recognize Resistance – When you are on the right track, resistance soon emerges, especially the closer you get to the best outcome.

Resistance can take the form of guilt, fear, uncertainty, and in my case, timidity – I almost didn’t give myself permission to take advantage of the best solution to achieve my objectives – it was unconventional to haul myself and our toddler half way across the country.

Yet not only did it work out on the business side, a wonderful byproduct emerged – our son became and has stayed close with his cousins and Aunt.

5.  Take Action. Tweak. Improve. Your clarity sharpens through action –your thinking gets muddled when you don’t unlock your ideas and act on them.

Make a plan to achieve the clear goals you set (with specifics and dates to hold yourself accountable), then act on it – Grow into it – don’t be a perfectionist – We are all constantly growing and learning.

Ask yourself – what is the worst thing that can happen if I take this action?

What will become possible to me and those I care about if I DO take this action?

What will happen if I DON’T take this action?

You can use these steps in any challenge where you need clarity.

Keep working at this skill set, it unlocks your ability to achieve more than you can imagine.

Question: How do you gain clarity to take advantage of competing opportunities?

Share your answer on Facebook 

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Overcoming mental illness

Living With And Overcoming Mental Illness

False beliefs about mental illness can cause significant problems.

Living with mental illness is not easy. It’s a consistent problem without a clear solution. While treatments like medication and psychotherapy are incredibly helpful, sometimes people experiencing mental health conditions need to do more day-in and day-out to feel good or even just okay.

Some common self-help suggestions people receive are to exercise, meditate and be more present, which are helpful and work for many people. However, other proven methods aren’t mentioned as often. Many of them are quick and simple techniques that can easily be added to daily routines.

Finding the right coping mechanism takes time and patience, but it can enormously impact how you feel. If you haven’t had success with techniques you’ve tried, or you’re looking to add a few more to your toolkit, here are seven coping mechanisms recommended by mental health professionals worth trying out.

Why Mental Health Matters

Some people think that only people with mental illnesses have to pay attention to their mental health.

But the truth is that your emotions, thoughts and attitudes affect your energy, productivity and overall health. Good mental health strengthens your ability to cope with everyday hassles and more serious crises and challenges. Good mental health is essential to creating the life you want.

Just as you brush your teeth or get a flu shot, you can take steps to promote your mental health. A great way to start is by learning to deal with stress.

How Stress Hurts 

Stress can eat away at your well-being like acid eating away at your stomach. Actually, stress can contribute to stomach pains and lots of other problems, like:

• headaches
• insomnia
• overeating
• back pain
• high blood pressure
• irritability
• vulnerability to infection

Stress also can lead to serious mental health problems, like depression and anxiety disorders. If you think you have such a problem, you can get help.

Of course you can't magically zap all sources of stress. But you can learn to deal with them in a way that promotes the well-being you want--and deserve.

Learn more about how stress really hurts.

Because millions of people in the U.S. live with a mental health condition, you likely encounter people with a mental illness in your family or in your daily life. However, if you are unsure of how best to approach someone who may be struggling, these tips may help.

Suggestions on how you may approach someone living with a mental health condition:

• Talk to them in a space that is comfortable, where you won’t likely be interrupted and where there are likely minimal distractions.
• Ease into the conversation, gradually. It may be that the person is not in a place to talk, and that is OK. Greeting them and extending a gentle kindness can go a long way. Sometimes less is more.
• Be sure to speak in a relaxed and calm manner.
• Communicate in a straightforward manner and stick to one topic at a time.
• Be respectful, compassionate and empathetic to their feelings by engaging in reflective listening, such as “I hear that you are having a bad day today. Yes, some days are certainly more challenging than others. I understand.”
• Instead of directing the conversation at them with ‘you’ statements, use ‘I’ statements instead.
• Be a good listener, be responsive and make eye contact with a caring approach.
• Ask them appropriate questions and avoid prying.
• Give them the opportunity to talk and open up but don’t press.
• Share some easy insights as a way of encouraging easy conversation, such as comments about the weather, the community or other.
• Reduce any defensiveness by sharing your feelings and looking for common ground.
• Speak at a level appropriate to their age and development level. Keep in mind that mental illness has nothing to do with a person’s intelligence.
• Be aware of a person becoming upset or confused by your conversation with them.
• Show respect and understanding for how they describe and interpret their symptoms.
• Genuinely express your concern.
• Offer your support and connect them to help if you feel that they need it. Ask, “How can I help?” if appropriate, or even, “Can I pray with you now?” if appropriate.
• Give the person hope for recovery, offer encouragement and prayers.

Things to Avoid Saying:

• “Just pray about it.”
• “You just need to change you’re attitude.”
• “Stop harping on the negative, you should just start living.”
• “Everyone feels that way sometimes.”
• “You have the same illness as my (whoever).”
• “Yes, we all feel a little crazy now and then.”

Things to Avoid Doing:

• Criticizing blaming or raising your voice at them.
• Talking too much, too rapidly, too loudly. Silence and pauses are ok.
• Showing any form of hostility towards them.
• Assuming things about them or their situation.
• Being sarcastic or making jokes about their condition.
• Patronizing them or saying anything condescending. 

So please if you or anyone else is suffering from a illness there is help.

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To interrupt the curve and contain the coronavirus as soon as possible, it’s better if we all stay at home and practice some social distancing.

On one hand, it’s a dream scenario to finally finish reading that book you’ve been meaning to dedicate time to for ages, whilst on the other hand, it’s the biggest nightmare. To give you some good courage and to prevent boredom, Holidu has listed the best at-home activities for you!

1. Movie night with travel films

What is the main thing that we can only dream about at the moment? Travelling! Sadly, travelling is not possible for the time being, so all that remains is to keep dreaming and making new plans for the future. So, have a great movie night with the best travel movies and documentaries available. On Netflix there are quite a few travel-related movies and documentaries to be found, for example, Expedition Happiness, Tales by Night, Our Planet, Wild, Elsewhere. Alone in Africa. Grab your popcorn!

2. Become the next master chef

Now that we’re all done hoarding the essentials, there’s no excuse as to why you can’t conjure up the best dishes on the table. Finally, you have the time to fire up a meal in the slow cooker for 5 hours or to try out tricky recipes. Are you missing travelling already? Then take the time to cook a delicious Pad Thai or prepare a Greek salad.

4. Volunteering

Research volunteering opportunities in your city and mark down the most interesting ones. When the quarantines and isolation ends, we’ll still be in a pretty precarious situation. Making a personal contribution is the best way to show the world you care.

5 . Get Creative

It may not be easy to come up with ideas. There is a plethora of classes to take online and new things to learn to do. Once you have looked around the Web, sit down and write a list of things you may want to learn how to do. Your list may look like this –

 I want to:

• Learn Italian.
• Learn to bake a Cheesecake.
• Learn how to dance Salsa.
• Learn to Draw/Paint.
• Learn how to make a container garden.

6. Connect With Others

Whether you are a person who is dying because of social distancing or you are a person who has enjoyed the time to slow down, staying in touch with those you do life with can be a key to keeping boredom away. There are many ways to reach out and/or stay connected with people.

Some ways include:

• Writing a letter to a friend — tell them what you like about them, why you miss being around them, what fun things you can do together once this is over.
• Have a Virtual Brunch or a Virtual Happy Hour on video chat. 
• Make a homemade card and mail to those you care about.
• Have a Virtual Dance Party.

7. Practice Gratitude

Seeking gratitude and thankfulness will help you appreciate what you have. I love the memes that remind me: “I’m not STUCK at HOME, but I AM SAFE AT HOME.” That statement reinforces to me that I have options and opportunities where others may not. Make a list of everything that you are thankful for or list five things at the end of each day.

I can now see why kids say, “I’m Bored!” But I’ve learned that boredom is neither a fact or fiction, but rather, a choice of my perspective. 

I chose NOT to be bored.

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10 Quarantine Activities

10 Quarantine Activities to Keep You and Your Kids productive!

With the spread of the Coronavirus across the U.S, our extended time at home is proving to be stressful at times for families. As you juggle working at home and keeping your kids occupied and learning, Dan Pegram, children’s author of Pop-Pop Airplane, How Do You Fly?, has shared a great list of quarantine activities that will bring the whole family together and keep everyone sane at the same time.

1. Make Some Noise

If you play a musical instrument or sing, this would be a great time to explore your children’s interest in music. If you don’t sing, impromptu singing with a wooden spoon for a microphone can entertain kids for a good 20 to 30 min. And it can give you a much needed break from sitting in front of your laptop. YouTube has an endless assortment of lessons for any instrument including vocals. Just have fun with it!

2. Look at Old Photos

Drag out the old photo albums and travel down memory lane. Show them their baby pictures and different holiday and milestone birthday pics. Children are very interested in what life was like back when we were children. They also enjoy learning about grandparents, aunts and uncles and places you’ve traveled to. It is so much fun laughing at the old photos, the retro clothing and hairstyles and reliving fun times.

3. Read Books

Reading is a skill that opens the world to youngsters. It’s also a skill that needs continuous practice. During this time away from school, introduce your children to some of your old favorite books and discovering some new titles. My new book, Pop-Pop Airplane, How Do You Fly? teaches children, ages 3 -7, how airplanes fly and is a great book for stimulating inquisitive young minds. For the more advanced readers, chapter books like Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems are quite popular. There are also a couple of apps used by schools called EPIC! and Raz-Kids that offer unlimited access to 35,000 of the best children’s books and learning videos so your child can read and learn anytime.

4. Write

As an author I’ve been asked many times, “How do you start writing a book?” My answer is simple, “It’s just like having a conversation with someone and you’re telling them a story or relating some event in your life.” If your children aren’t familiar with journaling, this might be a great time to introduce them to this wonderful writing exercise. Journals don’t have to be formal. Any small notebook is a great place to start. Google search “journaling” for some useful ideas and benefits. Another wonderful resources is Teachers Pay Teachers, which contains printables and worksheets to help youngsters with simple writing projects.

5. Go Outside

Even though we’re quarantined at home, you can plan activities outside your house and show your children how we used to entertain ourselves before the internet and social media. Go for hikes in your neighborhood or on local trails and look for birds and other wildlife. Look up bird species in your area and then see how many you can spot. This could be the perfect excuse to skip a Zoom meeting and turn into a lifelong hobby.

7. Schoolwork

Continue your children’s assigned schoolwork and supplement the best you can. Just like the classroom environment, make this time structured and devoted to accomplishing their daily assignments. Also, create a workspace equipped with a chair, lamp, pencil holder, crayons, etc.

8. Engage Without Electronics

Monitor time in front of the television, video games, computers and iPad type devices. Assign your kids chores to do so they can earn time on their favorite devices. Set boundaries to create more balance and good practices online. And you have to put your phone down too sometimes! Spending more time engaged with your children during this uncertain period is comforting and lets them know how much you care.

9. Cook Something Together

Being stuck at home is a great time to teach your kids how to cook. And it’s a great teachable moment! So, dust off your cookbooks, pick a couple of simple recipes and let the magic begin. Your children will learn about ingredients and through measuring will learn a little about fractions. Plan your meals together and let them do some of the simple things like adding the ingredients, greasing a pan or setting the table. Spending time together at the dinner table talking about the days events, discussing this quarantine situation at their level and planning for the next day will help you communicate in new ways and learn something about how your kids think too!

10. Stay Calm

This is an unprecedented time for all of us. Remain calm, stay informed and educate your children as to why we are practicing social distancing and staying at home. Emphasize to them how important good hygiene habits are and why most everything we used to do has been curtailed (including play dates).  Ensure your children these life-changing times will be over soon and things will go back to near normal. With the exception of being quarantined, try to make each day routine and spend as much quality time together as possible. Hopefully these quarantine activities will help you and your kids get through the next few weeks and come together as a stronger family.

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10 home quarantine activities to avoid boredom

10 Quarantine Activities to Keep You and Your Kids productive!

With the spread of the Coronavirus across the U.S, our extended time at home is proving to be stressful at times for families. As you juggle working at home and keeping your kids occupied and learning, Dan Pegram, children’s author of Pop-Pop Airplane, How Do You Fly?, has shared a great list of quarantine activities that will bring the whole family together and keep everyone sane at the same time.

1. Make Some Noise

If you play a musical instrument or sing, this would be a great time to explore your children’s interest in music. If you don’t sing, impromptu singing with a wooden spoon for a microphone can entertain kids for a good 20 to 30 min. And it can give you a much needed break from sitting in front of your laptop. YouTube has an endless assortment of lessons for any instrument including vocals. Just have fun with it!

2. Look at Old Photos

Drag out the old photo albums and travel down memory lane. Show them their baby pictures and different holiday and milestone birthday pics. Children are very interested in what life was like back when we were children. They also enjoy learning about grandparents, aunts and uncles and places you’ve traveled to. It is so much fun laughing at the old photos, the retro clothing and hairstyles and reliving fun times.

3. Read Books

Reading is a skill that opens the world to youngsters. It’s also a skill that needs continuous practice. During this time away from school, introduce your children to some of your old favorite books and discovering some new titles. My new book, Pop-Pop Airplane, How Do You Fly? teaches children, ages 3 -7, how airplanes fly and is a great book for stimulating inquisitive young minds. For the more advanced readers, chapter books like Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems are quite popular. There are also a couple of apps used by schools called EPIC! and Raz-Kids that offer unlimited access to 35,000 of the best children’s books and learning videos so your child can read and learn anytime.

4. Write

As an author I’ve been asked many times, “How do you start writing a book?” My answer is simple, “It’s just like having a conversation with someone and you’re telling them a story or relating some event in your life.” If your children aren’t familiar with journaling, this might be a great time to introduce them to this wonderful writing exercise. Journals don’t have to be formal. Any small notebook is a great place to start. Google search “journaling” for some useful ideas and benefits. Another wonderful resources is Teachers Pay Teachers, which contains printables and worksheets to help youngsters with simple writing projects.

5. Go Outside

Even though we’re quarantined at home, you can plan activities outside your house and show your children how we used to entertain ourselves before the internet and social media. Go for hikes in your neighborhood or on local trails and look for birds and other wildlife. Look up bird species in your area and then see how many you can spot. This could be the perfect excuse to skip a Zoom meeting and turn into a lifelong hobby.

7. Schoolwork

Continue your children’s assigned schoolwork and supplement the best you can. Just like the classroom environment, make this time structured and devoted to accomplishing their daily assignments. Also, create a workspace equipped with a chair, lamp, pencil holder, crayons, etc.

8. Engage Without Electronics

Monitor time in front of the television, video games, computers and iPad type devices. Assign your kids chores to do so they can earn time on their favorite devices. Set boundaries to create more balance and good practices online. And you have to put your phone down too sometimes! Spending more time engaged with your children during this uncertain period is comforting and lets them know how much you care.

9. Cook Something Together

Being stuck at home is a great time to teach your kids how to cook. And it’s a great teachable moment! So, dust off your cookbooks, pick a couple of simple recipes and let the magic begin. Your children will learn about ingredients and through measuring will learn a little about fractions. Plan your meals together and let them do some of the simple things like adding the ingredients, greasing a pan or setting the table. Spending time together at the dinner table talking about the days events, discussing this quarantine situation at their level and planning for the next day will help you communicate in new ways and learn something about how your kids think too!

10. Stay Calm

This is an unprecedented time for all of us. Remain calm, stay informed and educate your children as to why we are practicing social distancing and staying at home. Emphasize to them how important good hygiene habits are and why most everything we used to do has been curtailed (including play dates).  Ensure your children these life-changing times will be over soon and things will go back to near normal. With the exception of being quarantined, try to make each day routine and spend as much quality time together as possible. Hopefully these quarantine activities will help you and your kids get through the next few weeks and come together as a stronger family.

Read More

The Best Diet For Mental Health

What Is the Best Diet for Mental Health?

New research exploring the connection between the foods we eat and our feelings of depression, anxiety, and happiness.

Should you eat an apple—or a bag of Oreo's? Go to McDonald’s—or the vegetarian restaurant on the corner?

When we make these everyday food choices, many of us think first of our physical health and appearance. But there’s another factor we may want to consider in picking foods: their impact on our mental health. Don't get me wrong, theirs nothing wrong with having a burger and fries I'm simply wanting to make aware of how healthy food can benefit you! 

A growing body of research is discovering that food doesn’t just affect our waistline but also our moods, emotions, and even longer-term conditions like depression. Which makes sense, after all. Our brains are physical entities, running on the energy that we put into our bodies, affected by shifts in our hormones, blood sugar levels, and many other biological processes.

Although there are many unanswered questions, the research to date can give us some guidance when we’re hunting for an afternoon snack. What we know so far can be summed up, more or less, as this: Whole-food diets heavy on the fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed protein can lift our moods and protect us from depression, while too much junk food and sugar may put our mental health at risk.

One-third of adults in America eat fast food on a given day. Many of us see French fries and chocolate cake as treats to cheer us up when we’re feeling down. But perhaps our perspective on food needs an update. With a few simple dietary changes, you might be able to improve both your mind and your mood.

Can your diet protect you from depression?

A paper published this year in Psychosomatic Medicine offers one of the most up-to-date snapshots of diet and mental health—specifically, how diet might play a role in depression.

The research team scoured academic journals for experiments that had asked people to change their diets and had measured the effects. In all, they found 16 studies with nearly 46,000 participants from the United States, Australia, and Europe, ranging from ages 21 to 85.

The experiments were quite diverse, prescribing a variety of diets to boost nutrient intake, reduce fat intake, or encourage weight loss. One group went on a vegan diet, while others restricted calories; many people loaded up on fruits and vegetables while avoiding meat and processed foods. Some people attended nutrition classes together, while others got personalized counseling or simply took home a set of guidelines. They followed the diet for anywhere from a couple weeks to a few years.

The results? Overall, adopting a healthier diet did lead to reduced symptoms of depression—less hopelessness, trouble sleeping, and disconnection from others—compared to engaging in other self-improvement activities or going about life as usual.

“Including more non-processed foods, more whole foods—fruits, vegetables—is very beneficial in terms of your psychological well-being, particularly mood,” says Joseph Firth, the lead author of the paper and a research fellow at Western Sydney University.

But the results got more interesting when the researchers started to dig into the details, to see for whom and under what conditions our diet might keep the bad feelings at bay.

Who benefits most from a healthy diet?

First off, diet programs tended to work better for women. Why? Besides differences in hormones and metabolism, Firth conjectured, women seem to be in a better position to benefit. They’re more likely to be depressed, and, he says, they might have more discipline at following diets than men.

Also, the diet programs worked better if a dietary professional administered them—probably because the recommendations were sounder and the participants (believing in the dietitian’s authority) were more apt to follow them, Firth says. An earlier review of diet studies came to a similar conclusion.

One of the strongest studies in the collection suggested that diet could help people who were right in the midst of a major depressive episode. Researchers recruited 67 depressed people with poor diets, half of whom were instructed to follow a healthy, Mediterranean-style diet favoring whole grains, fruit and vegetables, legumes, low-fat dairy, nuts, fish, lean red meat, chicken, eggs, and olive oil while reducing sweets, refined grains, fried and fast food, processed meats, and sugary drinks. Across 12 weeks, they attended seven sessions with a dietitian who helped them set diet goals and stay motivated; they also received recipes, meal plans, and a hamper of food.

The other half attended sessions on a similar schedule. But rather than getting diet advice, they simply spent time with a research assistant who was trained to be supportive of them—talking about topics they were interested in, like sports and hobbies, or playing games with them for an hour.

Despite how beneficial social interaction is, the diet group fared better than the social support group. After 12 weeks, they had reduced their depression and anxiety more—and they were about four times more likely to experience a remission from their depression. The more they improved their diet, the more their depression lifted.

What about anxiety? In that particular study, anxiety did go down—but on average, across all 16 studies, healthier diets didn’t seem to make people less anxious. That actually strengthens the case that diet can directly affect depression, says Firth. If the results were simply due to people feeling proud and accomplished with their new healthy habits, you would expect them to feel better all around, including less anxious. The fact that only their symptoms of depression shifted means that something deeper may be going on. 


What could that be? We don’t know for sure yet, but there are a variety of biological processes that seem to be both influenced by diet and involved in mental health. It’s possible that certain diets may increase inflammation and oxidative stress, and disrupt our mitochondrial function and neuron production, in ways that could put us at risk for psychological problems. Our gut microbiome—the colony of microorganisms in our intestines that is increasingly being studied as a contributor to mental health—may interact with many of these processes. Also, says Firth, following a diet can bring us a sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy, as well as potential weight loss—which can influence our minds, too.

But there are still a lot of unknowns. As Professor Almudena Sanchez-Villegas of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria points out, the findings from diet experiments are not consistent. Many of the diet programs in Firth’s review didn’t help alleviate depression, nor did a newer one that also included multivitamins. Researchers have much more to explore.

Overall healthy eating -- fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and whole grains -- has been linked in studies to lower risks of depression and even suicide. Nutrition also influences the immune system, which has been shown to affect the risk of depression, as well.

Try adding these five mood-boosting foods to your daily diet. Here are 5 good foods to consider!

1. Salmon

Salmon is a nutritional powerhouse full of omega-3 fatty acids, a key nutrient that our bodies don't produce on their own.

2. Dark chocolate

A Candy bar may leave you feeling blah after you eat it, but a piece of dark chocolate could give you a mood boost.

3. Berries

Fruits are all good for you as part of a balanced diet, but berries are particularly powerful for the brain.

Summery

So a Diet and mental health. There is research to suggest that what we eat may affect not just our physical health, but also our mental health and wellbeing. Eating well (i.e. a well-balanced diet rich in vegetables and nutrients) may be associated with feelings of wellbeing.

Be safe 

- Suicide Hotline

- Covid 19

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