Self-care is one among those wellness buzzwords that’s oft thrown about like confetti this time of yr. Well-intentioned because the concept originally was, the waters have muddied barely through the years and folks have been conditioned to think that self-care only extends to indulgent bubble baths, face masks, and maybe a monthly mani/pedi too. 

That’s all a part of it in fact, but minding yourself – and your mental health – goes beyond that. It encompasses the whole lot from nutrition to trying to search out joy within the little things. We asked two different experts for his or her advice on the right way to get through the yr in a single piece. Below are their answers. Hopefully, you discover their suggestions and tricks as helpful as we did. 

Gut health and mental health

Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

Professor Ryan is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and co-founder of The Gut Experts, below she details how and why taking care of your gut health is a very important factor of mental health.

The gut-brain axis

Your gut and your brain enjoy an incredibly intimate relationship, a lot so, that the gut has been called your ‘second brain’ or the ‘little brain’. There may be a relentless two-way conversation and flow of knowledge happening between your gut and your brain, which suggests that what is occurring in your brain (if you happen to are pleased, sad, anxious, or drained, for instance) can have a giant effect on what is occurring in your gut. But much more fascinatingly, what is occurring in your gut may also affect what is occurring in your brain. Which means that taking care of your mental health involves taking care of your gut health AND taking care of your mental health has positive effects in your gut health.

The 50 trillion or more bacteria living in your gut (the gut microbiota) play a very important role on this finely balanced system. Your gut bacteria produce substances similar to tryptophan (a precursor of serotonin, which is important to our mental health) and dopamine, each of which have direct effects on our brain function and emotional well-being. There are some easy steps which you can take to assist nurture a healthy mixture of gut bacteria, and this in turn will help nurture your mental health. An interesting study called the Smiles Study showed that following a Mediterranean-style weight loss program (loads of whole grains, fresh fruit, and vegetables, fish, lean meat, and poultry carefully) had a really positive effect on mood in patients who were suffering with depression.

So, what does Professor Ryan recommend?

• Eat more plant-based foods, fibre and ‘prebiotic’ foods (eat the rainbow)
• Include some fermented foods (contain live bacteria) in your diet- kefir, yoghurt, many cheeses, kombucha etc
• Reduce your intake of highly processed foods, and saturated (animal) fats
• Reduce your alcohol intake (slightly red wine could be useful to your GM)
• Get adequate exercise and sleep
• Don’t smoke
• Don’t graze continually – you don’t need to do radical intermittent fasting, however the gut bacteria like slightly break from food for a number of hours at a time

Our gut really is our second brain, so be kind to your gut and your mental health will reap the rewards. Taking care of your mental health can be vital if you will have a gut condition similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or indeed Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). There are numerous ways which you can try to do that, and again some easy steps might help: healthy weight loss program, regular exercise (we recommend half-hour, five times per week), time outdoors in nature, getting adequate sleep, mindfulness, hypnotherapy in addition to many other types of leisure therapy.

You’ll find out more about what The Gut Experts do over on their website or by checking them on out on social media (@thegutexperts on each Facebook and Instagram).

Routine and mental health 

Prof. Patricia Casey is a Consultant Psychiatrist on the Hermitage Medical Clinic, Dublin, and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at UCD. She was also a former consultant on the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. In her latest book Fears, Phobias, and Fantasies, she goals to assist people understand mental illness and mental health within the context of the Irish psychiatric services. She shares her recommendations on how best to prioritise yourself when times get tough.

Acceptance, courage and wisdom

Since roughly March 2020, the world has experienced a dramatic shift in its definition of ‘normality’ as we were faced with a worldwide pandemic, conjuring up terrifying images of the Spanish flu and the “Black Death”. We were warned that our mental health would even be in danger.

Time marched on and folks were actually nervous and anxious yet we tried to get on with things as best we could. This effort to maintain going is named “resilience” and most humans possess it in ample supply. Faced with the trials and tribulations of life we don’t crumble under the burden of our woes.

Particularly since Covid, there’s an inclination to equate mental health with the absence of worrying, not feeling stressed, and having fun with life, and the alternative is seen as mental in poor health health. This angle is mistaken since everybody is faced in some unspecified time in the future with weighty matters to fret about. On occasion we won’t experience the complete happiness that we hope for when life becomes tough because of illness, financial worries etc. If we didn’t worry at times like this, we could be abnormal, like automatons, untouched by the world around us.  

In these situations, we are able to learn to reply in a positive and adaptive manner. But sometimes there could also be no easy solution and now we have to know our limits and accept things as they’re. The prayer of Reinhold Niebaur encapsulates this thoroughly “God grant we the Serenity to simply accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to alter the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference”.

How does one do this? Having trusted people in whom to confide is important. With the ability to get upset about one’s situation without being told to not cry is useful. Keeping a every day structure and routine is inspired and we should always avoid lying in bed pondering our predicament. Engaging in activities that give us pleasure is useful and sometimes keeping a journal is a release.

Let this be our Recent Yr Resolution for 2022!

Header image via Unsplash