The importance of mental wellbeing and lifestyle post pandemic

Mums Tips

Fitness & Health

Published on Monday, 06 June 2022 11:05

Last Updated on 01 June 2022

Carolina Kon

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These last two years have brought many people and professionals to look into and talk more openly about mental health, which has lead to more research and information when it comes to ways to deal with our wellbeing.

Research by award-winning French self-care brand Pureessentiell has shown that although three-quarters of adults believe the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health and a third reported a significant change, 43% of adults now place as much importance on their emotional wellbeing as they do on their physical health and 39% say they now prioritise their mental health. Before the pandemic, mental health wasn’t regarded as much as we do now as the impact and the last two years of ‘changes’ have turned most of our lives upside-down.

The difference between two years ago and now is that most young adults and adults are more aware of their mental health, talk about it, think of ways to help them, dedicate more time to themselves and the biggest change that research found out is that 85% of people believe there is now greater awareness of the importance of mental health.

Lack of sleep and stress can often impact our emotional wellbeing and studies have found that sport and a heathy diet can help us cope and regenerate our mental status. Although, sport doe not mean going to the gym everyday, as some of us have never hit a gym before! Sport may include gentle exercise, such as walking every day for a period of time. The same goes for a healthy diet, as if you are not used to one, starting with a small change in diet will impact positively your body and mind. In time, you can change your new healthy plans and do more exercise and eat more healthy, as changing drastically your lifestyle can also impact your mental health.

Sleeping a minimum of 6 hours at night has also shown to improve peoples’ mental health and help by being less tiered when awake, leads to good performance and there are less risks of having to deal with certain health issues, such as cardiovascular disease, impaired immunity, obesity, high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes, mood disorders and dementia.

Luckily, there are also a few other methods that can help us have a balanced mental wellbeing. Research has proven that certain plants based remedies can positively change our way of connecting with the world and ease our way of dealing with pressures, stress and so on.

Research on teenagers students found that better sleep hygiene led to better sleep, but there was a much greater improvement when inhaled lavender was included in their night-time routines. Those who used a combination of inhaled lavender and interventions to improve sleep hygiene reported a significant improvement in sleep quality and were far more likely to wake feeling refreshed.

Marjoram, often used for cooking, also contains several compounds which aid sleep. A study in nurses working nightshifts showed that aromatherapy massage using marjoram essential oil in an almond oil carrier led to significant improvements in sleep scores and reduction in sleep disturbance and daytime drowsiness.