Anxiety: Understanding the fact 🙌

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“The best use of imagination is creativity, the worst use of imagination is anxiety”. Deepak Chopra.

Humans are the only species since evolution, who have the most evolved mind. They can undoubtedly imagine both constructively and destructively. So, it’s our thoughts alone which can make or break us.
Being anxious is having an uninvited guest into your house, which you are trying to avoid, but still, he refuses to leave.

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Anxiety is a state of mind, not a disease. Every day, we generate about 70,000 thoughts, out of which majority of them are negative and repetitive thoughts which do not serve any purpose. Thoughts are the main stimulator of our state of wellbeing. Whether you are physically healthy or not, thoughts are only instrumental which determines our state of wellbeing. It’s the day to day thoughts that creates our perceptual reality which we believe our real world. Hence, this is the hard truth that needs to be acknowledged by us.
It’s essential to educate ourselves that thoughts typically creates our reality. So, if we modify our thinking pattern or start creating empowering thoughts and beliefs, we can easily change the world around us.
Therefore, thoughts are so powerful that they can push you to the peak of physical and mental wellbeing or dumped you in the pit of depression and anxiety.

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So, how does anxiety builds up?
Out of 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts generated, every day, about 90% of them are just repetitive and negative thoughts. There is overthinking and rumination of the same type of thoughts. As the cycle continues, there is an alteration in the chemical makeup of the brain. Dopamine and serotonin, the mood regulators get depleted in the brain. The production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) gets consumed, and slowly there is shrinkage in the size of the brain. When the cycle becomes vicious, and anxiety state becomes chronic. It started to interfere with daily activities. Such a state is regarded as an Anxiety disorder. As chronic stress get elevated and reaches the threshold, there are significant changes taking place in the brain.

Dr Joseph LeDoux New York University neuroscience.16ef.indd
Some noticeable changes are :
1. The more the brain is engaged in anxious thoughts, the more the ‘anxious neural pathways’ are strengthened.
2. The brain is stuck in the state of ‘high alert’, becomes more reactive to the stress receptors for possible threats which are mostly imaginary.
3. The fear centre in the brain becomes more prominent and more significant.
4.Not just the chemistry, but changes start appearing up to the DNA level in the brain.
5. Brain ageing process also fastens.
6. The circadian rhythm is disturbed, and the sleep cycle gets disrupted.

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Simple ways to get rid of the anxiety state :
1. Firstly, it is better to face the anxiety. More avoidance will lead to more exaggeration. So, visit your fears, and start being an observer. Being an observer of your mental state, create a sense of indifference, feels like you are different from your state of mind. You understand that the mind and body have created a false association to any external object or stimulant as the triggering factor.

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2. Diaphragmatic breathing: Long bouts of inhalations followed by long rounds of exhalation. The deep breathing technique: Like taking a prolonged deep breath of inhalation by counting 1-4, then, a pause of 1-4, followed by an exhalation of 1-4, then another break of 1-4, and the sequence continues. That is why this technique is known as four-square breathing. This slow and deep breathing causes the oxygen to reach your brain, and the parasympathetic nervous system gets activated. It can be an instant stress reliever.
3. Naming your anxiety is as expressing your state of mind to another person. Putting words, and explanation of your anxious thoughts will stimulate the frontal cortex. Your brain will be more attentive in the frontal cortex and deviated from the fear centre, which is responsible for the anxious state.

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4. Mindful and relaxation techniques like mindfulness, meditation, yoga, which all goes to help stimulate the parasympathetic system, which is for relaxation.

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5. Plant-based food is known to have a calming effect on the human mind.

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Blessings and much love to all 💐

Silent Saturday 🙌

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International Yoga Day , 21st June 🙌🧘🏻

Happy International Yoga Day !

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Negative emotions: 6 ways to deal with…😇

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Scientists are yet to give a proper standard definition of emotion. Enough researches are done in the past and are still going on. Yet, it is quite challenging to define this experience of mind called ’emotion’. Emotion is usually a state of mind which is neurophysiological. It can be linked to the person’s personality, thought process, feeling, mood or temperament. It’s a mental state where he/she may experience either pleasure or displeasure. So, every day and every moment, a person’s emotional state may vary.

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Researches have revealed that the left side of the brain is a logical and more analytical half while the right side is imaginative, creative and emotional. There is a total of at least 27 emotions which appear in the human mind. Everday, both positive and negative emotions surface in the human mind throughout the day. As the flickering mind keep reacting and responding to the different internal and external experiences, so does the emotion keep changing. I think emotion/feelings have a lot to do with our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind, with its conditioning and tendencies, ingrained through our life journey. Therefore, depending on these tendencies, the emotional state may vary from individual to individual for the same human experience.

Having an emotion, pleasant or unpleasant, we blame it to the external environment. But we fail to acknowledge that our internal environment has a greater role to play than any external environment when it comes to our emotions. Here, I would like to emphasize more on the negative emotions that are generated in our mind daily because they have a toxic effect both on our physical and mental health. We can at least try developing a habit and make behavioural changes to reduce or try getting rid of them as much as practically possible for the sake of our wellbeing.

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The sources of negative emotions evolve through a toxic and adverse thought process like anger, pride, ego, greed, jealousy, hatred, lust, infatuation and so on. So, how do we stop ourselves or at least try getting rid of them daily? It is an ever-evolving process and learning experience that grows with time.

Six ways, we can try getting rid of them are :

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1. Replacement techniques: Every time an unpleasant experience happens, the negative emotion of anger, pain, hurt, resentment appears. Further, the mental pattern of overthinking and ruminating makes it worst to bear. Being aware of our state of mind is an important step to initiate. And the slowly deliberate attempt of replacing the negative thinking pattern with a positive and a more constructive thought process. It is something that isn’t easy at all. But, it isn’t impossible either. It’s a habit that has to be grown and nurtured through time. Therefore, replacement with a better pattern is an efficient method.
2. Bring in the opposite action: Intentionally doing an act of service or showing good conduct even in a bitter experience. It can lead to a change in our mental state to a more positive environment and reduce the negativity. No matter what the other person’s reaction, you remain in a positive and gratitude state. It can help us get rid of negative emotion and maintain a balanced state of mind.

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3. The mind of service: Every individual is deep down selfish. We live, work, desire all the time for our own selfish needs. We feel we will be happier this way. But, we end up suffering because of our selfish desires and needs. We need to realise this sooner or later. The more, we grow towards an unselfish mind, a mind in service to others, the lesser is the negativity around.

4.A bigger picture: Whenever we breed a negative emotion towards a person or a situation, we tend to have a narrow perspective. We become selfish as our ego hurts, and our ‘sense of self’ is threatened. Realizing this fault of our’s is a great help. Being self aware of our narrow-mindedness is a crucial step. It will help us to view the person or the situation in a wide broader picture. Therefore, we become less judgemental towards the state or the person.

5. Nurturing positive emotions: We need deliberate efforts to boost positive feelings of compassion, kindness, love and gratitude. Nurturing these emotions can substitute negative emotions of anger, hatred and jealousy. Cultivating a habit of doing good to others can create good mental impressions and thereby bring good feelings of joy and happiness.

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6.Meditation: The daily practices of meditation, nature walk, chanting, yoga, creative activities enhances self-awareness. Through self-awareness, we can gain better clarity of mind. We have better control of our mind, emotions and actions.

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Blessings and much love to all 💐

Post: Be like water 💦

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Post: Mental Rehearsal: Does visualization work? 🙌

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What is this concept of mental rehearsal? It is an active visualisation technique through the individual’s mind to demonstrate the performance of a particular task just as the way he wants it to be. By doing it repeatedly, there can be subjective learning and actual performance improvement. Researches in performance psychology have been using visualization techniques through mental rehearsal methods to improve the performance in case of athletes and other areas of sports.
Well, it has proved successful in case of sports but also been tried for other areas of psychotherapy to treat mental illness. Can this technique be used in a normal person like us? Can you tap the huge potential of this technique of mental rehearsal and bring improvement in some areas of your life where you lack? Say, any tasks like performing on stage, appearing an exam, public speaking, or trying long-distance running, staying fitter, healthier, overcoming fear so on. The answer is absolute yes. The more we visualize ourselves, the more we perform for success.
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Interestingly, neuroscience researchers have shown that by the mental rehearsal of a particular activity, the thought alone (not performing the task physically ) and having it repeatedly can build up new circuitry in the brain. This can bring about objective changes in that particular area of a person’s life. This happens because when the person perform the particular task with focused attention in mental rehearsal (just the thought of performing) and do it repeatedly, the brain understands it as a true physical performance and start building neural pathways of the new learning. The brain cannot differentiate between a real and imaginary and takes this imaginary performance as a truly physical experience. Therefore, as the person changes his mind, the brain physically changes too and vice versa. So it becomes cyclical. The frontal area of the brain covers the larger part of the brain. It carries out all the major activities of thinking, analyzing, planning, decision making. It is in this area where, we learn, remember new things, explore new things. So, when you focus on a particular area with full attention (the thought alone), cut down all external distraction, the frontal area of the brain lowers the awareness from all external stimuli of the outside environment and the body. When the brain is so focused on that particular thought at the present moment, that’s when actual physical changes happen, new neural pathways start forming. The brain and the body believes that as an actual physical experience.
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The question is how can we apply this in our everyday life? Every person or individual wants to be his/her best version. Every person loves to be successful in some area or the other. Every person wants to be happy in life. If you sit down today and start analysing your life and find out which areas in life, you lack. How can you bring about changes in those areas to improve your quality of life? You start to focus on one particular area of life at a time. Start doing a mental rehearsal of performing better in that area, or visualising a success scenario, or intentionally changing that aspect of life. Performing this mental rehearsal every day with full attention (closed eyes), least distraction from the external stimuli and environment. Doing repeatedly for days with some focused attention. Then, slowly the mind changes, the brain start to change too, new neural circuitry forms. When this mental rehearsal of the particular thought is done repeatedly for days, the new neural connections become stronger and stronger. That’s when the person’s behaviour starts changing, or the objective intentional changes start appearing in that area of his life. Whatever the area could be, like performing better in academics, in office, at work or a particular task. Or changing his/her approach or behaviour towards his health, fitness, other people, any relationship or in any areas, the person strives for.
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But bringing out this change isn’t easy as it is said. But then, it is also very feasible too. The problem is that our mind is too crowded with stress, thoughts, burden and everyday events. It’s really difficult to remain focus on a particular thought or activity even for a single minute before the mind slips. To bring a change in any aspect of life, you need to have a strong intention, a strong will to make it real. Therefore, mental rehearsal of any kind needs to have a very concentrated focused mind. For, this you need to prepare your mind. This is a daily practice. Most of the time, certain practises as Yoga, meditation, mindfulness helps greatly to create a stable and a focused mind. You cannot learn it overnight. It is a practise which keeps getting better with time.
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Some simple tips of mental practices are like
1. Sitting or lying in a comfortable position, keeping your spine straight.
2. Closing eyes is necessary to reduce the external distraction.
3. Breathing evenly and regularly. It is slow deep breathing.(Parasympathetic breathing)
4.Visualization, being detailed and specific of exactly what kind of change and in which area of life you want. And doing it repeatedly every day.
5. Doing mental rehearsal is only effective by being in the present moment. To learn, being in the present moment, try focusing your breath at several moments of the day. When you are at the present moment, there is no fear or stress of any sort.
6. Letting go of fear, everyday stress as much as possible. Don’t overthink.
7. While doing mental rehearsal, stay focus as much as possible.
The focus of mind can be learned by trying to stare an object for some time. The longer you learn to focus on a particular thing, the more is your mind under control and attentive. This is like muscle training. The more you practice, the more you get better with time.

I, myself believe in this practise of mental rehearsal. It did help me improve in some areas of life. Each individual has an inner world of wisdom. Each of us deserves to lead a successful, happy life or deserve to get whatever we want from life. The more we explore this untapped potential, brilliance and can implement in our daily life, the better we can be successful or at least can be the better version of ourselves in life.

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Blessings and much love to all 💐

Post: The Mind Diet 😇

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We need both mind and body equally to carry out our daily activities. As we age, we face the challenges of ageing, living, working, struggling to have a fit mind and a body. Therefore, food being an important source of energy, we need to give our undivided attention to what we consume daily. This Mind diet is a routine plan of what we need to consume daily to keep our mind healthy and prevent us from Alzheimer’s, dementia and other age-related illness.

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Post : Mind control : How do I get that ?😇🤔

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Our mind is illusional. Whatever, we think and perceive is our own derived illusion. It’s our biggest friend and at the same time can be our biggest enemy. Therefore, a common quote says ” You may die a hundred deaths without a break in the mental turmoil “ Our mind makes up everything that happens in our life – good or bad, big or small, ugly or beauty, sad or happy, success or failure, it ‘s all within this thing, called mind. So, how do I control this thing ‘mind’ and remain focus on my goal and life purpose?

Understanding the mind, and its content is very important and fundamental. What makes our thought world? How do thoughts are generated? We build up mental impressions through the different inlets of this outer world. The inlets can be :
*Five senses: sight, hear, smell, touch, taste
*Memory: That has been built up over the years of this outside world experience, right from the day we were born.
*Activity: That we perform , habituated and do throughout the day.

We create thought by an idea backed with emotion. Through different inlets, we build up thoughts as our mental content every day. We generate, perceive, analyse, process and ruminate our entire thought world. So, we keep doing the same mental activity of thinking, analysing, ruminating every day. The thinking pattern doesn’t change. So, does our behaviour and habits. It is uninterrupted, a never-ending process which we may not be even aware.
According to Yoga Psychology ( Yoga Sutras), our thought world mainly depends on mental fluctuation (Vritti) and thoughts (prataya). The mental impulses (vritti) are created through the different inlets like the senses, memory, activity which inturn create mental impressions generating thoughts (prataya). This is the reason, when we are in a positive , vibrant environment, surrounded by positive people, we generate positive, beautiful, creative thoughts. But, when we surround ourselves with negativity, we generate negative thoughts of guilt, anger, pain, hurt, jealousy and so on.

Normally, what happens, when we centred our mind for a particular activity, at the office or home. There are endless distractions. Okay, we try to control the distraction or cut down to some extent, but still mental fluctuations and wondering thoughts continue to distract us. This is because the memory continues to generate unstable thoughts in an unstable mind.
Therefore to manage our mind, we need to control our mental fluctuation and thoughts. The only way to control them is through a concentrated mind. A concentrated mind can be achieved through the power of attention. The power of attention is our very own property (which arises from self) which we can achieve by practising and training our mind. It is a steady power of awareness which is created at our own will. It is the only capability that we can learn to develop for mind control. Whereas, the mental fluctuations (impression) and thoughts are greatly influenced by our outer world, the external distractions. They are not completely within our control.

The different states of mind depending on the power of attention can be defined as
*Ordinary mind: When both the mental fluctuations (vritti) and thoughts (prataya) are unstable. The mind is rather restless distracted, jumping from one thought to another.

*Focused mind: When there is less mental fluctuation (stable vritti) but thoughts are still wobbly (unstable prataya). This is the learning mind.

*Concentrated mind: When both the mental fluctuation (vritti) and thoughts (prataya) are on the same line, stable enough. This is the highest level of attentive mind.

*Meditative mind: When the vritti and prataya are concentrated at the same point, on a similar goal. That is the mind is concentrated at one point say, your attention is entirely on your breath or a point of focus. That is when both mental fluctuation and thought are at the same point. This is the highest level of concentration.

The power of attention is similar to a focused beam of light where all your energies are focused. With this power of attention, you can learn, achieve, complete tasks and attain success in whichever areas of life you want to. That is the reason, we should always learn to perform an activity or task one at a time. So, we give our full power of attention. Handling multiple tasks all at a time can be like a scattered beam where all your energies are distributed. You can be able to do some while some are left undone. Your mind will keep fluctuating and your attention span will be variable and unstable.

So, how do I learn to achieve a concentrated mind with the ultimate power of attention? How do I control my mind, my inner thought world, daily? How do I focus my mind on one activity at a time? How do I take charge of myself? This is a self-learning task, an ongoing process. Two comprehensive ways:

1. To achieve the power of attention, two important things matter the most :
Awareness: Being consciously aware all the time. Feeding our thought world and thought process with positive, constructive and creative thoughts.
Will: Self-training and developing a restrained impulse towards worthy goals, purposeful life.

2.Control of thoughts:
*Exposure to right kind of thoughts: Feeding the mind everyday with right kind of thoughts. Reading good books, being in a positive, good company, surrounded by positive vibrations.
*Right behaviour: Good conduct, right behaviour pattern influence thoughts and emotions. That means reframing our cognitive abilities. Correcting our behaviour patterns as on when required.
*Right lifestyle and habits: Maintaining a regulated lifestyle and habits will greatly influence our mind. You cannot have a stable mind with an unstable lifestyle.
*Purposeful life: Working towards a specific goal, understanding and working towards a meaningful life. Developing a stable mind through meditation and prayers. This cannot be achieved overnight. It is an ongoing, self-learning process. You and I have to keep working on it daily.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

References: Science of Focus by Pravrajika Divyanandaprana (Vivekavani)

 

Post: How about a smart healthy brain 😇😍, anytime, any age? : 5 ways to facilitate the process.

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Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis, two terms commonly used when it comes to brain health. We, just don’t need to dive so much into Neuroscience to learn what they mean and how we can help ourselves to keep our brain healthy. Brain health is important because as long as our brain is healthy, we keep learning new things and our memory is intact. As ageing progresses, we can prevent ourselves from certain chronic conditions like dementia, Alzheimers and Parkinson’s disease by maintaining good brain health.

Neuroplasticity, meaning that our brain is continuously changing through our entire lifetime depending upon our experiences, the environment, habits, behaviour. Neural pathways keep rewiring and dewiring depending upon what is necessary and what is no longer useful. Therefore, being in a positive environment, thinking and feeling positive is all very important.

Neurogenesis meaning formation of new neurons, that is our ability to learn new things and retain in our memory. Previously, it was believed that neurogenesis stopped once we reach our adulthood, that is around the age of 20. Now, researches have shown, that neurogenesis occurs throughout our lifetime. So, we can learn until the day we die. In our brain, the neurons are formed from the neural stem cells and progenitor cells which are in the Hippocampus mainly and also in other regions of the brain. Though every day, new neurons are formed, before, they could get matured, many of them get pruned. A special protein BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) has been identified which is responsible for promoting the maturation, survival and maintenance of the neurons.

So, how do we facilitate this process of neurogenesis and maintain the level of BDNF? 5 simple ways

1. Exercise: Any exercise which can increase the heart rate mainly aerobic exercise, running, brisk walking.


2.Food: Rich in omega 3 fatty acids like fishes (salmon, tuna, sardines), avocados, chia, hemp seeds and nuts. Other sources which help are turmeric, blueberries, goji berries, lotus roots, algae, green tea, coffee. However, too much caffeine is detrimental to neurogenesis.

3.Emotions: Experiencing positive emotions like joy, excitement, love and feeling good, stimulate Neurogenesis. Such emotional experience can appear by being creative, learning a new skill, going out in Nature, proper sleep, listening to Nature sounds, good music and sex. A positive relationship with partners, peers, relatives is helpful. Being in chronic stress, anger, anxiety are detrimental to neurogenesis.

4.Mind stimulation: Cognitive abilities like reading, learning, memorizing, discussing new ideas, taking up music lessons, problem-solving, all stimulate neurogenesis. Cognitive reserve (resilience against brain damage) can be built up by engaging mind stimulating activities or intellectual work.

5.Meditation: Prayers and meditation can stimulate neurogenesis. Practising mindfulness, compassion, being in silence, stillness all facilitate neurogenesis.

Some lifestyle factors which can decrease neurogenesis are a high intake of carbohydrate, sugar, fried foods, inflammatory foods, chronic caffeine intake, smoking, alcohol, obesity, chronic stress, lack of sleep, negative emotions like sadness, depression, lack of engagement, boring life. Direct trauma to the head can be very detrimental to neurogenesis. Nowadays, even environmental pollution is quite hazardous to brain health.

If you are intending to learn more about lifestyle changes that you can do to improve your brain health, I recommend the book: Neurogenesis diet and lifestyle by Dr Brant Cortright

Thanks for reading. Take care.

Blessings and Much love to all 💐

Post : Emotions affects physical health 🙇🏻‍♀️ 4 ways to better handle your emotional wellbeing.

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Your body is not a single entity. It is a community of 50 trillion cells which behaves the way you think, feel and act. When you are in good emotional health, your healthy mental state influence every cell of your body to grow, function healthily and die in normal cyclical order. Again, new cells born and the cycle goes on. But, then this is an ideal situation.

Today, life is full of stressful and unwanted changes. Some of these events like a job change, job stress, death of loved one, divorced or any such situations create a stronger sense of anxiety, sadness, pain which can completely disrupt your emotional health. With emotions running high, your physical health gets affected causing you to develop high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances, stomach ulcers, weight issues etc. Not only this, your immune system gets affected greatly. You are more prone to disease and illness. So, how do we deal with this?

Controlling our external environment, or the circumstances and events in life is not within our control. There is nothing we can do about it. The only thing we have control is on our emotions, thoughts which do influence our physical health.

4 ways to handle better your emotional state:

1.Resilience: Always keep having a positive view of self. Love yourself and understand your self-worth. This helps in creating a security blanket around yourself. Having strong social support, being close to your loved ones, friends do matter. Learning to accept change in the environment, and keeping everything in proper perspective is important. Not everything in life will happen as per your will. All these mindsets help in building resilience to deal with any situations healthily.

2.A balanced life: Always count on your Blessings and gratefulness. Focus on things in your life for which you are grateful. Try not to get obsessed with anything like job pressure, relationship issues, problems at work or at home. Because things do change with time. Let go of the things which are stressful to your life and make time for things which you can enjoy. Create a balance in your life which helps you, in your both, emotional and physical health.

3.Calm your mind: There is a strong mind-body connection. The more your mind is calmer, the more you are stressfree and enjoy a healthier body. Always, make time to engage yourself in mind activity like meditation, listening to calm music, deep breathing, stretching or Yoga.

4.Self-care: To take care of emotional health, try taking care of your physical health by following a healthy routine of eating healthy, sleep, exercise. Releasing pent up emotions by sharing with loved ones and friends is important too. Exercising also helps in letting out pent up emotions.

Thanks for reading.

Much love to all 💐