We’ve heard that five servings of fruits and veggies every day keeps us healthy. But, what about our mental health?
Andy Gibson has started a meme asking bloggers about their five-a-day to staying mentally healthy as part of the Mindapples Five-A-Day Campaign:
Mindapples is a social movement to promote individual self-management of mental wellbeing. The original “5-a-day” campaign encouraged people to take care of their physical health through simple daily activities, and we want to do the same thing for mental health. We aim to create a stigma-free public debate about mental wellbeing, simply by asking everybody the question: “What’s your five-a-day?”
So, what are my top five things to do every day, or every week to stay mentally healthy?
- Walking away from the computer: as much as I love the interwebs and all my connections there, life is only complete if I take care of the rest of the world and connections offline.
- Talking about subjects other than my field of work: it’s true! I really do have conversations outside of nonprofit organizations and social media 🙂 It helps to have friends and a partner working in many different fields.
- Listening to people who disagree with me: this includes reading books or news or some healthy debate. I feel like talking with people who have a different view point only helps me better understand their point of view but also helps me better understand my own.
- Finding new music: both my husband and I love music, whether it’s old, new, on a CD, last.fm, or a live show. If you have some recommendations, let me know!
- Game nights: as much as we love music, we love game nights with lots of friends. Anything and everything, from pictionary, scrabble, 25 Words or Less, Carcossonne or Settlers of Katan. It’s great to use some of the normally un-tapped parts of the brain.
You can share your five-a-day with Mindapples here!
Andy asked that we keep this meme going by tagging five people to share their five-a-day, so look who’s next:
You’re invited, too! Blog about your five-a-day and share your answers with Mindapples!
My gut reaction was 5 lattes a day – but that isn’t healthy … B
Ha! Thanks, Beth – no, I don’t think 5 lattes a day plays into the mental health quality Mindapples is going for 🙂
Hey Amy – Can you get on Pandora in the UK? If so, let’s share songs!
Hey Britt
Nope – last.fm over here.
Would have loved to share music though!