We talked about how our minds are like computers, and now we are going to talk about how to talk care of them in order to produce the best results for our moods. Did you know our brains function the best when we take care of our bodies? It's true! The way we take care of our physical needs is in direct correlation with our emotional and psychological wellbeing. Taking care of our bodies is done through three different principles; our eating habits, how well we sleep, and the amount of exercise we get.

When it comes to our eating habits, we sometimes want to stick with our comfort foods we know and love, but may not be the best for us. If we want our minds to be performing the very best we have to put in the best food for it. What you put in, is what you get out. If you're putting in foods that are high in nutrients you need, your mind will be able to function. One way to insure you get the nutrients you need for your mind is to take vitamin supplements.

While in graduate school I conducted a study using nutritional supplementation as a treatment for depression and found that the supplements we used had a significant effect on mood in a short and sustainable period of time; therefore, suggesting that nutrition plays a role in depression and that quality supplementation may be a useful form of treatment for depression.

This research constituted a preliminary investigation into the effects of a potent nutritional supplement pack on people’s mood called Life-Long Vitality (LLV) marketed for daily use by dōTERRA corporation. This nutritional supplement pack contains vitamins and minerals, essential fatty acids, polyphenols, and other nutritional energy co-factors that are shown to support optimal health. Our results showed that dōTERRA’s Lifelong Vitality supplement pack had a statistically significant effect on mood over time.

A December 2012 review in the Journal of Medicine and Life titled “Nutrition and depression at the forefront of progress,” declared with mounting evidence that depression is linked to nutrition. The scientific evidence clearly indicated that the global epidemic of depression and anxiety, which has been growing exponentially over the past three decades, may be linked to diet or nutritional deficiencies.

Getting enough sleep is critical to maintaining health. Quality and quantity (7 to 8 hours a night) sleep improves memory, mood, productivity, and immunity, among other things. Sometimes, however, it’s difficult to get that quantity and quality of sleep. Stress, busyness, insomnia, frequent waking can all get in the way. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to improve your sleep—and your health! Here are five essentials to help you get a good night’s rest:

1. Stick to a schedule: To create your schedule, start with planning the morning wake time. Figure out what time you’d have to wake up in order to do everything a normal morning routine requires: showering, eating breakfast, getting kids ready, packing a lunch, and so on. Then work backwards from there to see what time you’ll need to go to bed each night in order to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep. Keeping a schedule will help regulate your body’s internal clock, which in turn will make falling asleep and waking up easier.

2. Evaluate your surroundings and worries: In a survey by the American Psychological Association, researchers found that 42 percent of adults report having fair or poor sleep quality; of that percentage, nearly half report that stress is what is keeping them up at night. Simply identifying and writing down your stressors can lead to eliminating those things you don’t need in your life. Make a list of the top 10 things that are causing you stress and then pick 1 or 2 that can easily be eliminated by delegation, saying no, planning better, and so on.

3. Eliminate naps: Taking long naps during the day can interfere with quality sleep at night. When you feel fatigue setting in during the day, try going for a brisk walk or doing something active for 10 to 15 minutes instead of taking a nap.

4. Turn off electronics 2 hours before bed: Make sure you sleep in a dark, quiet room free of screens—including your smart phone—or distracting LED lights. When you remove these distracting lights, your body and mind are quicker to start relaxing and shutting down so you can get the best quality of rest for the night.

Getting our physical bodies in shape help keep our minds functioning and stay alert. One mood related exercise you can do is meditation. This can help you turn down your mental activity and tune into what's going on inside yourself. You can focus on your mood and even reduce stress and anxiety. When we do any form of exercise chemicals, called endorphins, are released in our brains. These endorphins give us positive feelings that almost immediately uplift our moods. Exercise can also help us increase our self-esteem and improve our quality of sleep. There are so many different benefits to our minds and moods when we start working out our bodies.

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