Though much attention to health focuses on preventing illness, there is far more evidence suggesting your mental health may play just as big a role in your physical well being. By taking the time to nurture your mind as well as your body, you can create a balanced life. Your mental health isn’t something that can be neglected until it is having numerous problems; your sanity deserves just as much attention as the rest of you.

The more science and psychology delve into the mind, the more we see that the brain is a piece of human machinery. This is to say that the brain is affected by the habits we have, just as much as our body is. Since the brain requires certain nutrients and blood flow in order to process information quickly and efficiently, we need to understand how to provide the proper nutrition and activity.

Eating right allows your body to function as it normally should. When your body has the right nutrients, it will be able to interpret and to send information from the brain to other areas. The nerve tissues will be able to receive the proper information and they will be able to respond accordingly. When you aren’t eating a balance diet, your nerves can’t function properly, thus your brain may receive improper messages, affecting your mental health.

In the same way, exercise allows you to ensure that the blood in your body is moving as it should, delivering nutrients and oxygen to the right areas. When you add thirty minutes of activity to your day, you can significantly reduce the possibility of depression and anxiety – according to recent research.

When you have mental health troubles like anxiety and depression, many therapists will tell you to find out the cause and to work on ways to distract yourself from feeling the pain or the anxiety. But how can you do this naturally? Meditation is an effective way to quiet your mind if you find your thoughts racing and causing you problems in your everyday life. By simply sitting down quietly for ten minutes a day, trying to block out all thought, you can significantly reduce your mental health issues.

NYC’s first and only outdoor counseling practice. Therapy is conducted outdoors in local parks and quiet side streets of Manhattan, dynamic and unique.

Clay Cockrell, a New York City licensed social worker, has taken his therapy off the couch and into the great outdoors. There’s an added bonus in walk and talk therapy — the exercise.

Antidepressants are taking away business from talk therapy, according to some experts. A recent study found that less than 15 percent of patients had the suggested amount of follow–up care after starting medication. So therapists have to find new ways to keep people interested in talk therapy. Cockrell thinks combining talk therapy with physical exercise might increase the number of people considering talk therapy.