Exercise for mental health

While most of us are urged from an early age to take good care of our bodies, WE have neglected our mental health for far too long. Hopefully, it won't take you hitting rock bottom - which is what it took our founder Brian - to recognize the importance of a strong and healthy mind. And just like your physical health, your mental health needs constant maintenance as well. To maintain his mental fitness, he performs various exercises in conjunction with our 1CaB Healing Suite of Botanical Formulations, as well as our Mind's Eye nootropics. From us to you, we offer some mental fitness mentorship for anyone looking to achieve optimal clarity and calm.

Meditation

Time: 20 minutes, daily

Routines and Rituals: Like all exercises, meditation needs to be consistent if it is to be at all helpful. Since meditation is so counterintuitive — after all, our monkey mind tells us, what can you get from doing nothing? — it can feel like a pointless chore if you only sit down to do it once a week. However, if you’re making a point to do it for 2-5 minutes, you’ll get a lot more out of it than you gave yourself 10-20 minutes every so often.

Get the frequency of the exercise down, then start building up to 20 minutes. This will build habits. And if you can’t find a private space to do it, then do it while pumping gas or waiting in line. Something regular users of Happy Belly do is to position a mini-meditation right after doing one gelcap and before each meal. Some find that it puts their bodies and minds in the right place for the act of metabolism, no matter how busy they may be. Routine as it may be, it not only matters WHAT you eat, but HOW you eat as well. 

Nature

Time: 30 minutes, 2-3 times/week

Routines and Rituals: It's not always easy finding time to slot in a nature walk, especially if you live in a city. If this is the case, you may want to try a digital detox for a few minutes. Having houseplants in your personal space can be enough to remind people of nature’s sustaining rhythms. One of our favorite rejuvenating rituals is synchronizing a Vital Recovery session during one's time in nature. After you've done that, it's time to soak in the energy that nature is providing all around you. 

How to have a Total and Vital Recovery in Nature

• Look at the plants. See how they grow towards the sun.
• Look at the tree, and examine its bends and contours, and how the leaves develop.
• Listen for birds and insects.
• Feel and smell the grass.
• Take some time to just sit and observe a body of water if you're lucky enough to be near one. Let the peace and stillness wash over you.

Sleep

Time: 8 hours/night, daily

Routines & Rituals: Implementing a consistent sleep practice is key to maintaining mental health. Here's the habit that we've set for ourselves here at Medicine Box:

• Set an alarm on your phone to alert you to the end of their day. Then, take a good hour to power down every night before resting, putting their phone on airplane mode. 
• Turn off all the lights in the house. NO screens, since your brain is definitely affected by lights, especially the blue lights emitted by screens. (They may also put on Swannies, too, to make sure those pesky frequencies stay out.) 
• Take one or two gelcaps of Equanimity with their bedtime tea, along with 5-HTP, to get a double shot of tryptophan that will prepare their brain for the work it has to do the next day.
• Upon waking up, take a multivitamin, Omega-3 fish oil and GABA with water, grape seed extract and echinacea solution. Both waking up and falling asleep are the bookends of their day, and often find if these go well, the rest of the day follows suit.

Mentorship

Time: Whenever possible

Routines & Rituals: Whether it’s a therapist, a minister or a close confidant, one should always have a mentor handy. Much of what is now Medicine Box would not exist without the guidance of our late Chief Spiritual Advisor Michael Hollister. So for those looking to engage further with the deeper healing powers we’ve inherited from our time spent with him and the magical medicine makers of the Tahoe region, we invite you to schedule a FREE consultation with Brian. All of life is medicine, and in order to be in perfect sync with the Seven Pillars of Food, Music, Mindfulness, Collaboration, Community, Recovery, and Nature, it helps to have a little mentorship to guide you along the way. So be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to receive — as we learned from Hollister’s passing, you can’t take a resource, whether natural or personal, for granted.