With ever-changing workplaces, setting boundaries for your physical and mental health is even more important. Setting healthy boundaries can be helpful for you, your coworkers, and the business you work for. Boundaries can help you leave work at work, so you can enjoy your off time and focus on the people in your life. Specific boundaries can also keep you safe when working in a new place or a job where you feel outnumbered.

Ogden Psychological Services wants to help our patients and others understand the need for boundaries. Healthy boundaries can help in relationships, workplaces, and how you spend your time. Boundaries are the best way to keep your mental sanity and spend your time wisely.

1- Taking A Solo Lunch

One boundary that may seem small but that can make a large impact on your mental well-being is taking your lunch each day at work. Working while eating your lunch may not seem like that big of a deal, but having a small break during the middle of the workday can help you stay motivated. Spending your lunch alone can help you decompress, reset your brain, and give you time to read, scroll, or call a loved one. 

2- Delegate Work To Others Who Are Capable

Sharing the workload is another boundary that can help you from feeling stressed or burnt out. Splitting up work among co-workers can help everyone feel needed and prevent one employee from being overwhelmed. Delegating small tasks to other employees will help you focus on more important tasks and from needing to work outside of your designated hours to complete the work. 

3- Establish And Stick To Your Work Hours

Setting your working hours is a boundary that many people struggle to stick to. Working a full-time job can take up a good chunk of your time, so working extra hours without compensation can damage your mental health and relationships. Once you set your work hours, it is important to stick to them unless it is an emergency. Some ways to stick to this boundary are:

• Don’t answer emails on weekends or late at night
• Don’t work on vacation
• Only work 40 hours a week if you are not getting paid overtime
• Don’t answer work calls outside of your work hours
• Prioritize tasks that you are getting paid or compensated for
• Communicate to your boss or managers before you plan to be out of town

4- Take Time Off

Many full-time employees are allotted a certain number of PTO days that must be used before the end of the year. If these days don’t get used, you often forfeit them and lose out on these vacation days. Using all your PTO time and taking mental health days when necessary is a healthy work boundary. Don’t stress about missing work to take a family vacation, take a mental rest day, or attend to a sick family member. Achieving a better work-life balance is only possible when you take time away from the workplace.

5- Ask For Advice

Learning to set boundaries can be difficult and takes practice. If you are struggling with your current work situation and want to set better boundaries, ask for advice. It may look like a conversation with your HR rep or talking with a therapist. Setting boundaries gets a little bit easier each time you do it, so taking the first step will make the next time feel less daunting. 

It can also be helpful to ask your coworkers or friends what their work boundaries are. This may give you some ideas on what you want to set for yourself or how to bring these up to your boss. 

6- Respect Others Boundaries As Well

If you are setting work boundaries, you should also respect everyone else’s boundaries as well. Respecting others’ work hours and time off is a good place to start, but taking on delegating tasks or helping others out with projects can be a great way to help meet everyone’s expectations. Your work environment will only improve if you respect your boundaries as well as others.

Therapy With Ogden Psychological Services

Our team at Ogden Psychological Services works to help you develop coping skills and learn how to set boundaries. Our therapists can work with people of all ages and mental illnesses to help them have a better mental state. No matter where you are on your mental health journey, we will welcome you to our OPS family. Contact us to learn more about our therapists and schedule an appointment.

Eating specific foods with rich nutrients can help those with mental health disorders reduce their symptoms. There are many common and tasty foods for depression. You have probably been taught that a colorful plate is the best way to keep yourself healthy. This is true when it comes to keeping your brain functional.

Vitamins and minerals in foods can help improve your hormone production and give you chemicals your body needs to perform its proper functions. Altering your diet to include more fresh and whole foods has been shown to improve mood and reduce anxiety in many patients. While food is not going to cure your mental illness, it can help make symptoms more manageable while also elevating your emotional and physical stamina.

These foods listed below can help improve your mental well-being with vitamins and specific nutrients. 

1- Leafy And Collard Greens

Leafy greens like lettuce, kale, cabbage, spinach, and more all contain folate which is a chemical your brain needs to function. This is also known as B9 and is often added by food companies to other processed foods like pasta or rice. Some lentils and even asparagus can raise your folate levels and help you manage depression.

Collard greens contain magnesium, which has been proven to help with anxiety, stress, and depression. Including more fruits and vegetables in your diet will help you feel your best. 

2- Foods With Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a mood-boosting vitamin that can be found in a lot of popular foods. Most people get their Vitamin D from the sunlight, but that may not be enough to keep you feeling good when you have depression. 

Foods that include high levels of Vitamin D include oily fish, fortified dairy, eggs, beef liver, cheese, and some mushrooms. If you can’t get enough Vitamin D from your diet, including supplements in your routine (especially during the winter) can help depression symptoms. 

3- Nuts And Seeds

Brazil nuts, almonds, flaxseeds, and chia seeds are all good sources of magnesium, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids. These vitamins are needed in your diet daily because zinc helps your body to absorb magnesium more efficiently. Zinc and magnesium are crucial to brain function and reducing stress. 

Brazil nuts also contain something called selenium, which protects your body from free radicals and helps improve depression symptoms. Other foods that contain selenium include brown rice, sunflower seeds, and some seafood.

4- Turkey

Tryptophan is used in the body to make serotonin. Eating turkey will help you gain more tryptophan and thus boost your serotonin levels. Serotonin is crucial to improving depression because many drugs work to target the way the brain produces the chemical. Mood-boosting effects (on a temporary scale) can come from eating turkey, chicken, and soybeans. Adding more of these white meats to your diet can help elevate your production of serotonin.

5- Antioxidants

Berries, nuts and seeds, and colorful vegetables are all good sources of antioxidants. Antioxidants have shown results in helping those with depression and lowered the risk of developing further symptoms. Antioxidants also help improve other aspects of your health like inflammation, heart health, and eye health. Combining more fruits and vegetables into meals will help you improve in mind and body.

6- Foods With Probiotics

Yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, or probiotic supplements can help improve your gut health. While you may not think your gut health has anything to do with mental health, inflammation, and gut bacteria are linked to mental well-being. Disruptions in your gut bacteria can cause issues with the signals to your brain and lead to lower mental health. Taking the proper strains of probiotics can be helpful to your health in more ways than one. 

Combining Food With Therapy For Depression

Depending on your symptoms, using food, medication, and therapy in combination can significantly reduce your depression symptoms. Working with a licensed therapist can give you a better perspective on why your symptoms are presenting and how to limit triggers in your everyday life. 
Ogden Psychological Services knows that every patient is unique. We want all of our clients to explore options that will help them take better care of their mental and physical health. If you feel that therapy is right for you, we have a friendly team that is ready to help you get started. Reach out to us to schedule an appointment today!

The practice of meditation is becoming more common for those who experience chronic stress, or mental illness or want to simplify their life. Meditation takes practice to truly change mindsets and behavior. When you start as a beginner, it can be frustrating to learn the ins and outs of meditation and find what technique is best for you. Here are some tips to help make meditation much more enjoyable at the beginner level. 

1- Beginners Should Be Patient

When you are ready to jump into the world of meditation, it can be tempting to try lengthy meditation sessions, the most difficult technique, and expect to be perfect at it. Instead, you should start with shorter sessions, around 10 minutes a day. Be patient with yourself. If your mind wanders during a session or if you miss a day or two of meditation, it is perfectly okay. Don’t get discouraged before you have even begun to see the benefits. 

2- Create A Sacred Space To Meditate

Having a designated space for meditation will help limit distractions. Choose a quiet clutter-free space to help promote tranquility. The space can be decorated and filled with comfy cushions or mats to help make meditation feel more relaxing. Research has shown that meditation is a great way to eliminate a stream of jumbled thoughts and restructure the neuropathways in the brain. This can help with mental illnesses like anxiety and depression as well. 

3- Your Breath Is The Focal Point

The fundamental aspect of properly meditating is to control your breathing. Concentrating on your breathing can be hard to master when you first start with meditation. You have to stay in the present moment and keep a steady breathing pattern. Begin by taking slow deep breaths and notice how it makes you feel. As the air enters and leaves your body, notice any sensations you may feel. If your mind begins to wander, just gently refocus on breathing again. This simple technique, when mastered, can be used through daily activities or during the onset of a panic attack. 

4- Try Out Different Meditation Techniques

There are many methods of meditation that you can try. Each one has similar fundamentals, but some different sessions and exercises exist inside each technique. If your stress mostly occurs at night, you might benefit from sleep meditation. If you are more interested in learning about aligning your body and channeling the power of the universe, Chakra therapy could be best. No matter what technique you choose, each method will take time to master. 

Here are some additional meditation techniques:

• Guided meditation
• Samatha-vipassana
• Sleep meditation
• Samadhi
• Guided imagery
• Yoga
• Chakra
• Qigong
• Mindfulness

5- Embrace Mindfulness In Everyday Activities

Mindfulness and meditation often go hand in hand because mindfulness can help you push out distractions. Mindfulness means something different to different people, but it mostly helps individuals to live in the present moment. You can practice this while walking, working, shopping, at family gatherings, or while driving. You can use grounding techniques and focus on surrounding sensations to help create a sense of calm in a fast-paced world. 

6- Establish A Consistent Meditating Routine

One of the hardest things for beginners is to establish a consistent routine of meditation. Drowning out the chaos of the world and slowing down enough to focus on meditation can be difficult. Setting aside a small amount of time each day is the best way to start forming a habit. A consistent routine of meditation can be a healthy coping skill to have when life gets a little more overwhelming. Once you start to condition your mind to follow a routine, it will be more effortless to enter a meditative state. 

7- Let Go Of Thoughts

When you first start meditating, it is common for your mind to wander. All of our lives are filled with worries, concerns about children, health concerns, and other burdens, but meditation can help give our brains a break. If your mind starts to wander and focus on these things, you can work on not giving them as much weight as you have previously. The goal is to not eliminate these thoughts but to have a detached relationship with your thoughts. Using a mantra to help get your focus back can be helpful for beginners. 

8- Seek Guidance From Others

Others in your life or even online could help you work past any roadblock you are facing. Seeking guidance can help you feel supported during your journey. A mentor or members of a Facebook group could help answer questions as they come up and prevent you from giving up on meditation. It is important to stay open-minded and realize that your meditation journey does not need to look like anyone else’s. 

How Meditation Impacts Mental Health

Finding the building blocks of meditation can help you limit the symptoms of many mental health disorders. Meditation will limit stress and can help reduce physical symptoms of anxiety. Feeling connected to your inner self can improve your intellect while also giving you more control over your thoughts. 

Research has shown that meditation can help reduce depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Talk to your therapist about incorporating meditation into your mental health routine.