How to Improve Your Mental Health Without Meditating

This short listicle doesn’t include mediation or journaling.

Photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash

What will you say if I ask how you’re feeling right now? You might respond with a polite “I’m fine.”

But what if I persist? What if I say, “Drop the formality and tell me how you’re really feeling.”

If I’m lucky, you’ll open up. Honest answers like “stressed,” “anxious,” “depressed,” “exhausted,” and “mind-fucked” will tumble like clothes from an overstocked closet.

Don’t punish yourself for feeling like this. Millions of people across the world are battling in a storm inside themselves. And the number is increasing. In March 2020, 32% of adults in the US reported that worrying about COVID — 19 negatively impacted their mental health. Just a month later, the number jumped to 53%!

There’s plenty of advice online to manage your mental health: connect with friends, express gratitude, love yourself, seek professional help.

This advice is useful. We even feel good when we apply it. But it doesn’t take long before we return to the downward spiral of negative emotions. Dopamine, the feel-good chemical our brain secretes, goes missing in a flash. And the craving for it drives people to resort to social media, alcohol, and other harmful…