While mental health is at the top of our priorities if often gets cast aside and then remedied with medication. More often than not, however, taking care of your mental well-beingcan be done without medicinal intervention. If you are looking for ways to boost your mental health without turning to drugs, take a look at these six tips.

1.  Take Care of Your Body

Having a regular workout regimen, getting enough sleep, and eating healthy has long been proven to directly affect mental health. Working out releases endorphins into your body to help mitigate depression, and eating foods that are heavy in grease tend to make your body and mind sluggish and also have been proven to alter your hormones to leave you feeling anxious and depressed. These changes do not happen overnight so try and start slow. Consider starting each day with easy morning stretches and sun salutations and try and replace one meal a day filled with nutritious ingredients. Work your way up from there.

2. Create Attainable Goals

Constantly feeling like a failure because of setting unrealistic goals can take a toll on your mind. If you have a huge goal in mind, consider breaking that up into smaller, more realistic goals. Sometimes having a huge burden on your shoulders can make you paralyzed in fear, with crippling anxiety. 

Try to recognize when you’re setting yourself up for failure when setting goals. For example, maybe you need to complete a project at work or need to fix a few things at home. Instead of trying to fix everything yourself, focus on the work you have to do yourself and set a goal to call your home repair company. Set goals that will challenge to become a better version of yourself, not a completely different version of yourself. If you aren’t a professional at something, don’t try to be—let others handle it for you. 

3. Avoid Toxic Friends

Surround yourself with friends and family members that will lift you up, instead of feeding into negative thoughts that can bring you down. This may seem like a struggle depending on who your current social circle is filled with. If needed, try going to different meet-ups based on your interests to find new friends that emit positive energy.

4. Take Advantage of Daily Meditation

One of the biggest factors that affect your mental health is becoming bogged down with the day-to-day tasks that cause underlying stress and anxiety. What’s more? Depending on the industry your work in, it may be hard to unplug from work even after your shift. Take time each day for daily meditationto help clear your mind or to help work through what may be currently causing stress in your life, such as work, money, or social media. Consider creates goals in your daily meditation to help release parts of your life that are particularly stressful.

5. Change Up Your Routine

Having a change in your life helps you stay engaged and interested, instead of falling into complacency. Believe it or not, but boredom is a huge factor in anxiety and depression. If you can’t change your daily routine at work, consider trying a new hobby to look forward to, create a weekly meetup group, or join a sports team for weekend games. Discover what will help you get more engaged and go after it.

6. Learn When to Ask For Help

Keep track of how you’re feeling throughout these tasks and learn when you need professional intervention. These tips are not the “end-all-be-all” of mental health and sometimes medical intervention may be needed. If you usually use medication and want to try a more holistic approach, be sure to regularly check in with your therapist and document the success rate you feel you are making without medicine.