If better mental health is on your list for the coming year, small daily habits are a powerful place to start.
Here are five science-backed habits to improve mental health, grounded in the neurofeedback work we’ve done for years at Evolve Brain Training to support emotional balance and cognitive health.
In Focus
- Science says you can improve mental health by cultivating it through daily habits.
- Develop and regularly practice these habits until they become so deeply ingrained in your daily routine.
- Healthy habits to improve mental health can support neurofeedback therapy and other options for managing mental health issues.
Table of Contents
Daily Habits to Boost Mental Health
Below are daily habits to improve mental health.
1. Get as much sunlight as possible.
Incorporate getting exposed to sunlight into your daily routine. This could include working in a room with an abundance of natural light. Much better if it’s going out on the porch, gardening, or sitting on a bench at a nearby park in the daytime for direct sunlight exposure.
Sunlight, particularly ultraviolet-B, is the catalyst you need to produce vitamin D3, which is the active form of Vitamin D. You need Vitamin D for strong bones, better cardiovascular health, a functional immune system, and good muscle function. Vitamin D also plays a role in mood and sleep regulation through the serotonin and melatonin pathways.
The fact that vitamin D deficiency is linked to the incidence of schizophrenia, depression, and seasonal affective disorder is further proof of its (and sunlight’s) importance.
2. Eat a diet rich in probiotics and prebiotics.
Eat prebiotics and probiotics. Both are important to a healthy and thriving gut microbiota (i.e., the ecosystem of microorganisms inside your gastrointestinal system).
Why is a healthy gut microbiome important? Studies suggest that altering the composition of the gut microbiome can lead to a better stress response and can reduce anxiety. In contrast, the abundance of certain bacteria is linked to certain mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.
Prebiotics: Prebiotics are ingredients (e.g., certain starches, inulin, pectin, and oligosaccharides) you ingest through food but can’t fully digest. Prebiotic-rich foods include oats, flaxseed, apples, bananas, and sweet potatoes. They feed your gut microbiome.
Probiotics: Prebiotics are foods that introduce living microorganisms into your gut. This can improve gut microbiota balance. Fermented foods, such as yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut, kimchi, and kombucha, are rich in probiotics.
3. Get a good night’s sleep.
Sleep is an essential biological process, and you need consistent, uninterrupted, high-quality, and adequate sleep for good health. A study published in Sleep, a leading journal in sleep and circadian science, revealed that people with insomnia are 10 times as likely to have depression and 17 times as likely to have anxiety. Sleeping well is, thus, one of the healthy habits for mental health.
What does sleeping well look like? Here are the defining features of this habit:
- You sleep at the same time every night, whether it’s a weeknight or the weekend, and wake up at the same time every morning.
- You get at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night.
- You sleep uninterruptedly through the night.
- You fall asleep effortlessly after lying down on the bed and closing your eyes.
4. Engage in physical activity or exercise.
Take a walk, run, swim, or take up pickleball. Do something, anything, as long as it requires you to be physically active.
A systematic review of the association between physical activity and risk of depression, published in JAMA Psychiatry, revealed the following findings:
- Compared to adults who reported no physical activity, adults who attained the weekly physical activity target (i.e., 150 minutes of brisk walking) recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a 25% lower depression risk.
- Even getting only half the recommended amount of exercise leads to an 18% reduction in depression risk level.
- Assuming causality between physical activity and depression risk, 1 in 9 cases of depression (i.e., 11%) could have been prevented if everybody met the minimum recommended level of physical activity.
5. Practice mindfulness (and activities that promote it)
Mindfulness is a psychological state of awareness, characterized by being present in the moment. It’s looking outward to experience the environment (the feel of the breeze, the sight of a bird in flight, the smell of flowers, the sound of rushing feet) and looking inward to process thoughts and feelings.
The goal is not to calm down but to experience, not to judge but to observe. Through complex cognitive processes, it helps effectively regulate emotions and improve mental well-being.
Among the mindfulness-inducing things to do daily for mental health are:
- Yoga
- Tai chi
- Qigong
- Meditation
- Breathing exercises
A feature on the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology enumerates the following research-backed benefits of mindfulness meditation:
- Reduced rumination: It can break a cycle of negative thinking that may lead to depressive symptoms.
- Stress reduction: It can improve people’s emotion-regulation abilities, increase positive affect, and decrease anxiety and negative affect.
- Working memory enhancement: It can increase working memory capacity even if you’re exposed to highly stressful situations.
- Improved focus: It improves your focus and concentration.
- Less emotional reactivity: It makes you more capable of disengaging from emotionally upsetting situations.
- Better cognitive flexibility: It enables new ways of learning and equips you with more adaptive responses to negative and stressful situations.
- Relationship satisfaction: It makes you more capable of expressing yourself, communicating with others and responding well to relationship stress.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for a habit to improve mental health?
A habit, once formed, may improve mental health immediately or slowly. There is no set timeline for healthy habits to pay off, as the process works differently from person to person. However, according to an article in the British Journal of General Practice, it takes around 10 weeks of daily repetition for a habit to form (i.e., become instinctual).
Which habits help with both anxiety and depression?
Regular exposure to sunlight, eating a diet rich in prebiotics and probiotics, sleeping well, regular exercise, and practicing mindfulness are five habits that can help with both anxiety and depression. There are other daily habits to improve mental health that you can develop and implement, but you can start with these five.
Can exercise alone improve mental health?
Exercise can improve mental health, but it’s not enough on its own. You may need to develop other daily habits for mental health, including eating right, sleeping well, getting enough sunlight, and being mindful. Regular neurofeedback therapy sessions and cognitive behavioral coaching may also be necessary.
New Habits to Improve Mental Health in 2026
The year 2026 is just around the corner, and it’s time to start writing a fresh batch of New Year’s resolutions. Let’s all aim for better mental health in the new year by committing to the five science-backed habits discussed above.
While strengthening your mental health foundations with healthy habits for mental health, give yourself an edge through neurofeedback therapy at Evolve Brain Training. Neurofeedback therapy is a brain training strategy that can be used for managing depression without medication and anxiety treatment in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Book a free consultation and jumpstart your mental health wellness journey for the coming year.
Dr. Upasana Gala is the founder and CEO of Evolve Brain Training, a Neurofeedback-centered institute that focuses on using non-invasive brain training techniques to maximize the brain’s true potential.