Mental Health Toolkit: Tools to Bolster Your Mood & Mental Health
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- 30 Oct 2023
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KEYPOINTS
- 01
Mental health starts with the 'big six' biological pillars
Drawing on Dr. Paul Conti's 'first principles of self-care' and Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett's work, Huberman names six pillars: sleep, light (now 'light and dark'), movement, nutrition, social connection and stress control. These keep the autonomic nervous system and neuromodulators working well, and they make the psychological tools later in the episode work better.
- 02
Treat sleep as a lifelong practice
Aim for as much good-quality sleep as possible on most nights, but don't be neurotic about it. Sleep is something you'll work on for the rest of your life, like fitness. After a poor night, get back on track the next night instead of worrying about it.
- 03
Get morning light and real darkness at night
Get sunlight in your eyes for about 10 minutes on clear mornings and 20–30 minutes on overcast ones, plus some light in the late afternoon. Even heavy cloud lets through far more light than indoor lighting. A study in Nature Mental Health measured light exposure in more than 85,000 people. It found that daytime light and nighttime darkness each independently predicted better outcomes for depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD and other conditions. Huberman suggests 6–8 continuous hours of very dim light to darkness in every 24 hours.
- 04
Movement and nutrition basics
Huberman suggests about 180–220 minutes of Zone 2 cardio a week (a pace where you can still hold a conversation), getting your heart rate very high at least once a week, and resistance training. For nutrition he avoids diet wars: whatever your eating style, get enough, but not excess, quality calories.
- 05
Limit social interactions that drain you
Barrett points out that nervous systems regulate each other, including between people and pets. People who leave you feeling taxed or upset disrupt your physiology as well as your mood, so limiting those interactions protects mental health.
- 06
Lower stress in real time and raise your threshold for it
The physiological sigh is a full inhale through the nose, a short second inhale to fully inflate the lungs, then a long exhale through the mouth. One, sometimes two or three, quickly lowers stress. To raise your threshold, get into a cold shower for about a minute: the adrenaline surge is unavoidable, and practicing staying calm under it trains you for real-world stress.
- 07
The brain runs on prediction, so routines support mood
Barrett describes the brain as managing a 'body budget' by predicting what's coming. Your 'affect' (arousal, hormones and other bodily signals) colors how you feel. Keeping the six pillars consistent makes your bodily states more predictable, which helps stabilize mood.
- 08
Medications open a window for neuroplasticity
SSRIs, Wellbutrin and psilocybin, which is chemically similar to serotonin, all act on neuromodulator systems. Depression is not simply a serotonin or dopamine deficit, though. Huberman frames these drugs as tools for opening up the brain's ability to rewire, which is why he stresses combining them with talk therapy that works on the real-life and historical causes.
EXAMPLES
- 01
Name emotions more precisely (emotional granularity)
Two experience-sampling studies, one in depressed people and one including Barrett with healthy adults, prompted people several times a day to report what they felt. Labeling emotions more precisely improved emotional processing and well-being. Precision cuts both ways, since dwelling in detail on negative emotions can intensify them. Huberman recommends rich labeling of positive emotions and treating negative ones as information, while taking clinical depression or anxiety seriously.
- 02
Five minutes of cyclic sighing a day
In a study published in Cell Reports Medicine, five minutes a day of repeated physiological sighs, done at any time of day, improved mood around the clock and reduced anxiety, producing the best results of the practices compared. Heart rate variability, which rises with exercise, sleep and long exhales, ties breathing to emotional state.
- 03
Build a self-concept with age-by-age folders
From the Conti series: create a folder for each period of your life (for example ages 6–11 or 25–30) with bullet points about where you lived, schools, influential people, key experiences, relationships and struggles. Huberman's own notes include teachers' names and a summer camp that changed him. The aim is a structured story of yourself that informs the present and the future, not an autobiography.
- 04
Explore the unconscious through dreams and the moments after waking
Late-night REM dreams carry more emotion. On waking, lie still with your eyes closed to recall a dream better, then jot down its themes and watch for ones that recur over weeks. You can also spend 1–5 minutes after waking with your eyes closed, simply noticing where your thoughts go.
OTHER RELEVANT
- 01
Free-association journaling
Write whatever comes to mind for 5–10 minutes, daily or a few times a week. These notes are only for you, so forget handwriting and how it reads. Huberman describes a second, more structured style of journaling as well.
- 02
Agency and gratitude come from doing the work
Conti's model aims for agency and gratitude in daily life, which lead to peace, contentment and delight. They don't arrive by decision. They come from understanding yourself, your drives and your defenses, such as denial or overwork.
- 03
Process trauma in full language
Serious trauma should be worked through with a trained clinician. Conti, speaking with Dr. Peter Attia, warns that shrinking the language you use about a trauma to something more palatable feeds guilt and shame and pushes it into the unconscious, where it can resurface as night waking or compulsive thinking. His book is The Invisible Epidemic.