(2025-09-09) Can You Make Yourself Less Neurotic

Can You Make Yourself Less Neurotic? ...thought patterns, relationships, lifestyle factors, and perhaps medication. There is typically a biological component to neuroticism, meaning that some people are just physiologically more sensitive to stress

Often, it also has a lot to do with early childhood environment and learned behaviors, and addressing those issues typically requires professional help.

Change How You Talk to Yourself (self-talk)

Exercise

First, exercise promotes the release of several neurotransmitters that improve your mood, including serotonin and endorphins. It also increases levels of BDNF, a neurotransmitter that grows neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region involved with memory formation that also helps regulate emotions

Second, exercise causes structural changes in the brain that actually make your brain less sensitive to stress. A structure called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is plugged into several areas of the brain that are responsible for identifying and responding to threats. Regular exercise appears to help turn down the volume a bit on the HPA axis.

20 minutes a day of moderate-intensity aerobic exercises, such as brisk walking

Eat a Healthy Diet

There are now quite a few studies showing that diet plays an especially large role in depression. One large meta-analysis of the research found that participants who adopted healthier diets–typically consisting of more nutrient-rich whole foods–had significantly fewer symptoms of depression.

This study found no effect of diet on anxiety symptoms–which are at least as common as depressive symptoms among people with high neuroticism. However, other research suggests that magnesium–specifically magnesium deficiency–may play an important role in anxiety disorders, making people more sensitive to stress

You can boost your magnesium levels by eating more magnesium-rich foods, many of which you should be eating anyway. These include nuts, beans, legumes, dark leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, avocados, and dark chocolate.

Practice Mindfulness

One study of graduate students found that participating in a seven-week mindfulness course reduced neuroticism over a six-year follow-up period. Participants who completed the mindfulness course reported decreased psychological stress, due at least in part to personality changes.

Perhaps the most important is that it’s a way of practicing acceptance of challenging emotions.

Mindfulness also helps support other healthy lifestyle changes such as reducing emotional eating and improves your relationships by helping you be more attentive to the people around you.