Mental health is a significant influence on our holistic wellness. It influences more than just primary thought – it determines how we behave, think, and feel in everyday life. Having good mental health does not necessarily mean the absence of mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and others. It means having the ability to cope with stressful situations, facing challenges with a level head, maintaining good relationships, and being able to bounce back when hardships hit. The world we live in today is riddled with many ways that can affect your life and take their toll on mental health. Even so, no matter whether you are dealing with an emotional hurdle or just looking to channel more positivity in your life, there are steps you can take improve your mental health.
Understand What Good Mental Health Is
Before embarking on a journey to take control of your mental health, you first have to understand what it is and why it is necessary. Moments of mental or emotional instability can strike anyone at any time, and nearly everyone will experience this at some point in life. However, a lot of people have trained their brain to ignore these issues and opt to tough them out with distractions like alcohol, food, drugs, and social media.
Building good mental health requires the investment of time and implementation of good practices that are done severally. Just like healthy people can get sick and bounce back to health, the same case applies with mental health; even if you know your illness or wound will heal it does not happen immediately.
Build Resilience
The idea of being mentally healthy is not to avoid stressful events from happening. Instead, it ensures that you bounce back and have a positive outlook, even if they do happen. People with mental health apply resilience to get through the tough times without crumbling under pressure. Resilience is the ability to keep pushing towards stability even when everything in your mental and emotional space seems to be crumbling. Building resilience helps you remain focused and productive even when more bad things are going for you than there are good. It also gives you the courage to push yourself into new experiences that challenge the mental limits that keep you confined in a bad headspace or to win real money slots. With resilience, you are more likely to remain hopeful for a solution to a bad situation even if one does not seem in sight.
Prioritise Social Connections
Man is not an island, and nothing proves it more than when you are trying to get your mental and emotional health on track. Human beings thrive when in the company of others since we are social creatures. That is why people with good mental health have strong social connections that keep them functioning at their best. Even if you have gone through experiences that make you shy or distrustful towards the general population, the fact that our social brains are not encoded to thrive in isolation will push you to crave interaction.
Making phone calls to loved ones is an excellent place to start, even if you do not intend to pour your heart and soul out to them. You can also meet new people through social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and others. However, nothing beats face-to-face interactions, especially if they are a good listener and are worthy of your trust. Choose such close connections with people who look behind the curtain of your words to understand your feelings and help without passing judgement or criticising your situation.
Exercise
For the mind to be healthy, more often than not, your body has to be healthy as well. These two organs share such a strong connection that when the physical is healthy, a similar automatic response is generated for emotional and mental well-being. When your body is active, you release endorphins that help lift your mood and increase your energy levels. Working out is most impactful on your mental health when it is done regularly.
If you are not a fitness fanatic, you do not have to be worried about lifting weights in the gym or running a couple of miles on the treadmill. Start slowly by taking a walk during your lunch breaks or in the morning, walk around your work building or in the mall if it is well air-conditioned, cycle to work, or dance to your favourite tunes.
Eat Healthy Food
Like exercise, food has a significant impact on mental health. If you have never made any major changes to your diet, it can be easy to underestimate just how much food impact your thoughts and feelings. Bad eating habits take and keep you down a hole of low energy, bad sleeping habits, slow brain function, and a weak immune system. By changing your diet to consist of nutritious food, you give yourself more energy and an improved mood to better handle your mind and emotions. Lean towards foods that affect your mood positively such as flax seeds, nuts, avocados, fresh fruits, tuna, beans, and leafy greens.
Look Back on Your Stress Levels
Even though we know ourselves best, it is rare for a lot of us to conduct self-assessment to understand what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. Keep the reigns on your mental health by tracking what your issues are and how well you are handling them. You can play slot games at https://real-gambling.com/real-money-slots/ in order to relax. This is best done by keeping a journal, which you can later look back at and identify critical issues that are consistent in hindering your journey. Also, you can use the journal to track what you are grateful for so that you can remind yourself of the good things you have even when it seems like bad things or nothing is happening in your life.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep deprivation is one of the leading causal factors for a negative mood. Make a habit of going to bed at a consistent time and getting seven to eight hours of sleep every day. The better you nap, the more rested your body will be to handle the turmoil that comes with the next day.
Final Remarks
You are powerful enough to decide to incorporate positive habits in your life, which will help you build your resilience and improve your mental health. Even if you feel like you are too deep in a mental health crisis, start by incorporating one habit at a time and include others as things continue to get better.
