Our mental health affects every single thing we do in life. Unlike poor physical health, which might make it difficult to run or exercise or climb a mountain, poor mental health can make it impossible to do even the most mundane, everyday tasks.
From your work performance to your relationships to how you sleep, your mind needs to be in shape if you want to enjoy successes in your life.
Ready to learn how?
Here are nine things you can start doing to improve your mental health now.
1. Learn Stress Management Techniques
We all deal with different levels of stress in our lives, and when stress levels build, our risk for anxiety, depression, and physical pain increases with it. Learning stress management techniques that you can use anywhere at any time is key to maintaining strong mental health.
Some stress management techniques that can try at home include:
- Deep breathing
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- Positive self-talk
2. Take Care of Your Physical Health
Physical health and mental health go hand in hand. Both can be causes and effects of one another, so it’s important to work on both your mind and body at the same time.
Adopting a regular exercise routine is a great place to start.
Exercise helps to relieve tension and stress, boost your mood, and improve your concentration and memory. The physical benefits you’ll gain can also lead to improved self-esteem, which can reduce your risk for anxiety and depression.
There are many ways to make exercising fun. You can map your jogging and running routes in scenic areas in your neighborhood. If you prefer to go to the gym, you can enlist a friend to become your gym buddy. At home, you can challenge your family to a round of Just Dance or a quick game of indoor golf.
3. Maintain a Healthy Diet
Eating right is essential, not just to our waistlines but to our mental health as well.
A diet of fruits and vegetables, dark leafy greens, and foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids can boost your brain and protect your brain health.
Processed foods that are high in sugar and fat have the opposite effect, so as tasty as they may be, try to avoid them as much as you can.
There are many ways to make exercising fun. You can map your jogging and running routes in scenic areas in your neighborhood. If you prefer to go to the gym, you can enlist a friend to become your gym buddy. At home, you can challenge your family to a round of Just Dance or a quick game of indoor golf.
4. Set Realistic Goals for Yourself
Goals give us something to strive for, but setting unattainable, unrealistic goals can hurt our mental health.
How?
Because when we don’t reach those goals we tend to feel worse about ourselves.
For example, don’t set a goal such as I’m going to paint my entire house this weekend. Instead, set a realistic one, as in this weekend, I’m going to paint my bedroom.
5. Stay in Touch With Friends and Loved Ones
It’s important to surround yourself with people you love and people that support you. Scheduling time to hang out with or talk to friends and loved ones is as important as scheduling time for work, household chores, exercising, and running errands.
Maintaining strong friendships can help boost your self-confidence, improve your self-worth, and help you cope with issues that may be going on at work or in your personal life.
6. Get Your Finances in Order
One thing that stresses a lot of people out is money. Fortunately, there are some things you can start doing today to put yourself in a better financial position:
- Saving for retirement
- Investing your money wisely
- Building a rainy day fund
- Protecting your future income with disability insurance
Checkout this in-depth article on disability insurance for dentists to learn more about how you can protect your finances with disability income insurance.
7. Journal
Writing down your thoughts in a journal is a great way to improve your mental health. In addition to being a creative outlet and a way to vent, journaling can also help you identify triggers that negatively affect your mood.
Once you identify those triggers you can start figuring out how to avoid them in the future.
8. Practice Self-Care
Self-care means different things to different people. For some people, it’s about dedicating time to a favorite hobby or soaking in a bubble bath. For others, it’s about taking the time to make healthy meals, read a book, or practice meditation.
Practicing self-care can make you more self-aware, and self-awareness helps to identify the activities that make you truly happy. Once you know what those activities are, you can prioritize them and carve out time to do them on a regular basis.
9. Seek Professional Help When Necessary
At the first sign that your mental health is on the decline, seek the help of a professional therapist. Mild symptoms can get worse without treatment, so catching mental health issues in their early stages is always best.
In Conclusion
We should all put as much emphasis on maintaining or improving our mental health as we do our physical health. If it’s not already a priority in your life, make it one today.