Mental health impacts an individual’s ability to enjoy life, overcome challenges, form relationships and recover from setbacks. A strong mental state allows someone to cope better with stress, sadness and other negative emotions.
There are various ways you can boost your mental health, such as exercise, good nutrition and proper sleeping patterns. No need to put in hours upon hours of physical activity either – even 30 minutes can have profound effects on mood and improve mental wellness.
1. Take Care of Yourself
Self-care can help you feel better and can assist with overcoming mental health difficulties. There are various methods available for taking care of yourself, from exercising and meditation sessions to spending time with friends.
Practice self-care to increase emotional wellness, manage life’s stresses more effectively and strengthen relationships. Some may interpret self-care practices as selfish acts but actually they play an essential part of mental wellness.
2. Get Plenty of Rest
Even just a few hours of poor sleep can have devastating effects on your emotions, mental clarity and ability to manage stress. Conversely, quality rest can improve concentration and memory skills as well as boost immunity levels while relieving anxiety and reducing stress levels.
Physical rest can come in the form of either passive (time spent sleeping or napping) or active activities that improve physical well-being, like massage, exercise and stretching. Achieve optimal physical rest can increase energy levels throughout your day and help boost performance at work.
3. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a state of awareness that encourages moment-by-moment acceptance of experience and can help manage emotions more effectively by decreasing stress and anxiety levels.
Some mindfulness practices involve sitting still with eyes closed and concentrating on natural breathing or repeating silently a word or mantra, such as an affirmation. Other practices focus on becoming aware of body sensations such as the tingle in your feet or breeze upon your skin.
Practices such as these can be particularly helpful for trauma survivors who struggle with emotional regulation. If you’re experiencing symptoms related to trauma, however, it’s wise to consult a trauma-informed mental health professional for support.
4. Exercise
Exercise can benefit our physical wellbeing, but recent research is uncovering just how beneficial exercise can be in improving mental wellbeing too. Exercise for mental health benefits include helping manage symptoms or even helping prevent mental illness altogether.
Exercise may help to alleviate anxiety and depression by strengthening your immune system, while engaging in productive tasks with tangible results (weight training for instance) can also have a positive effect.
5. Get Out in Nature
Research increasingly supports spending time outdoors – be it at a park, beach or other green areas – as a form of ecotherapy therapy for mental wellbeing.
Just like exercise, spending time outdoors can improve your mood and alleviate stress while offering opportunities to develop new skills.
Studies show that those who spend two hours per week outdoors, even just gazing upon greenery through windows, experience better attention span, reduced stress levels and anxiety, lower depression levels and greater well-being than their counterparts who spend no time outside.
6. Spend Time with Friends
Companionship can be one of the best ways to boost mental health. Friends can help you laugh, have fun, and provide emotional support in times of difficulty. Most importantly, friendship can give us a sense of belonging and make us feel valued and wanted.
They can also help encourage you to adopt healthy behaviors and discourage unhealthy ones like smoking or overeating. If your friend loves running, for instance, this might encourage you to join them.
7. Practice Self-Care
People with strong mental health are better able to manage difficulties, rebound from setbacks, and maintain positive relationships. They possess an optimistic view on life that allows them to find joy even in times of difficulty or hardship.
Self-care can have a tremendous effect on mental wellbeing. This may involve socializing, getting plenty of restful sleep, exercising regularly and practicing mindfulness – or simply finding the strength to say no when necessary.