10 BEST PRACTICES FOR GOOD MENTAL HEALTH
I solely believe that our happiness starts from within ourselves. To elaborate, if I keep my inner self peaceful by doing things I love and also by avoiding things that might hurt me, I guess the major part of living a happy life is done. Life is just simple but we do make it much more complicated. Yes including me, I accept. Instead of pretending to be strong, I always believe that understanding our problems and accepting them, gives more space for a better solution.
How many of us, care about our physical health? Nowadays more people are clear about their lifestyle, so maybe a few people do concentrate on their physical wellness. But if you make a graph between people being conscious about their physical health Vs mental health, the higher point will be for the former and not the latter. This is because many of us are still not aware of the importance of taking care of our mental health.
WHY MENTAL HEALTH IS ALSO IMPORTANT?
Any illness/ disease create some discomfort in our body and it leads to a lag in the normal flow of our metabolism (functioning). This acts as signalling to show us something is not ok in our body. Also, there are some diseases that don’t show vivid symptoms. Some mental health issues come under this category. The diagnosis of such diseases or medical conditions and then treating them will be a great task. Like once you find you are undergoing some kind of unexplainable suffering, it might be little/too late to solve. So, prevention is always better than cure.
BEST PRACTICES FOR GOOD MENTAL HEALTH
Following are a few simple but effective ways to maintain good mental health and prevent damage to your mind. But if the degree of illness is high or the effects are major, do seek professional help. The below mentioned are precautions only, not the cure.
· Self-love/self-care
· Healthy lifestyle
· Exercise/ meditation
· Personal-professional life balance
· Take breaks
· Perform activities you love
· Open up/ speak out
· Healthy distractions
· Accept reality – live in the moment
· Be contented
SELF LOVE/ SELF CARE
The most essential and also the least bothered practice is actually self-care. We can see many people following a proper morning-night routine for self-pampering. But on the other hand, there are more people who will be so lethargic to do anything for themselves. Among such people, the main reason they state is “busy life”/ “no time” for not taking care of themselves. To start being happy do spend some time with yourself and do something refreshing and good for yourself. It might be anything like a relaxing bath, oil massage or hair care etc.
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
The lifestyle in simple words is “the way of living”. So, it includes your food, sleep, your habits, work out etc. Start to live a healthy life for you and you may apply the same for your family too. We different humans might need a different approach, so if needed you might reach a professional like a nutritionist/dietician. Otherwise, if you don’t have any existing illness, some small changes will be enough. Like, eating and sleeping at the same time every day and always following a routine and trying maximum to have a good sound sleep and avoiding junk and processed foods.
EXERCISE/ MEDITATION
The simple steps like walking for 30 minutes daily/cycling or a breathing exercise for some time in the early morning will do bring out the best in you. Like starting a day with a good workout, keep you active and motivated as well. This helps in planning your day accordingly to be more productive, energetic but also much happy and calm.
PERSONAL-PROFESSIONAL LIFE BALANCE
DON’T be addicted to your work. Always draw a boundary line for your professional work from your personal life. Make sure to be concentrated and work dedicated in the office time. After office time, also make sure to have time for yourself and also for your beloved ones. We all work hard and make the earning for a happy healthy life with our family. So, make sure to not “sacrifice” your family for work and even vice versa.
TAKE BREAKS
Do you remember our good old school days; the so-called “break” was such a happy time that brings a lot of excitement. But now both as a working person and a homemaker, you are running all day long in one or the other way. So, kindly take a short break(s) in a day whenever you feel like you need it. Like sitting calm and idle for some time or watching out the nature etc. For your kind information, this is not a waste of time and on contrary, it actually helps you to relax, rejuvenate and work more with much energy. On monthly basis, taking a break is also important as we have the same boring routine all day long. Maybe, a day trip will work or if you feel like even a relaxed sleep, without your alarm snoozing every 5 minutes is also a cool idea.
PERFORM ACTIVITIES YOU LOVE
If you are clear about what activity makes you feel good, and if you are already doing it, then great keep doing it. But if you are not aware of it, then just take a moment to think about what you love to do the most, but it has been a long you did that. Are you missing something you used to do, that makes you so happy?
We all have at least one answer to this question. It is not necessarily a passion, maybe a hobby or even a workout. For me I miss dancing, and recently I have restarted doing it and that gives me great pleasure. It didn’t happen in thought; I had my own difficulties, hesitation, self-doubt etc. because of the long year gap. Finally, I decided to start from zero, and it was very tiring in the beginning but later when I found that love and happiness in being me and doing something I love, all the above mentioned negative sides have vanished.
So today take a small step to do what you like, by end of the day you will feel a great accomplishment along with bliss. Keep doing it and be proud and glad of it, don’t worry about what others like/dislike. Cooking, gardening, singing, organizing, photography, painting, anything it can be, just do it.
OPEN UP/ SPEAK OUT
We, humans, are classified as introverts, extroverts, intro-extrovert etc, on the basis of communicating and socializing with people. You might belong to any of the categories, but to the least make sure to open up with a minimum of one person. It is not like you are depending on them. When you can’t handle something on your own, it is good to speak out with someone and clear your mind. If possible they will guide you, or at least they will listen to you, which are more needed in your hard time. This will help you in solving your problem or else you will be stacking all inside you and end up troubling yourself.
HEALTHY DISTRACTIONS
Most people start to ease their pain by doing something like smoking/drinking alcohol, which are only a temporary mindset and definitely not a permanent solution for any of the problem. These are unhealthy distractions. This will cause more harm to you than any good. So then what are healthy distractions?
Something that helps you distracts yourself from your past worries, future anticipation and even the present overthinking, but also brings some good to you. It might be health benefits or any skill/personal development etc. For example, learn any new skill or technology as per your field of interest, like joining a drawing class for one hour a day. Thus your brain will concentrate on the artfully. It also gives a positive change in you every day as you start enjoying it.
You are learning something new simultaneously distract from negativity also without causing any more harm to your body and mind. So why wait, start from today.
ACCEPT REALITY – LIVE IN THE MOMENT
The most difficult task is “accepting the reality”. For example, we keep thinking about the past even though we know “it is over and nothing about it can be changed”. To accept the reality about your life, the surroundings and also the people we come across. Start living in the present moment. You can definitely plan for your future, make savings, perform small steps towards your big goal etc. But, being stuck in the past or overthinking about the future will make your life constrained. Don’t let the past define you or your life.
BE CONTENTED
Be happy and satisfied wholeheartedly with what you are and what you have. This is the essential practice to perform for better mental health and a happy, successful, healthy life. Your body, tone, house, vehicle, talent/skills etc of yours is unique, so don’t compare and feel bad. Keep improving yourself for creating a better version of yourself only. But today what you are is also out of your efforts, so love your current state as well. Appreciate all your positive traits and keep moving forward.
THE END
I think, it was a little long blog, but definitely, it will be worth a read, I believe. Do try your best to practice the above methods to live better with a calm mind.