The state of our mental health plays a huge part in our day to day life. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to keep a good mental state especially with outside forces affecting our lives. This is why it’s super important to find things you can do to help your mental state. Luckily psychologists have found multiple easy things you can do to keep mentally stable even in some of the toughest times.
Here are some of the best easy ways to put your mental state at ease.
- Get enough sleep.
Getting sleep is super important for your body’s overall health but it can especially help your mental state. A bad night of sleep can cause unnecessary stress and your capability to deal with stress, increase anger and can also increase your probability of developing a mental illness such as depression. On the contrary a good night of sleep can increase mental resilience and daily mood this is because while you’re asleep your brain works on repairing not only injuries but also repairs our brains and mental state and consolidates our memories. It’s super important to get a good night’s sleep everyday but especially so, if you’re feeling anxious or depressed.
- Do something you enjoy/something your good at.
This is pretty self explanatory but doing something you enjoy is a great and fun way to boost your mental health. Doing something enjoyable releases good endorphins that help beat stress hormones. As well as this doing something you know you’re good at when you’re feeling down helps boost self esteem and cause you to move your minds of what’s bothering you.
- Learn what helps you cope with stress.
When it comes to dealing with stress everyone does something different, it all depends on what personally works for you. Luckily there are lots of different ways to deal with stress check out our article 15 Things You Can Do To Decrease Stress for ideas on how you cope with stress and anxiety.
- Spend time with people you love.
Human connection is super important for everyone, because humans have always been social animals. Especially if your feeling down a possible cause could be isolation or lack of human connection. Social connection can lower your risk for mental illness, improve self esteem and even boost your immune system. It is important to talk to friends or family that make you feel good.
- Meditate.
Meditation has been known to be a great way to put your mind in a relaxed and tranquil state. Meditation may seem difficult but it’s quite simple to follow a guided meditation. Studies have shown that only five minutes of meditation a day can be a simple treatment for stress and anxiety. Anxiety can also help with other mental illnesses such as depression, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia and ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Meditation has also been shown to help with pain and other illnesses such as cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, headaches, sleep disorders and asthma. Next time you’re feeling stressed take a five minute meditation break before resuming with your day.
- Take a break from stressful activities.
As obvious as it may seem sometimes we avoid doing the things we need the most, and in this case the thing you need the most could be to simply take a break. Whether it be work, school, friendships or other outside sources, it’s important to take your mental health into account when dealing with these things.
- Eat healthy food.
Eating nutritious and healthy food does not only affect our physical health but also our mental health. This is because stress negatively affects blood pressure and blood flow. Healthy foods also affect blood pressure and blood flow but in the opposite way as stress. Some foods that reduce stress include:
-Avocado
-Banana
-Tea
-Carrots
-Nuts
-Dark chocolate
-Swiss chard
-Orange
-and more
- Exercise.
Much like healthy food exercise doesn’t only have physical benefits but also mental. Exercise can not only take your mind off any bad emotions you’re feeling, but it also has been proven to release positive endorphins that fight against stress and depression. The endorphins have been associated with “the runner high” because of their antidepressant-like effects. This is likely because exercising can cause cell growth in the hippocampus, which is the area of the brain that affects memory and emotion. People affected by depression have a smaller hippocampus which is why cell growth in that area is an effective antidepressant.
- Treat yourself with kindness.
As simple as it may seem being kind to yourself has a huge effect on your mental health. Studies have shown more self-compassionate people tend to cope with difficulties and negative feelings better. Aswell as this it can also lessen feelings of anxiety or depression. Self kindness is so effective in helping mental health that a form of therapy has been made called compassion focused therapy.
- Get help from a professional.
Getting help from a professional is a great resource when your mental health isn’t doing well. Therapy has proven to be an effective treatment for many people dealing with mental health issues or mental illness.