Maintaining Good Mental Health: Why You Need It & How To Do It
Discover why maintaining good mental health is essential and what you need to do to make sure that you’re doing it.
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We all know that maintaining good mental health is essential to living the blissful life we all deserve. Chellsea Reyes tells us why and what we can do to make sure that we are, in fact, looking after ourselves mentally.
Chellsea Reyes is a freelance lifestyle writer for Metrodeal. She loves to travel and on her free time she enjoys watching football games.
Much like how your physical health suffers when overworked, your mental health also gets negatively affected when faced with difficulties and challenges.
The state of your mental health plays a vital role in your everyday life. It affects your behavior, emotions, and thoughts. So, if you’re feeling a bit reclusive and unmotivated, it will impact how you work and treat other people.
You may look and feel physically fit, but if your mental health isn’t in great shape, there will be consequences on your physical health too. Caring for your mental health should also be a priority, so you don’t fall into a pit of despair and suffer from negativity.
Are you wondering what you can do and what changes you should make to not just maintain good mental health but also improve it? Keep on reading to find out.
Maintaining good mental health: Why you should take care of your mental health
You may be unaware, but feeling low and disconnected, dealing with negative thoughts, frequent mood changes, sleep and appetite changes, and drop in functioning are some of the warning signs of mental health issues.
Brushing your problems aside won’t help your mental health in any way. On the contrary, it can even make it worse. Talking about mental health—how you think, feel, and act—is not easy for everyone. But, opening up about your struggles to someone can certainly make you feel lighter.
Below are a few reasons why it’s essential to take care of your mental well-being.
#1: Improves your overall health
We all know that exercise brings excellent benefits to your physical health and in reducing the risk of getting certain diseases, but it also plays a role in enhancing your mental state. In a way, if you’re already regularly working out, you’re hitting two birds with one stone—boosting both your physical and mental fitness.
Notice how you feel less stressed and anxious after you exercise? One of the reasons is because your body releases endorphins, the mood-boosting chemicals that relieve you of stress, as you work out, which makes exercising an excellent way to pick yourself up whenever you feel down.
#2: Boosts your productivity
Untreated mental health problems can negatively impact not only your personal life but also your career. When you feel down and unmotivated, it affects your work performance and quality of output. Taking good care of your mental well-being allows you to hone a stronger work ethic, improves your productivity, and helps make you more active at work.
#3: Helps you build healthy relationships
Having a sound emotional, psychological, and social state largely influences your decision-making process, stress management, and how you behave and act around others. Most importantly, prioritizing your mental health means prioritizing yourself.
How you treat yourself and how you deal with your feelings, emotions, and thoughts to help yourself rise above adversities speaks volumes of how you can maintain healthy relationships. In the same vein, you can set boundaries to what you can tolerate from a person, and how you deal with negative people. You can help reverse the pessimism by letting go of negative talk and self-criticism.
#4: Promotes a better quality of life
Being healthy, mentally and emotionally, also helps elevate your daily life. Additionally, having a clear and positive mindset allows you to adapt to changes in your life with less or no difficulty and cope with distress logically. Managing stress and anxieties of experience help you better handle the challenges of life and make better choices.
6 Tips on How to Take Better Care of Your Mental Health
There are five easy things you can do to take better care of your mental health:
Tip 1: Eat healthily.
Tip 2: Get a good night’s sleep.
Tip 3: Do something that you love.
Tip 4: Take a break.
Tip 5: Seek help when you need it.
#1: Eat healthily
Nourishing your body with healthy food choices is good for the body and brain. A study revealed that poor eating habits and diet had played a role in the growing mental health problems for the past years.
When eating, make sure that you consume a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables, protein, whole grains, and omega-3 fatty acids. Not only will these positively affect your physical health but also improve your mood.
Cook your meals and eat healthy at home.
Who knows, maybe you’ll even enjoy the preparation and cooking process itself.
#2: Get a good night’s sleep
Staying up all night to finish a series or endlessly scroll through your phone won’t do you any good.
Lack of sleep can affect how you feel and has a significant effect on your mood.
Go to bed on time and observe good sleeping habits, such as keeping your phone away an hour before bedtime or meditating before you head to dreamland.
#3: Do something that you love
Doing the same thing day in and day out can make you feel like life is monotonous, like there’s nothing new to look forward to. You can spice up your daily life by doing something that you enjoy every now and then, such as reading, sketching, or hiking on weekends.
Whenever you find the time, even if it’s only 10 or 20 minutes a day, try to do one of your favorite hobbies. You can bring a book to a park and read it there. If you play an instrument, practice a couple of songs or tune. On weekends, you can ask your friends to bike around the neighborhood, go out for a quick picnic, or hike up a mountain.
#4: Take a break
In times that you feel too overwhelmed and you’re close to feeling like drowning, drop everything and take a break. D
o anything else apart from what’s causing your stress until you feel better. A few minutes of breathing exercises can help you de-stress immediately. But, when you feel like you need more than that, take as much time you need to recharge.
#5: Seek help when you need it
Finally, when you feel as if nothing’s working out well for you. It’s time that you get help when you need it.
Know that seeking help is not a sign of weakness, but of strength.
Acknowledging that you need the right treatment means you’re well-aware of your mental state. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
Consult with a medical professional or a counsellor to get the support you need.
Keep Your Mental Health in Check
Like how you get the flu now and then, there are times where you also struggle mentally. Taking care of your mental health will pay off in all aspects of your life. That’s why it’s essential to pay attention to your mental state as you would care for your body when you’re sick.
The practices above are some simple steps you can do to help improve your mental and emotional well-being. Don’t wait until something happens before you make your mental health a priority. Start adopting these changes today.
