Mental Wellness is part of good health
Most men think of physical fitness when health is mentioned; they don’t consider their emotional state. Mental well-being, however, is just as vital to health as a fit body. Your emotions influence your stress level and impact your overall condition.
Note these tips for increased mental wellness to help you stay in tip-top shape.
1. Deal with stress in the moment
Do you withhold emotions rather than express them? People often swallow their feelings because they fear others will not accept them if they are expressive.
Other’s judgments of you, though, are momentary, while stifled emotions have a negative influence on your well-being long-term. Acknowledge and express your emotions when they occur and your mental health will improve.
If you don’t want to talk about how you feel, write your thoughts in a journal. As long as you bring them out in the open you are in a better place to deal with them.
2. Breathe deep and relax
Possibly, you already know you will relax when you take deep breaths; the idea is often mentioned in self-help books. Nonetheless, do you remember to engage in long, full breaths when you need to shift stress?
The more you practice breathing exercises at the right time, the easier doing so again when you need anxiety-relief will be.
3. Don’t judge yourself when you’re upset
What’s the first thing you think when you’ve made a mistake? No doubt, a little voice in your head chastises you. Scolding yourself harms your well-being and adds to stress.
Cultivate a compassionate inner voice. When setbacks occur, offer your spirit kindness. Speak with the loving benevolence you usually reserve for someone you love and you’ll recover fast from blunders.
4. Trigger a positive emotion
Do you leave happiness to chance? If so, sometimes you’ll win and at others you’ll lose. You need not rely on external events and good fortune to elevate joy. You can trigger positive emotions.
Your thoughts play a huge part in how you feel. When you contemplate negative events, you are blue. The same works the other way around too. Think about a happy memory, or a place or person you love, and your system will create feel-good hormones to heighten happiness.
At the same time, take ten minutes each day to raise your emotional state. Listen to uplifting music, look at beautiful art, or read inspiring literature. Dance, sing, or carry out another activity you love to make your mood positive.
5. Engage in physical activity
Exercise is another way to increase happy chemicals in your system. Walk, jog, play a sport, jump on a trampoline, or visit the gym for a workout several times a week.
Your body and mind will benefit from your activity and you’ll generate a momentum of positivity. Physical activity also helps to combat depression.
6. Be hopeful when you’re down
Feeling blue? Everyone experiences a low mood occasionally. Some folks, though, connect with hope as a way of escaping the doldrums. Hope can’t pay your bills, mend a broken relationship, or put food on your plate. It can give you the mental energy to change direction and head toward a brighter future though.
When you’re down, consider what the best outcome could be if things go your way. Focus on that outcome rather than contemplating how matters might worsen or what’s wrong with the situation.
7. Practice self-acceptance
Do you like yourself? Or do you imagine you are inadequate? Every time you compare yourself to people who are more successful, richer, or more popular, you send the message to your psyche you aren’t good enough and your well-being plummets.
Enjoy your qualities, especially if they aren’t common. Those aspects of you other people don’t share might be what makes you special. They are what you offer the world. Recognize them as gifts.
Learn to accept your appearance too, it’s the only one you’ve got and stays with you for life. It will change a little as you age, but you will always look like you. Accept everything about you because there will come a time when it’s too late to do so. You won’t live your life fully if you spend it struggling to change.
8. Aim for peacefulness when you’re anxious
When you are anxious, you’re in fight-or-flight mode, striving to cope. When you’re peaceful, you are calm; you have clarity and a sense of ease. Indeed, life is easier with peace of mind.
Peacefulness might flow if you meditate or listen to a bird sing. It may rise in you when you play with your children or laugh with a friend. When anxious, do whatever increases serenity and your mood will change.
9. Communicate when you need support
There will come a time when you need help. You might need practical assistance, like a loan or someone to help you clear the gutter around your house. You may need emotional support, when you grieve or lose your job, or advice when you don’t know which way to turn or are lonely.
It’s okay to ask for help. Sometimes asking for help gives other people an opportunity to open their hearts and helps them too. It also means you can develop relationships based on give and take and be helpful in return.
10. Be flexible and accept change
Circumstances change whether or not you want them to. They don’t always please you and may unsettle you. Accept life is full of change, though, and you won’t push against what happens and experience the pain of resistance.
Recognize occasions you can’t alter and make the best of them. Look at them from all angles in case they can be useful. They might not be what you want, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing to offer.
Take charge of your mental well-being and your emotional and physical health will improve. Stress makes you ill and unhappy, and when you adopt helpful habits to keep it at bay your passion for life and wellness will expand.
