One of the most important parts of our health is how we’re feeling mentally. Putting the effort into taking care of ourselves is essential.
Life isn’t all flowers and rainbows. There’s going to be several moments where the world feels like its crashing into you. It’s inevitable, but the way we handle our emotions is something we can control.
Mental health entails how we feel about ourselves. It’s so important to our health in general because if we don’t feel good about ourselves, nothing else matters.
Consequently, when people don’t feel good about themselves, they sometimes make very poor decisions. Decisions that not only hurt them, but others as well.
My advice would be to remember that taking care of yourself is the most important thing in your life. If you’re not happy and healthy, it’s super difficult to take care of others. At some point, it will feel like it’s too much on your shoulders and it will hurt you even more.
There are several ways to make sure you’re taking care of your mental health. Here are five ways to keep your mental health in check:
#1: Exercise regularly
Exercising can be really lifechanging when you’re going through a rough patch. Furthermore, it keeps you physically healthy as well.
According to science, when someone does exercise, it allows feel-good chemicals to be released in the brain. These chemicals improve your sense of well-being, and it distracts you from whatever negative thoughts you may be having.
If you improve your self-esteem, it automatically improves your mental health. The feeling of getting a workout done feels good and makes you feel like you are capable of doing things.
The distraction of exercising for a bit also reduces stress and improves your sleep quality. Think about it, if you’re focused on whatever exercise you’re doing, you forget about what’s going on around you. Also, you’ll probably feel tired after exercising, so those pillows on your bed will feel more comfortable than usual.
Personally, exercising is a great way for me to start my day in that it makes me feel more awake before going to work. It also helps me feel good about myself before walking into the office. Not only that, but I feel proud of myself because I know I’m taking care of my physical health too.
Find an exercise you enjoy doing, whether it’s at a gym, at home, a sport, or anything. Once you figure that out, exercise at least three times a week to begin with. Then, increase that to as many days as you like.
#2: Develop a social bond with others
As mentioned earlier, your mental health is the most important thing to take care of. Part of that involves opening up to others when you are feeling emotionally upset or defeated.
In order to do that, it is important to have people you can trust. Whether it’s friends, family, or mentors, everyone should have someone they can lean on.
Building trust with people is a matter of getting to know them personally. Of course, it takes time, but it can be done.
Try to interact with your family once a week or go out with friends every so often so you can feel closer to them. Text people here and there to keep a close bond with each other.
Slowly but surely, you’ll find your inner circle of people you can trust. When the time comes, you’ll feel comfortable expressing your feelings with these people. That makes a big difference for your mental health.
#3: Reduce time on social media
A lot of times, people feel down on themselves because of something they saw on social media. However, if it happens pretty often, it’s best to reduce the number of times you go onto social media.
For worst case scenarios, it might even be best to delete social media accounts. It isn’t worth having them if all they do is make you feel bad about yourself.
If the situation regarding social media isn’t too bad, it might be a good idea to just stop checking it out for a few days. Furthermore, if the situation involves only one person you follow, simply unfollow them.
With all due respect, I think feeling bad about yourself because of social media is silly. The easiest way to avoid that is by not using social media in the first place.
Rather than checking your phone every ten seconds, interact with people in real life. Don’t let technology consume your life.
#4: Get enough sleep
People are always complaining about not getting enough sleep. And to a certain extent, some people actually can’t control how much sleep they get.
However, there are more people than not who can actually control the amount of sleep they can get.
College students for example. Yes, some classes and semesters are harder than others, but there are ways to control sleep habits. Rather than procrastinating the work that needs to be done, do it as soon as possible and work around your routine to get enough sleep.
Young adults who entered the workforce. Rather than spending late nights on the phone looking at social media, get yourselves into bed and sleep after you’re done for the day.
Getting enough sleep is fundamental because when people feel tired, they can be in a cranky mood. To add onto that, they can feel bad about themselves when their morning is shaky or when something unexpected happens at work.
Establishing a good sleeping routine is helpful for your mental health in that it starts your day off right. A positive mood to start the day is always great. That good mood carries throughout the day and helps you be more social and friendly at work.
In addition, sleeping well also helps people see things in a different perspective. For example, getting more work at the job may bring people down if they’re tired. On the other hand, it can feel normal for someone who’s well rested.
It may not seem like much, but sleeping for 7-9 hours a day makes a good difference.
#5: Treat yourself every so often
A great way to end the day or week is by treating yourself to something. It can be a fast-food meal, a Slurpee, or a day shopping. Anything that’ll make you happy from time to time is a healthy habit.
This traces back to improving self-esteem. If you feel like you had a great week and want to reward yourself for that, by all means go for it.
Treating yourself can also distract you for a bit. As mentioned earlier, when you distract yourself, there’s a sense of forgetting everything else in the world.
To wrap up, it’s super important to take care of yourself. If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t help the ones you want to take care of. Keeping a good mental health will allow you to thrive in life.
