5 steps to mental health

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The life hacker tells how to keep the psyche normal, even if there is a complete mess around.

We know what to do to stay physically healthy: eat right, exercise, not overwork, and walk a lot. It turns out that some of this also works for mental health. If you're not sick, a few good habits can help improve your mood.

What is needed for a healthy psyche

A person needs to know that he can do what he wants. Feelings of confidence, satisfaction with life, joy and employment, a sense of oneness with the world are also important for the mental state, as well as self-esteem. A person needs a good relationship that is fulfilling.

Happiness is part of mental health. But happiness is not everything.

Sarah Stuart-Brown Professor of Medicine, University of Warwick

A mentally successful person also faces difficulties; he cannot always be happy. But on difficult days, a healthy person knows that he has the strength and flexibility to cope. No one can provide a person with this well-being better than himself. The UK's National Health Service believes it only takes five steps.

These are working ways to make yourself better. Even if it seems that something is not right for you, do not dismiss these tips. Think, maybe in your life there is a way to somehow apply them. And if you do all this, but do not feel that very well-being, are you doing everything as it should?

How to achieve mental health

1. Communicate with people

With your family, friends or colleagues, neighbors. You do not need to talk to everyone in a row, especially if the very idea of calling relatives is terrifying.

Man is a social animal, so communication with other people increases self-esteem and gives a sense of belonging to something greater.

In strong relationships with family and friends, we share feelings, we are understood, we receive support and support others ourselves, and the ability to give is as important to us as the opportunity to receive. And another important detail: if people around you are happy and know how to be happy, you learn the same from them.

How to work on relationships

Connect with family and friends, loved ones. Learn to listen and support and talk about yourself. It is not necessary to expand the circle of acquaintances; it is more important to make communication within it more interesting.

Also expand your professional contacts, communicate with people with the same hobbies or the same professional responsibilities. This is necessary not only for psychological comfort, but also just to gain knowledge.

This is easy to say, but harder to do, especially when social media creates the illusion of contact. Like and visit the page is not the same as chatting. These tips will help you maintain close relationships without replacing them with likes:

• Try to use communication programs that allow you to hear a voice or see a person. Set aside time for your relationship. Each day should include time for friends and family. Call, visit, schedule a meeting, send a postcard, just do not limit yourself to like on the social network. At least chat in the messenger.
• Pick a day to meet with friends you haven't seen in a long time. You don't have to be together all day. It is better to attend some kind of event: if you have not communicated for a long time, there may be awkward pauses in the conversation, and you can always discuss something in a movie or at an exhibition. Do not schedule a meeting for several hours, but do not clog the schedule after it. If you find that you want to talk a little longer, you can extend the conversation.
• If you watch TV or surf the Internet in the evenings, try replacing your gadgets with something that brings you closer together. Buy a board game and play with the whole family. Or just talk about abstract topics. If you don't know what to talk about with your family, set up a discussion club: open a site with news and discuss them, or even take topics from any English textbook.
• Talk to someone new: a colleague from the next department, the person you meet on the bus every day.
• Have lunch with your coworkers and socialize if the relationships in the team allow for conversation.
• If you know a friend or family needs help, offer it today.
• Participate in social activities: in the cleanup at work, in collecting things for the orphanage, in protecting the interests of your home or area. Choose the option that you do not through force.

2. Always keep learning

Studying helps keep the brain toned and reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. It also gives you a reason to love yourself, just like sports. We are learning, which means we are great. It is very important to feel comfortable.

It is not at all necessary to learn foreign languages or get another higher education. The process itself is important: read professional literature to develop skills. Take a cooking class. Read popular science and fiction books. Learn new knitting patterns or make original bike stands.

The main thing is to strive for something new.

If you are not interested in a topic, do not learn it just because you have already started. Move on to an activity that will delight your brain. It’s even useful to change activities because you have to switch between different activities.

3. Move

You don't have to go to the gym or go for a run to get moving. It is important for the body to work, and how exactly is a matter of choice. Some people like team games like volleyball, some prefer to dance, and some prefer to walk the dog. Activity is essential not only for the body, but also for the brain.

Mental problems, even the most insignificant ones, are the same chemistry as all processes in the body. Exercise is a way to regulate these chemical processes by producing hormones that are released in response to actions.

Another plus is that when we play sports, we think it's great. Sport is a reason to be proud of yourself, another reason why you should love yourself.

• Find the sport you like.
• Start exercising regularly.
• Be sure to document how you change.

4. Do good

This is easier than it sounds. You don't even have to look for old women to get them across the road, or donate part of your salary to funds.

Say "thank you" to the bus driver who took you to work in the morning, say good morning to the security guard, smile at the cashier in the supermarket. It is not difficult, and the brain puts such actions in the piggy bank "good deeds", and this affects the same chemistry as sports.

The second level is simple help. Explain to a newcomer at work how to easily cope with assignments, help the parent committee at school, bring food to elderly neighbors to the door, help parents with a stroller get on public transport.

If you have a desire to do more, you can join volunteer activity, just first assess your strengths.

5. Stay connected to reality

It is important for mental health to live in the present without thinking about the past and what has not happened (and may never happen).

You need to live in the present, feel yourself and your body. Some people call this state of awareness.

This is a state in which you know exactly what is happening around you and with you. It only seems that it is simple, but in fact it requires attention to oneself and uncompromising honesty. For example, to understand why you are angry: not because your family did not wash the dishes again, but because you are annoyed in the morning because of a failure at work, and now you are only looking for an excuse to throw out your irritation.

Through awareness, we make the right decisions, because we understand all the circumstances and know what we want. Mindfulness is not just a beautiful word, but a way of perceiving life. We need it for our mental health.