10 Tips to Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing
Mental health is more than labels or a diagnosis. It’s how you feel when you wake up in the morning. It’s the coping strategies you’ve built to deal with problems, conflict and stressors of the day-to-day. It’s how you regard yourself, your surroundings and other people: it’s how you connect to the world.
While professional treatment could be part of your mental health journey, there is a personal role to engage in positive self-care that betters your emotional health. By developing effective coping strategies, building resilience to stressful situations and practicing mindfulness, you could unlock deeper understanding and control of your mental health. Incorporating these practices into your daily routine can help improve your quality of life, feelings of contentment and overall joy.
Be present (practice mindfulness)
We know worry and anxiety can stem from thinking about past challenges and future uncertainty. A tactic often used to alleviate symptoms of anxiety is to bring awareness to the activity you’re engaging in, known as Active Mindfulness. Start with something easy and enjoyable, like taking a shower or a bath. Feel the warmth of the water, listen to the sound of your breath and notice the droplets of water as they fall off your skin. Try practicing active mindfulness as a way to work on living in the present moment. It’s a similar concept to mediation - which includes bringing awareness to the breath while focusing on specific thoughts, words or images to achieve mental discipline. You can also try active mindfulness on a daily walk. Notice the colours, texture and sounds around you. Notice any smells or feelings you experience, stay in tune with your breath. By practicing bringing your thoughts back to the present moment, you gain control over your thoughts instead of your thoughts controlling you, even if you are triggered.
Try our free guided meditation for weightlessness here.
2. Engage in positive self-talk
Engaging in negative self-talk can do more to your perception of yourself and your life than you might think. Research shows that when you regularly engage in negative talk and negative beliefs about yourself and your surroundings, you create a narrative that supports that belief. So when an event happens that could be interpreted negatively, you’ll opt to view it poorly as it confirms the negative story you’ve created. Next time you disagree with a colleague, instead of saying, “I’m terrible at resolving conflict, no wonder all my relationships are crappy,” try replacing it with; “That could have gone better, but I’m going to take those lessons and do better next time!” The simple act of looking on the bright side and having a positive outlook will help keep your mind focused on finding the silver lining.
3. Create a gratitude journal
You don’t need to formalize this with a leather-bound hardcover journal to reap the benefits - but if that’s more your thing, then all the better. Practicing gratitude has a clear link to improved mental health and happiness. The concept goes hand in hand with positive self-talk. The more gratitude you express daily, the more you will find things to be grateful for. Gratitude is like a muscle; working on it makes it stronger. So every time you write down something you’re thankful for, you flex that gratitude muscle, you also redirect difficult situations and feelings to highlight the good things instead of the bad. A gratitude journal could be a whiteboard in your room, the notepad on your smartphone, or anywhere else that’s convenient and allows you to be consistent. Practicing gratitude benefits your mental health most when done routinely.
Want to try a gratitude app?
We LOVE https://www.happierhuman.com/gratitude-app/
4. Focus on fitness
When you exercise, your body naturally releases endorphins that reduce stress and boosts your mood. That’s why you always feel great after a run, a bike ride or a hard sesh at the gym. Remember, you don’t need to pump iron to experience these benefits, just 30 minutes a day has proven benefits to general happiness and well being. Try to keep it consistent: regular exercise can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Plus, routine stretching and exercise can help reduce the chance of aches and pains from stiffness caused by a sedentary lifestyles. Chronic pain and untreated injury can increase depression in sufferers, so try to keep your body in shape to avoid pain and injury.
5. Give your body the proper nourishment
You are what you eat. More and more research shows how your mood is affected by what you consume and your overall gut health. Treat food as fuel and feed it nutritious meals packed with proteins, grains, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Turn to different food sources that nourish your body. For example, omega-3 fatty acids help keep up cognitive functions while berries can assist in repairing cells and reducing inflammation and have been found to improve symptoms of anxiety and depression. Opt to eat foods that regulate the bacteria in your gut that can also regulate brain function; fermented foods like unsweetened yoghurts, kimchi, kombucha and sauerkraut are thought to affect the same parts of your brain as some anti-depressants do. Eating more of them can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. The good bacteria in fermented foods directly influences our mood, emotions and gut health. Heaps of research point gut health to mental health, and the probiotics and prebiotics in fermented foods actively affect the environment of our tummies. A healthier tummy means a healthier mind, so do yourself a favour and eat more yoghurt!
6. Be of service to others
I know we have been talking a lot about what we can do for ourselves, but it's also what we can do for others! Helping yourself and keeping in check with your thoughts and feelings is a big part of feeling good, but helping other people through offering time, energy and service will provide you a sense of accomplishment and purpose in the world. If you routinely practise self-care and find you lack those feel-good feels, you might be missing the satisfaction of serving others. Volunteer, attend community events like a community garden, do something that benefits others - the reward and fulfillment of helping other people while expecting nothing in return has untold benefits to a happy and joyous life.
7. Confide in a friend
People are social beings, and in the wake of COVID, it became clear just how much loneliness and isolation could affect mental health in our communities. If daily stresses are mounting and you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed, confide in a friend to feel connected and supported. Plus, feeling isolated contributes to depression, so by living in a community, we create a sense of security and belonging; both are key in maintaining happiness and well being. Take time to visit with friends and family, set aside time to talk about how you’re feeling and what’s on your mind. Sharing your thoughts and feeling with people who care is important part of releasing built up feelings and emotions.
8. Get better sleep
There is a clear connection between sleep and mood. When sleep quality is sub-par, other areas of mental well being like focus, coping strategies, and resilience all take a hit and can move into a negative cycle of poor sleep, depression and anxiety. Try keeping a regular sleep routine. Make your room a place for rest and nothing else. Work at setting reasonable times to go to bed and when to wake up, limit distractions like screens or highly stimulating activities and avoid caffeine and sugar close to bedtime.
9. Press Pause
One critical and often unvalued self-care practice is to take a time out from the overstimulation of our everyday lives. Work, school, children, errands, partners - it can be hard to carve out time just for the self. Setting aside a few hours a week of non-negotiable unplugging time can have a massive benefit to personal well being. It’s a chance to shut off and tune in to physical, emotional and mental feelings. Using breathing techniques to help centre your mind and body to the present is a good starting point. As we mentioned above, we can practice meditation in many forms. Float therapy is a tool for meditation that guides you in unplugging from our hyperstimulated environment. Many people find they struggle to switch off and be still. In that case, float therapy might be an ideal solution, shown to help with many mental health and wellbeing issues, including anxiety, depression, insomnia, PTSD. We are still learning all the areas it can help manage symptoms, but the known benefits demonstrate promising outcomes. Want to learn how Float Therapy benefits Mental Health? Click Here.
Sitting in an infrared sauna can also help to calm the main and body. IR Saunas also help you achieve a meditative state by giving you time to organize chaotic thoughts, work out solutions to problems and relieve tension in your body and mind.
Want to give Float Therapy a try?
10. Get Outside
Nature is an excellent natural remedy for anxiety and depression. Spending time in a natural environment is effective in bringing a sense of peace and equilibrium to the mind and body. Plus, sunlight is the best source of vitamin D. Vitamin D is an essential vitamin for our bodies and our brains. They release feel-good hormones and chemicals, including endorphins. So if you cant get to the great outdoors, just make sure you’re getting outside for at least 30 minutes a day to get enough vitamin D, fresh air and exercise. If you use the 30 minutes to walk, run or cycle - you can make it a 2 for 1 by also getting your daily workout in.
Make a plan to start today. Write things down that you want to accomplish, start with a few easier and more enjoyable tasks and as you achieve some small goals, you will gain confidence and momentum to tackle some of the more significant challenges. You’ll notice an improvement in your mood just by starting to make changes to your routine. Beyond these tips, the most important thing to remember is to always ask for help when you feel managing your mental wellbeing is becoming too challenging to do on your own. Don’t be afraid to admit you need support; reach out to trusted family, friends, or mental health organizations. If you’re looking for a place to start, check out some of the links below.
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/mental-health-helplines
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-links
https://mhaustralia.org/need-help