Your mental health reflects on how you think, feel and deal with your daily life. It influences your ability to cope with hardships, setbacks, and stress, and win over challenges. It strengthens your relationships and helps you recover from troubles and pains.
Making a few changes in your daily life can positively impact your mental well-being. Try these activities mentioned below to help you feel confident and cheerful.
1. Listen to happy music
Music helps you cope with stressful and anxious thoughts. It pumps you up and makes you want to move around and not think about your problems for a while. Doctors and scientists suggest that listening to happy music slows down your heart rate, lowers blood pressure and decreases the stress hormones, thereby giving a sense of relief. They have confirmed that listening to music affects our mood. It releases pleasure-causing hormones in our body, like dopamine, norepinephrine and melatonin.
2. Do good for others
Act of kindness and service induces a sense of gratefulness and relief in your mind. Research suggests that it can improve your mental health because it has a feel-good factor to it; it creates positive feelings. It gives you a sense of purpose and reward. Volunteering or doing good for the society influences your self-worth and helps you connect with people. As human beings are social creatures, they have emotional needs. Our brains crave closeness and fellowship, even if our experiences make us shy and distrustful.
A few ways to get started include: volunteering at an orphanage or old-age home, contributing a small part of your earnings to charity, donating things you don’t require, and so on.
3. Sound sleeping habit
Having a set routine impacts our mental health and welfare. A night of good and sound sleep is of immense significance. Cutting down on sleep may seem like a smart move for workaholics, perhaps, it might take a toll on your mood, energy and ability to manage stress. Chronic sleep loss can cause havoc in your overall health in the long run. So, every adult should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep every day.
4. Try to get maternal
Having a plant, a dog, a goldfish, or any other pet gets your maternal instincts on board. It significantly in your mental health. It gives you a sense of compassion and purpose and does not make you feel alone. These things require to be taken care of, and when you do that, you develop a certain sense of attachment. Eventually, it helps you grow into a better person.
5.Train or work out every day
The mind and body are intricately connected. When you improve your physical health, you will automatically get the insight into a greater mental and emotional comfort. Working out regularly, impacts you majorly by relieving stress and anxiety, improving memory, and resulting in better sleep. If you do not like to work out, you can always go out for a walk or a run to get that blood flowing. It is even better if you do this in the morning, as it will boost endorphins in your body which affects your mood a lot.
6. Skincare
Exfoliating and moisturizing your whole body makes your body feel fresh. You can always indulge in taking care of your skin; it gives you a sense of self-worth and confidence by making you look and feel better. You can invest in skincare products and pamper yourself; it will make you feel better about yourself. Try a homemade face mask by using ingredients lying your kitchen, like turmeric, yoghurt, and gram flour to make a DIY face mask.
7. Be inspired and appreciative of things and people
‘Learn to clap in other’s victory, your time will come.’
In today’s digital world, we often see people posting about their achievements, either in their career or relationships that can give us an inferiority complex. However, jealousy is not the way towards personal growth. Being happy for others should make you happy. Appreciate and get inspired by others success, make them your idol, and try to reach great heights, with their success as your inspiration.
8. Get outside every day
Even if you do not have any work, never laze around your house. Go out and feel the air of nature. It will have a considerable impact on your mind. It is even better if you walk in the grass, barefoot. Even scientists have approved of this to be therapeutic for you as it makes you feel closer to the earth and nature, thereby improving your mood. Utilize this time to reflect on your soul and way of thinking.
9. Take time to tidy
Cleaning and decluttering around your house provide a positive attitude that can have an energizing effect on you. Tidying up your home, will give you a sense of productivity and make you feel organized and confident. Deep cleaning influences your mental and emotional health. After cleaning up, you will feel more in control of your life and have the confidence to face your problems. Scientists recommend cleaning up and decluttering when people are facing mental problems, like anxiety and depression.
10. Mindfulness/Meditation
Mindfulness is the human nature of being fully aware of his situations, mentally and physically. It teaches you the know-how of paying attention to the present, maintaining awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. It has it’s roots in Buddhist meditation, who have been using mindfulness exercises for more than 2,500 years, seeing them as a path towards enlightenment. Meditation makes you feel closer to yourself and in turn, helps you in improving your mental health. Start with practising 5 minutes of conscious breathing a day or follow a guided meditation on YouTube.
11. Breathing exercises
Breathing exercises are of great help when it comes to mental health issues like anxiety or stress. It calms you down by slowing your heart rate and helps you release any tension in your body. While you are at it, always remember to inhale for less time than you exhale; for example – if you inhale for 2 seconds, exhale for 5 seconds. This exercise will make you feel a little better instantly.
12. Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is the overall healing treatment which uses natural plant extracts to improve health and wellness. It medicinally uses aromatic essential oils to enhance the health of your mind, body, and soul; it impacts both on your physical as well as mental health. It helps to cool, energize, decongest, and uplift your mood. Aromatherapy spas are in trend because they help treat issues like anxiety, depression, insomnia, menstrual pain, dementia symptoms and some types of cancer. You can also invest in essential oils, incense sticks or fragrant candles and use them during meditation or before going to bed for a sound sleep.
13. Self-help books
There are plenty of self-help books that you can invest in. Books from writers such as Paulo Coelho, Stephen R Covey, Napoleon Hill, Dr Shad Helm Stetter are perfect to start your mental healing journey. These types of books give you the knowledge on how to maintain your mental health and wellness and motivates you to do better in your life. They also have tips and hacks to improve your lifestyle, reach your career or business goals, or even help in building and understanding relationships.
14. Food habits
‘Let food be thy medicine.’
Switching to a wholesome diet which is low in sugar and full of healthy fats impact your mind and body substantially and help you look and feel your best. The aftermath of caffeine, sugary snacks, refined carbs, and fried food on your mind is bizarre. Instead, you can replace all these things with healthier options such as green tea, herbal tea, nuts, avocados, leafy greens like spinach and kale, beans, and fresh fruits such as blueberries.