These mental health tips are on every guru’s list!
Hey Mamas! How many of these mental health tips do you already know?
1. Get a good night’s sleep.
A good night’s sleep is an important part of staying healthy, and it can also help you deal with stress and difficult emotions. Research shows that adults need at least 7 hours of sleep per night to feel rested and function well throughout the day. If you aren’t getting enough restful sleep—which means sleeping for more than 7 hours in a row—you may be feeling more tired or irritable than usual during the day, have trouble concentrating or remembering things, or notice other changes in your moods and energy levels.
Daily Challenge: Set aside time each evening before bed to relax without electronics (e-readers, phones) until right before going to bed. Then do something calming such as reading an actual book instead of using an e-reader because it will help calm your mind down so you can fall asleep easier once it’s time for bedtime!
2. Eat Well.
Eating well is one of the most important ways to ensure a healthy mind. Eating well can help you feel good, which leads to increased happiness and better mental health. In addition, eating a balanced diet over time helps reduce your risk of developing certain mood disorders like depression or anxiety.
This doesn’t mean that you have to go on some restrictive diet or give up things that make you happy. It just means making sure your body receives the nutrients it needs for optimal performance. So since a piece of cake isn’t going to kill you, then enjoy that piece of cake! However, if it’s going against what your internal compass telling you, maybe wait until later.
3. Don’t drink too much alcohol.
Drinking too much alcohol can have a negative impact on your mental health. Alcohol is linked to depression and other mood disorders, as well as suicide attempts and completed suicides.
Alcohol can also affect your physical health and your relationships. Regularly drinking more than the recommended amount of alcohol can lead to liver damage, heart problems, cancer, stroke and other health problems that may require hospitalization or surgery.
It’s also been shown that heavy drinking increases the risk of unintended injuries (such as falls) among older adults living at home without assistance—this could leave you more likely to end up in an emergency room due to complications related to heavy drinking!
4. Try to keep active.
Exercise is one of the best ways to manage your mental health and prevent stress, anxiety, and depression.
Try to find a physical activity that you enjoy doing—whether it be dancing, walking, swimming or running—and do it regularly.
Get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity each week (or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity)
It’s also important for your body to stay strong by working all major muscle groups on two or more days per week with strength exercises like pushups, squats and sit ups.
If you find yourself struggling with motivation when it comes to exercise consider joining an exercise class in your local area that suits your interest such as yoga or pilates classes held locally as these can provide an environment where you can meet people who share similar interests whilst still getting fit!
Mental Health Tips Highlight: Take Care of Yourself
Be sure to take care of yourself! You wouldn’t dream of skipping meals or staying up all night when you have the flu (we hope!), so don’t do it when you’re feeling low either. Try to eat nutritious meals on time and get enough sleep every night—both will help boost your mood and energy levels throughout the day. Also, remember that exercise is important for both physical fitness and mental well-being: try taking a walk around the block before dinner to clear your head after a long day at work.
To learn more about mental health, read our article All About Mental Health!
5. Be aware of depression and anxiety.
Examples of mental health problems include to anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviors.
The symptoms of these disorders vary; however, some common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents can include changes in eating or sleeping habits, withdrawal from others/social situations, dangerous/risky behavior, difficulty concentrating, or having suicidal thoughts or feelings.
Know the signs, know what they look like, know how they are present in your life. It’s important to check in with yourself regularly and make sure you’re taking care of your mental health.
To understand what good mental health looks like, please read What Is “Good” Mental Health? by Talkspace. Talkspace is an online text and video chat therapy platform that offers access to therapists who cover a broad range of mental health issues.
6. Keep in touch with people and be involved in activities you enjoy.
There are so many ways to keep in touch with people, from social media to email to phone calls. Whatever you prefer, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about keeping up with what your friends are doing on a daily basis. It’s also about being there for them when they need you.
It can be so easy to isolate yourself when you’re feeling down or anxious—and if you do that, then the feelings probably won’t go away! But if you can open up about how things are going for you and talk about what is bothering or worrying you…then maybe someone will have some helpful advice or suggestions. And even if they don’t have any answers themselves, just knowing that someone cares enough about your well-being might help give them some direction on where else they should turn for help themselves!
7. Talk to someone.
One of the most important things you can do is talk to someone. Whether it be a friend or family member talking about what is wrong can help solve many problems in your life.
Remember that people won’t always understand what you’re going through, so try not to get frustrated if they don’t always give the best advice and care for you.
Create a support network around you. Seek out people who are supportive, caring, loving and trustworthy, and connect with them as often as possible. Having a support network consists of folks who want the best for you is an important part of maintaining good mental health because it’s always good to have someone looking out for you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Your loved ones want to support you in any way they can—and there are also many resources available if talking about how you feel is difficult for whatever reason.
8. Seek professional help if needed.
If you’re struggling with a mental health problem, you may need more than support from friends and family to recover. In the same way that you would see a doctor to treat an illness, seeing a therapist can help improve your mental well-being.
You can start by seeing your primary care doctor. They can help you understand your problems better and may recommend a specialist depending on what symptoms you have or where they think the problem lies.
If that doesn’t work out, don’t give up!
- There are plenty of other professionals who can help too:
- Psychiatrist: They treat mental illness with medication and provide therapy if necessary.
- Clinical psychologist: A PhD-level licensed professional who deals with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) techniques such as mindfulness meditation and acceptance commitment therapy (ACT).
- Licensed clinical social worker (LCSW): A master’s level counselor who focuses on interpersonal communication skills within a clinical environment
Mental Health Tips Highlight: Being the Supporter
When talking to someone who may be struggling with their mental health:
Tell them that it’s OK for them not to feel well at times; there is no pressure on anyone who is struggling mentally and physically with life. People might just need encouragement from others before they are able to work out their own problems in life – like how some people need motivation before exercising regularly!
9. Practice self-care every day.
Self-care is essential for keeping up with one’s mental health and well being. Whether that means taking some time off work, getting enough sleep each night (even if this means setting an alarm), or making sure there are plenty of healthy foods on hand versus processed ones.
Getting regular checkups will also allow doctors (or even friends) to notice any changes that could indicate problems before they become serious issues requiring immediate attention from specialists.
The most important thing is finding something positive about yourself to get you through the day.
Need help coming up with ideas!? Read our 9 Types of Self-Care article!
10. Set boundaries with others. (Find balance)
It’s important to set boundaries in order to maintain balance in your life. Here are some tips on how to do this:
- Decide what’s important to you, and involve others in the decision-making process. You can tell them what’s important, or they might have ideas of their own that they’d like you to consider. If both parties are willing and able (which is essential), it should be an enjoyable process of compromise, where everyone leaves feeling good about it because they were involved with making the final decision(s). This way, everyone feels invested in making sure things work out for everyone involved.
- Be assertive when appropriate; don’t let other people take advantage of you or negatively affect your life. Just like setting boundaries with others helps us maintain balance by giving us control over our lives, allowing others’ behavior toward us disrupts this balance by giving control away unnecessarily—and sometimes even unwillingly! Being assertive means being clear about what we want from those around us without being aggressive toward them or putting ourselves at risk for abuse or mistreatment from others who may take advantage of our generosity if we don’t set firm boundaries against them beforehand (eek!).
- Be specific about what exactly needs changing within a situation before offering feedback; otherwise people may misinterpret why something bothers us which could lead them into thinking there’s something wrong with themselves rather than understanding why change needs taking place first before anything else happens next.”
11. Keep a journal.
Keep a journal. Keeping track of your thoughts and feelings can help you untangle them. It also can be helpful to refer back to at a later time when you look for patterns or trends in your thinking or behavior, or if you need help tracking down a specific thought from the past that may be affecting what’s going on now.
Use a daily journal or online app to track your progress toward your mental health goals.
Journaling and Mental Health
- Write about your thoughts, feelings and experiences.
- Make a commitment to write for at least 10 minutes per day.
- Don’t worry about spelling or grammar mistakes.
Many people use journals to capture these feelings. I recommend My Starry Journal (370 Pages), Paperpage (160 Pages), and Green Tree (202 Pages).
You may also want to try some of these ideas:
Use different writing prompts as inspiration for journaling: For example, you could use an app that provides you with daily questions to ask yourself in your journaling time; or you could create your own prompts using cards on a bulletin board or post-it notes on the wall above where you sit when writing in your journal (or both).
Journaling helps clarify thoughts and feelings while providing an outlet for them. You’ll likely notice that there’s a link between what goes into your head (your thoughts) and how it affects your body (your emotions).
12. Don’t overthink.
Do you ever find yourself overthinking things? If so, it might be time to change how you think about your thoughts. When we overthink, we can cause ourselves a lot of trouble. We lose sleep and get stressed out because our minds are racing with things that aren’t even real—this can lead us to feeling sad and depressed!
Here are some tips on how to avoid overthinking:
- Ask yourself if the thought is relevant right now. Is there anything I can do about it right now? If not, let it go!
- Ask yourself if this thought could have been avoided. Are there other ways I could have handled the situation? Was my reaction justified or was it just an excuse for me being upset with something else going on in my life at the time (hint: usually it’s the latter).
13. Think positive.
Your thoughts and beliefs determine the actions you take, which lead to your results. When you think negative thoughts and focus on what’s not working, it’s impossible to put yourself in a positive state of mind. You can help yourself by practicing daily affirmations or writing down a few things each night before bed that you appreciate about yourself or others.
14 Be kind to yourself—and others.
Many people struggle with being too hard on themselves when they fail at something or don’t meet their expectations for the day or week. And sometimes our expectations are too high! Instead of giving up when things get tough, find some way to give yourself grace and move forward without beating yourself up over every mistake or setback along the way (remember how long those LEGO instructions took?). Try starting off each day by thinking about one thing you’re grateful for—it could be anything from waking up healthy today after being sick yesterday morning…or having someone special who loves them unconditionally despite past mistakes made in life events (like buying LEGOs). This simple act alone helps take away any stress tied with starting off positively every morning which gives room for better decisions throughout rest of day/week!
Do you have any other mental health tips you recommend? Drop them in the comments below!
Did you try any of mental health tips? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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