Throughout life, it’s always important to look after yourself. Part of looking after yourself includes looking after your own mental wellbeing. Your mental wellbeing is extremely important as this is how you feel on a day to day basis. It affects not only you but others and how you act within your personal life and at work.
There will always be a time in life where your mental health won’t be as positive as it can be, therefore you may need to make a few changes to feel more positive. To help with looking after your mental health we have put together seven simple tips below.
Make Sure You Have Some You Time
You time is important, especially for your mental health. It allows you a moment to yourself where you can relax and enjoy your own company. You can do anything when spending time with yourself, as long as it’s relaxing and helping your mental wellbeing. Even the smallest things can make a difference like going for a walk along the countryside or a beach. You could take up a hobby that you enjoy like painting or maybe watch some tv and forget about your everyday stresses.
Exercise
Exercise is an extremely effective way to look after your mental health. By exercising you can forget about any stresses that you are dealing with at the moment and enjoy what you are doing. Plus, through exercise, you get to meet new people and spend time with people you enjoy spending your time with. Why not get a family member or friend to join you when exercising? Whatever you choose to do you will benefit from helping your mental health as well as the physical benefits. You’ll also find you have more energy throughout the day to help with your day to day life
Drink Sensibly
Everybody enjoys a drink every now and then, but over-drinking can be detrimental to your mental health. If you over drink, once the alcohol goes out of your system you start to feel uneasy until the effects of the alcohol have completely worn off. If you find yourself drinking more than the recommended 14 units a week, then reducing your intake may help with your mood and mental health. Of course, there are times you will go over this but it’s always useful to have a benchmark to be below if you can. After all a nice glass of wine on a Friday night after a stressful week can be much needed.
Eat Well
Your diet has a direct correlation with how your mental health is doing. If you eat junk food on a daily basis, not only will you put on weight but you will also find yourself feeling groggy and not very healthy. If you are trying to improve your diet, reduce the amount of saturated fat in your diet and increase the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat. The recommended amount of fruit and veg should be five a day. If you don’t manage this, try to start increasing the amount by including it in things like your breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you don’t like the taste of vegetables, include them within sauces so that the flavors aren’t as prevalent.
Talk About Your Feelings
If you are feeling down, try not to bottle it up. By talking to others you can help relieve the stress and feel better about the situation. Often the situation is bigger than you may think and after the saying is a problem shared is a problem halved. Communication and sharing your emotions isn’t a weakness, in fact, it can be very empowering and help you to feel more positive about things. If you feel uncomfortable, you don’t need to do it face to face, you can always communicate through text or over a phone call.
Treat Yourself
Every now and then it’s good to treat yourself, especially if you are doing well. If you are having a good month why not visit the spa and have one of their facials. You could go with a friend and just relax and catch up. A spa break can also be a great way to just spend time with yourself and enjoy your own company as well. If you don’t fancy a spa break, you could treat yourself to anything, maybe a meal that you wouldn’t normally get, a takeaway on a Friday or a gift that you’ve been wanting to purchase for a long time but haven’t yet. Whilst treating yourself, you could buy a small little something to improve someone else’s day as well like a friend who you live with.
Get A Good Night’s Sleep
It may sound silly but sleep can do wonders for your mental health. If you have been working hard and staying up later, your body will start to feel tired and your mood won’t be as positive. Often you will find that your concentration will lack as well when you are tired. If you are feeling this way then get an early night and have a good sleep. You’ll wake up feeling a lot better benefiting your mental health. The recommended amount of sleep you should be getting should be around 7-9 hours – are you achieving this?
There are so many different ways to look after your mental health. If you find yourself feeling a little down then take some time to yourself and look after yourself. Your health is the most important thing there is, so try not to neglect it.
Making multiple changes at the same time can be hard, so instead make a couple of changes from the above and see how you feel. Once you get used to these changes you can add some other changes to your day to day life.
What tips do you have for improving your mental health? Have you tried anything from the above seven? Are there any tips that you would like added? Let us know in the comment box below, we would love to hear from you.
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