Mental health has become more and more important in the public sphere in recent times. Now more than ever have people realized the importance of keeping a healthy mind if they want to also keep a healthy life.
You will find advice all over the internet and from every Tom, Dick, and Harry telling you about ways you can improve your mental health, and reasons why you should improve your mental health.
This is truly a wonderful thing. Think about it. In the last 100 years, mental health has gone from something to be ashamed and embarrassed about, to something that is okay to talk about and encouraged to protect.
100 years ago, if you suffered from even the smallest ailments of the mind such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) you could be seriously scolded and put down in school or by your peers. You were simply seen as a misbehaved kid who needed proper punishment to put you into shape.
And even though mental health, and getting mental health help, has been accepted by most modern people, there are still a lot of people who suffer from mental health issues that they are embarrassed to deal with.
These could be things that are embarrassing because they lack dignity in some people’s eyes such as forgetfulness or in a more extreme case abuse, to things that are just simply embarrassing like porn addiction or gambling addiction.
Gambling addiction is actually a big problem in some countries with as much as 1% of adults suffering from gambling addiction, and up to 6-9% of young people suffering from gambling addiction. The high percentage of young people with gambling addiction probably isn’t helped with the accessibility of online gambling – sports betting, lottery purchases, online casino, and even many video games have gambling-like mechanics.
But no matter who you are, or if you suffer from any actual mental health disorder, there are many benefits to living a more mentally healthy life. You will simply be a happier and more functional person.
So, there are many ways to improve your mental health. Most of them are very simple, and can be done by anyone! Just these simple things can dramatically improve your life quality and happiness!
Exercise
Exercise is an excellent way to improve mental health and overall wellness. This is for a few reasons. The first is the simple reason that being healthier physically means that you will just feel better.
How you feel physically can dramatically affect your mental health negatively or positively. Exercising will make your physical self feel better, and just simply make you feel healthy.
Another thing is that many people suffer from body image issues such as self-consciousness, feeling that they are ugly, or just general unhappiness with how they look.
If you exercise, it is a way for you to improve that self-image of yourself. This is not only because you will physically be in better shape! A healthier lifestyle leads to a healthier body, which leads to a healthier mind, which leads to a healthier outlook on oneself.
This is very important to take care of. If you are not physically well, then you will have a much harder time feeling mentally well. Sometimes you need to take little steps at a time to reach a larger overall goal.
Finally, exercising is a great way to make you feel like you accomplished something during your day. Many people have terrible motivation and activity issues. I have even suffered from this personally myself.
There are just some days where you don’t feel like you have accomplished anything at all. You simply wasted the day away, and that is not only a bad use of your time, but it is also really bad for your mental health.
Days can start to bleed together, and you will feel anger towards yourself for wasting so much of your time. This is why it is important to do something every day that makes you feel like the day wasn’t wasted.
Exercising is a great way to do this. It allows you to feel accomplished and like you are doing something good for your life. You don’t have to feel guilt at the end of the day for being lazy. You can feel proud of yourself for trying to become a better you.
Take a Break from Technology
I know many people have probably told you this over and over again, but it’s true! Taking a break from technology and social media absolutely will help improve your mental health and allow you to focus on things that you enjoy that aren’t digital.
Now, when I say a break, I really mean a break. Pick a single day out of the week. Maybe a Saturday or Sunday, and don’t use technology at all that day. No computers, no phones, no tablets, or anything else with a screen and or internet access.
Heck, if you want to go all the way, try not to use anything electronic for that day! It really will do a lot for you.
But I know what you are thinking, “No technology at all?! This guy must be some crazy conspiracy theorist nutbag who’s afraid of the 5G cell towers.” But let me explain!
Think about it, how much of our lives are run by the technology we use? How much have we changed in our lives for what we have seen on social media? How much does it affect our mental health to see others on social media?
Or how about how much it affects us to worry about being judged on social media? How worried are we about what other people think of us, how we live our lives, and how we look?
This is not a healthy way for anyone to live. It is important to take a break from all of this. In my opinion, an entire day without it is a good thing to aim for. This will give you the time to sit back, breathe, and realize all the things you enjoy about the life you have.
You may think this is impossible. But it’s not. I know many religious people who strictly follow the guidelines of the sabbath. This means they do not use any form of electricity directly for all of Saturday.
I think this is a wonderful thing! It allows us to focus on the here and now, rather than our ever more distracting digital lives. Sure, there may be a lot of people who seem to be doing so many cooler things than we are, but social media is only a snippet of those people’s lives.
Finally, it allows us to let go, if not for just a little bit, of our total dependence on the technology we use. Think about how much we rely on our gadgets and gizmos nowadays to do things for us.
But, you may be asking how this will improve your mental health. That is an excellent question. If we can let go of all that for even one day, then it will relieve us and let us feel more free.
But even more so, it forces us to find alternative ways to use our time. Go for a walk! Go hang out with your friends! Say hello to your neighbor! Read a book! Do something that you will enjoy and bring you happiness.
Because, isn’t that what, at the end of the day, improving mental health is all about? We allow ourselves to live the happiest, nicest, most fulfilling lives we can.