Hello guys! Welcome back to part 4 of my How To Create The Life You Want mini course! Today, we are talking all about mental health. What is mental health? How to improve mental health. In general How To Glow Up Your Mental Health.
Mental health can be hard to define, for the simple fact that it encompasses so many different things and so many different areas. So much of what we have already spent time doing during this course will help improve your mental health. With that said, mental health isn’t simple and improving it isn’t always simple either. There are serious periods people go through where medical interventions are needed. I’ve been there and I can tell you, during that period if someone had put this article in front of me I would have been both invalidated and distraught. So please know, this is not my fix all list for you and your mental health. This is like a stage one help boost your mood method. Not to say it won’t help you create a basic foundation of better mental health, but it is not by any means a replacement for therapy, medication, or professional health. Much love to you and regardless of where you are at, I hope you are well on your journey.
What is Mental Health?
The World Health Organization defines Mental Health as:
Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.
The CDC defines Mental Health as:
What is mental health? Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.
Quick Tips to improve Mental Health
- Sleep
- Drink plenty of water
- Spend time outside
- Get your body moving
- Spend time with the right people
- Journal
- Affirmations
According to lesson bee and their mind map of mental health
Having a balanced mental state means a person can:
- Have productive, healthy relationships and make meaningful connections.
- Adapt to and cope with daily stress in life.
- Establish a positive sense of self.
- Stay motivated, physically active, and healthy.
- Be more productive at work and school.
- Work toward achieving their full potential.
They also list six factors of mental health.
The six factors are:
- Autonomy
- Environmental Mastery
- Personal Growth
- Positive Relations with Others
- Purpose in Life
- Self-Acceptance
It’s honestly such a great article about mental health, I have linked it below for you to read.
https://lessonbee.com/blog/mind-map-what-does-mental-health-include
Sleep
Sleep can be a big problem area when your mental health is not at it’s best. It tends to turn into not sleeping enough or sleeping too much. Having a regular sleep routine can do wonders for your over all health and that of course includes your mental health. This is the area I find the hardest when I’m going through a low, but it’s something that when I have the energy I do my best to keep consistent.
Drink plenty of water
Please, please, please, if you do nothing else when your mental health is low, drink as much water as you can stand. I know for a fact that sleeping gets hard, eating gets hard, getting out of bed gets hard, but if you can do nothing else try your best to just keep yourself hydrated. Which again, I know it gets hard.
Water reduces fatigue, stress and foggy mind. It can also help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety. All in all it leads to improved mental well-being.
Health line has a great article all about seven science backed reasons why water helps with mental health.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-health-benefits-of-water
Spend time outside
Even getting out of bed can feel impossible on those rough days but spending time outside is strongly therapeutic if you can manage to get there. Being outside is linked to lower stress, anxiety and feelings of anger. Regular access to green spaces is actually linked to lower risks of depression and better concentration and brain function overall.
Get your body moving
Movement to get your blood flowing and your muscles moving is a great way to help pass your body and mind through a rut. Exercise can improve your sense of control, self-esteem and control It has the ability to distract from negative thoughts, situations and people.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise
Above is an article from health line outlining 10 benefits.
Spend time with the right people
One of the worst things you can do when your mental health is low is surround yourself with the wrong people. Relationships should help you not hurt you. You want to be spending time with people who reflect who you want to be. A supportive social network is imperative when it comes to your mental health. If you are wanting to connect with like minded people you can join our community.
Journaling
One of my favorite ways to not only keep track of my mental health, but keep tabs on when I’m moving towards a low and work to put into place my interventions is journaling.
Benefits of Journaling
WebMD has a great article on how journaling helps mental health, but also how to begin journaling.
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-benefits-of-journaling
- It reduces anxiety
- It helps with ruminating
- It creates awareness
- It regulates emotions
- It encourages opening up
- It can speed up physical healing
This is an additional article by positive psychology. It includes the benefits of journaling but also some research that’s been done on journaling.
https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling
Affirmations
Last but certainly not least, affirmations. Mentalhealth.com posted an article in September of 2024 stating that the success of affirmation truly rests on repetition. The brain is more likely to see information that is repeated as true. Repeated positive affirmations contributes to an improvement in self-image and a lower amount of negative thoughts and a healthier response to stress.
The full article is great and gives plenty of science backed facts about affirmations and mental health. It also gives you valuable knowledge on how to effectively use positive affirmations and explains the difference between positive thinking and positive affirmations.
The next article is a good list of affirmation for your mental health that you can try out.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in for day 4 of my How To Create The Life You Want mini course. I hope this post gave you some valuable knowledge about your mental health and how to help keep it up.
Much love always <3 Ky
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