Our mental health and wellbeing are paramount to how good we feel.
Life has a habit of throwing all sorts of tricky situations at us, so if you want to make sure you can handle whatever comes your way, you’ll need to keep an eye on the importance of mental health and wellbeing in your life.
When we lead busy lives, it can be easy to let things that help us feel good take a slide. That’s because we often think we’ll be fine without them.
What is Mental Health and Wellbeing?
Your mental health is all the psychological, social, and emotional elements that make you ‘you’. It’s not a fixed permanent state. In fact, you’ll have periods of your life where your mental health will be doing great, and then there may be times when it’s not so hot. Either way, that’s entirely normal.
Wondering how are your mental health and wellbeing linked? It goes like this: your wellbeing sits alongside your mental health. It also covers some mental health elements, but as well as this it also includes how you’re treating your body physically and nutritionally.
Good mental health and good wellbeing go hand in hand; if one feels out of sync, chances are there’ll be issues with the other one too. But don’t worry – there's loads you can do to perk up your mental health and wellbeing and get back on an even keel.
How to Maintain Good Mental Health and Wellbeing
If you’re feeling a little low it can sometimes feel like too much of a gargantuan task to start doing amazing things that will make you feel better. After all, if you’re struggling to get out of bed and face the day each morning, you’re probably not going to jump at the suggestion of going for a run. So, take things slowly and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t manage everything.
Here are some small steps you can take to make sure you’re focusing on the importance of mental health and wellbeing.
Get enough sleep
If you’re shirking on the zzz’s, chances are it will catch up with you sooner or later. In terms of feeling good, nothing beats getting enough sleep. Aim for eight hours, and a regular bedtime to feel the maximum benefits.
Make a grateful list
If you feel like your life is full of negatives, stop. Instead of focusing on all the stuff that might not be the best, switch things around and look at the good stuff.
Whether it’s that you’ve just had an awesome cup of coffee, or you got your make-up on point this morning - it really doesn’t matter how small your wins are just make sure you acknowledge them.
Every time you spend time revelling in a positive is like giving your brain a little boost of serotonin – those much-loved happy chemicals.
Step away from social media
Urgh. Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Yes it is!
We all know social media with all its filters, humble bragging, and perfect pictures never makes us feel good, and yet we still scroll our lives away. It’s time to stop.
If you can’t ditch it completely at least limit the time you spend on it – set a timer, and then when you hit the max, it’s time to get on and focus on your own life. We’re 100% certain that your mental health and wellbeing will seriously thank you if you can cut down on the socials.
Stay in the moment
Try and limit the time you spend thinking about stuff that might or might not happen. Slow things right down and focus on what you’re doing in the here and now.
For instance, if you’re in the shower, think about the feeling of the water on your skin, don’t think about all the stuff you have to do in order to get out the door as it will just worsen your stress and anxiety.
Look after your gut
This one’s so easy to do but when we’re feeling low we often skip it. Our microbiome (the microorganisms that live in our gut) has been linked to depression, anxiety and stress. If you can add more good bacteria to your gut you may start feeling better too.
Eat vegetables, avoid antibiotics if you can, boost your probiotics by drinking apple cider vinegar for example, and keep red meat to a minimum – your gut will thank you for it.
Be there for yourself
Keeping your mental health and wellbeing on track isn’t about big things. It’s not about huge-spend holidays (though, hey, a bit of sun might help!), it’s not about pretending your life is perfect on social media, and it’s not about comparing yourself to others.
Your mental health and wellbeing are yours to look after and they need nourishing, noticing, and listening to.
Be kind to yourself.
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