“Mental health…is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.” – Noam Shpancer, PhD
10th Oct is a Mental health day. There has been a lot of awareness being created about Mental health, but still world is suffering from Mental illnesses. Century ago, we were dealing with plague, cholera etc but now we deal with psychosomatic illnesses means illness related to mind and body.
So lets understand what is Mental health and how it affects our life, wellbeing and our surrounding.
Mental health, defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”
It is about our emotional, psychological, and social well-being state. Our mental health is how we act, feel, and respond. It is about how one handles stress, feel about oneself, relate to others and make choices.
It is very important right from childhood to adulthood.
Mental wellbeing is very important for leading a healthy and happy life.
In the modern world, we have been suffering from mental illness like anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia, migraine, heart diseases, cancer etc. and the root cause lies at mind or emotional state of the person. It not only affects the person individually but ones personal, professional life. It affects the near and dear ones.
I have heard this in a conference, if a person is healthy, his/her family is healthy, if family is healthy, society is healthy, if society is healthy, city, state and country is healthy.
So, it starts from individual to take control and manage ones mental state and wellbeing.
I believe everyone is born for some purpose, so instead of spending our lives struggling and dealing with these things, why cant we focus on something bigger. It is said that happiness of human being lies in growth and contributing to others lives.
In order to achieve that, we need to keep our mind and emotions healthy, create positive environment and make the world better place to live for oneself and others too.
So here are 10 powerful tips for mental well-being
1. Yoga, exercise
To keep mind healthy, first your body should be healthy. It should be free from infections, pains, diseases, and aches. For that one must be active physically. So, one should exercise regularly. Being a yoga teacher, I support Yoga for overall wellbeing physical, mental and emotional too. Try what works out best for yourself. Try to exercise/Yoga for min 2-3 days in a week
2. Meditate regularly
This is a great tool to keep your mind healthy. Meditation helps to organize your thoughts, keeps negative thoughts away. Build resilience and inner strength, helps to bring positive attitude in life, release stress and anxiety. Many people want to Meditate but they do not know how to start. In that case, suggest taking help of a Meditation teacher, join a meditation class or take help of apps or social media videos.
(1) 4 Myths about Meditation revealed ! | LinkedIn
3. Sleep well
Very often, imbalance on mental level or mental conditions leads to disturbed sleep or insomnia. Not having sufficient sleep, leads to number of problems. A good night’s sleep is very important to heal, to strengthen immunity, to be healthy.
If Sleep is disturbed, go to the root cause what is affecting. Again yoga, meditation are best ways to help sleep better. Take help at right time, find natural ways to get regular good sleep.
Follow this video: (5) Bedtime Yoga for Deep sleep| Yoga from Home| – YouTube
4. Prioritize work
Most of the times, stress occurs due to not organizing time and work in efficiently.
Have a routine to prioritize work. This will bring clarity and help in time management in most effective way. For example, if you have habit of writing to do list, tick 3 to 5 top things you work on that day. This will ensure management of time as well resources in a better way without getting stressed over finishing tasks
5. Gratitude
Gratitude is showing appreciation to the positive things, events in life. It’s the way to shift focus from negativity to positivity. It really helps to see positive aspects in life. If practiced regularly, it really builds the positive attitude in life. Hence it builds the mental strength. TO practice gratitude, you can have a journal and write 3 to 5 things you are grateful for that day
6. Connect with people
Human being is a social animal. Every individual finds happiness connecting with others. All our earrings, accomplishments, sharing will not have any value if we have no one to share with. Connecting people bring happiness, sense of connectedness. If one is stressed or anxious, having to talk to the dear ones or friends and family really helps to release stress, worries to large extend. So, connect with people and have someone whom you can share or talk to specially during low, stressful times.
7. Kindness
When you must choose between being kind and being right, chose kindness. The kindness towards self, others and entire society and living beings. Being kind helps to build real human connections, bringing happiness to other which obviously helps to bring inner joy and happiness
8. Giving back
Giving back to society and contributing to other lives are the highest form of happiness. Helping someone without expecting anything in return helps in so much happiness. This helps to keep oneself happy and hence a very effective way to bring mental strength and wellbeing
9. Find hobbies
When one follows passion, interest, or hobbies, it the like being in meditation. Eg someone likes dancing, those moment of dancing is like enjoying that moment fully and hence its like a meditation. Hence try to find the ways to do things you love and like to do. It will keep your mind healthy, joyful, and creative.
10. Spend time in nature regularly alone
Sometimes spending time alone is all the therapy you need and if you can spend this time in nature it is a great way to relax mind. In the nature, negative ions are more which helps in bringing more oxygen to body which helps in relaxing whole body and rejuvenate mind.
Follow these tips regularly. It’s the balance what is needed. Imbalance at mind create imbalance on energy, emotions and body.
Balance on these levels creates happiness and joy.
“A healthy outside starts from the inside”
~ Riberst Urich
