Your mental health influences how you think, feel, and behave in daily life. It also affects your ability to cope with stress, overcome challenges, build relationships, and recover from life’s setbacks and hardships.
So it’s really important to monitor mental states. It’s also an incredible skill to be able to move into the proper mental state to do focused work, create, meditate, exercise, or do whatever you find meaningful.
Your mind is your greatest asset that can help you succeed or fail at anything in life. It is very important that you are mindful of your mental state at every moment. A calm and energetic mind will assist you to achieve greater heights in life. You need to have a strong, positive mental state.
Strong mental health isn’t just the absence of mental health problems. Being mentally or emotionally healthy is much more than being free of depression, anxiety, or other psychological issues. Rather than the absence of mental illness, mental health refers to the presence of positive characteristics.
7 Positive characteristics of a healthy mind
1. A zest for living and the ability to enjoy life, live, laugh, and have fun
2. The ability to deal with life challenges and bounce back after adversity
3. Emotional intelligence
4. The ability to build meaningful and fulfilling relationships with others
5. Having an open mind
6. The ability to live a purposeful life
7. The ability to love and be content with yourself and your life
Cognitive therapy teaches us that if you can shape what you think, you can shape how you feel and what you do.
If we leave our minds to their free will, they will wander erroneously. Minding mental states involve mental exercises that can help us to be mentally healthy. Some of these I have listed below.
8 Exercises that can help you strengthen your mind
1. Eat healthy foods. Don’t just consume anything and everything that comes across your path. What you eat can definitely affect your brain’s energy.
2. Get enough sleep (It’s necessary more than you know and can affect your mood and energy), get enough rest, relax and meditate.
3. Be mobile, take a walk, exercise, and dance. Be active
4. Have your solitude moments. If possible, outdoors, in the midst of nature. Nature has a healing effect on us.
5. Read, watch or listen to something inspirational. If you want to be a leader then be a reader.
6. Have fun. Allow your mind the kid-like kind of fun. Play is a necessity for mental health. You don’t need to be too serious about life.
7. Make physical social connections. Human beings are social creatures and cannot survive in isolation.
8. Talk to your mentor or a therapist. I wanted to say speak to someone but sometimes if you speak to the wrong person, this can be disastrous also.
Minding mental states do not stop us from going through life’s cycles such as sadness, anxiety, or stress but it helps us to be able to overcome the adversity of those moments and bounce back. It equips us with tools to help us cope with difficult situations and maintain a positive outlook on life.
In our African societies, mental and emotional issues are given less relevance in terms of health priorities. They are reflected as a sign of weakness and this is more prevalent, especially among men. They are taught from childhood to bottle up their feelings, never show emotion or seek help. A man who can do this is considered to be strong.
If you need to speak to a professional counsellor, don’t forget to get in touch with Psyche and Beyond.
Website: https://psycheandbeyond.org/
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/psycheandbeyond/
Whatsapp: +2761 853 0124
Email: psycheandbeyond@gmail.com / info@psycheandbeyond.org
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