Mental wellbeing is crucial for a happy, healthy life. Learning and incorporating practices into your life that scientifically increase endorphins will significantly improve your overall happiness and wellbeing. And in times of stress, it’s important to have coping mechanisms in place to avoid any mental breakdowns. Just like you wouldn’t buy a car and never ever maintain it with oil, and so forth, without requiring serious attention at the auto repair shop or mechanics.
Sleep
Sleep is the rest you need for brian activity such as cognitive tasks, attention, memory and learning. For adults, the recommended amount is 7-9 hours. Not getting this amount will mean the brain is unable to deal with small annoyances – to the extent that your perception of life is morphed into an inaccurate view. With this inability to manage daily stresses, as well as the distorted view of reality, well you can imagine how important it is to get in the hours of sleep you need.
Nutrition
Eating healthy makes you feel physically better but it also has a significant impact on your mental wellbeing. Nutritional foods increase healthy thinking, alertness, concentration and attention. Whereas, bad foods will cause impaired decision-making and fatigue. Psychologically, you know you are looking after yourself which increases your self esteem – likewise, you may notice differences in your physical appearance which will guarantee an improvement in your mental wellbeing.
Exercise or walk
According to various studies, spending a minimum of 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous exercise, on most days of your week, will directly increase your mood and reduce stress or anxiety. Even a 30 minute walk is helpful. In this mannner, you are connecting to nature too, which is another element required for your wellbeing. Exercise is a tool used to help manage and prevent mental health issues simply because it’s in our genetic makeup to exercise.
Nature
Going into nature scientifically decreases your negative feelings such as stress, anxiety, fear, anger. As well as this, nature can act as a preventative method to avoid such feelings and maintain your mental wellbeing. This has a positive impact on physical health, in the likes of blood pressure, stress hormones and blood pressure, which then circles back to improving your wellbeing again. All in all, getting some form of nature fix every day, even for 20 minutes, is a no brainer.
Human Connection
Humans are designed to connect to others, so if you head into work and spend your spare time at home or venturing about by yourself, then your mental being is bound to be impacted. This doesn’t mean you need to be surrounding people all the time, as for introverts, well, this is going to drain you more than anything. But it does mean you shouldn’t go weeks without seeing friends. In adult life, it can be hard to make and maintain friendships. This is understandable. Look at local clubs, walking get togethers or sports you can join which will help meet new people. There’s even friendship Bumble nowadays.
Olivia Fairhurst is a content manager for Tony Allen Auto Service, an auto service repair shop, vehicle and car service, and mechanics in Manukau, Auckland NZ.
Recent Comments