MENTAL & EMOTIONAL HEALTH (Preventive Maintenance is better than Breakdown Maintenance)

Neelesh Kajale Kajale Author

Maintaining Mental & Emotional Health

Slowly and steadily we are becoming aware of the need for good physical health. We have started taking care of our bodies, but physical fitness is one part of the overall well-being of an individual. Mental and emotional health is equally or even more critical for all of us. It is a classic case of suitable hardware and compatible software coming together to perform all the complex tasks of life.

Our mental and emotional health influences our daily behavior. It affects how we think, feel, and behave in everyday life. It also affects our ability to manage stress, overcome challenges, build relationships, and recover from failures and disappointments.

Our objective can be to take care of a particular mental health issue or merely handling disturbing emotions in a better way, or to feel more positive, energetic, and focused; there are various steps we can take to control our mental health. These steps can help boost our mood, build resilience, and increase our overall mental health.

1. Interacting With People In Person

We are social creatures with an innate need for relationships and positive connections with others. We need positive people around us. Face to face interaction is the most effective way to soothe our nervousness and relieve stress. While stressed out, if we can have a word with a person, it helps break the stressful train of thoughts and brings us back on track. It makes us feel more secure just by talking to someone. It is the result of a mechanism of sharing built into our systems. The key is to select a person who trusts you and listens to you without interrupting or judging or criticizing.

Asking for help or sharing our concerns is not a sign of weakness. Being open to interactions with the people around us is generally a good idea of building relationships. We can initiate conversations with our neighbors, people in the checkout line or on the bus. It takes nothing more than eye contact, a smile, a friendly greeting and small talk.

Some simple ways and means of building relationships are:

1. Call a school friend once every month. Arrange a meeting, if possible. Exercise buddies are good examples of healthy competition and mutual benefits.
2. Reaching out to new people and making new friends is not an easy task. Be the one to initiate the dialogue. Ask a neighbor to join you for tea.
3. Prefer real-world interactions compared to online virtual communications.
4. Joining different social or special interest groups who meet on a regular basis is an excellent way to start building relations.
5. Never be afraid to smile and say something pleasant to strangers we cross paths with.

2. Active Lifestyle

Physical activities are an essential part of our daily routine. When we improve our physical health, it automatically reflects in our mental and emotional energy. Physical exercise releases powerful chemicals which lift our mood and vitalizes our organs and senses. Regular exercise can have a significant impact on our mental and emotional well-being. It relieves stress, improves memory and helps us sleep better.

Understandably enough, not everybody loves to exercise. But to achieve functional fitness levels, we don’t have to be a fitness freak; we don’t have to spend countless hours pumping weights or jogging on the treadmills in the gym. Lunchtime walk in the park near office or laps of a shopping mall (of course without shopping), or a dance with our kids, cycling in the woods can be great ways of improving our mental and emotional health. The best part is we don’t have to buy fancy gadgets or equipment to start these activities. We can immediately begin these exercises.

      Small steps can go a long way toward improving our health. 30-40 minutes of daily activities like walking, running, swimming, dancing can do wonders for our well-being.

3. Stress Management

Stress is the biggest culprit behind our deteriorating mental, emotional and physical health. Stress affects our lives in many ways. There are various ways and means of managing the stress. One extraordinarily logical and secure method of controlling the stress instantly is breaking the stress-inducing thought train.

This can be achieved instantly by changing our mental and sensory focus from the reason behind the stress on one of our senses like sight or sound or taste or smell or touch. Stress balls are the perfect examples of this technique. Other simple things we can do instantly are smelling a coffee and focusing on the actual smell of the coffee, or listening to the song, humming the tune ourselves. These activities force us to concentrate on soothing and relaxing things instead of fretting about the stress-inducing thoughts.

Most of the times, accepting the unpleasant facts and situations helps us manage our stress in a far better way. The biggest reason behind stress is our unwillingness to accept the things and circumstances as they are.

4. Food For Thought

We will be surprised to know how our diet affects the functioning of our brains and our psychological makeup. An unhealthy diet can take a toll on our mind and mood, disrupt our sleep, sap our energy and weaken our immunity system.

A wholesome diet, low in sugar and rich in healthy fats can improve our mental capacity and energy. We have different food habits and dietary requirements. Let us have a look at some of the healthy and unhealthy food items: Foods that adversely affect health are alcohol, trans-fats, foods with chemical preservatives or hormones, Sugary snacks, fried food. Foods that boost our health are fishes rich in Omega 3, nuts- walnuts, almonds, cashews, Avocados, flaxseed, bean, leafy greens and fresh fruits.

5. Sleep

Our hectic schedules are making us cut on our sleeping hours. Getting enough quality sleep is a critical aspect of our mental and emotional health.  Skipping a few hours of sleep can take a toll on our energy levels, mental ability and our ability to handle stress. Continuous sleep deprivation can cause considerable loss of our brain capacity and mental health.

Adults typically need seven to nine hours of quality sleep each night. We need to stop stimulation of our eyes well before going to sleep. TV, Mobile phones, tablets, and computers should be avoided at least an hour before bedtime. If anxiety or worrying is disturbing your sleep cycles, we should try and calm our mind down by listening to soothing music or taking a warm bath.

Our body needs time to recover and rejuvenate. Sleeping is the necessary rest for the body. We should stick to a regular sleeping schedule.

6. Find Focus

Each one of us works in different ways to achieve our goals and objectives. We should look for engaging work that challenges us to create something or to learn something. These things keep us focused without paying attention to any negative thoughts or circumstances.

Helping others in some of the other ways also boosts our self-esteem and confidence. Spending quality time with our family and friends helps us in staying grounded and confident.

7. Keeping A Diary

Keeping a diary is an excellent way of tracking achievement, expressing positive/negative personal feelings and gratitude. Having a specific target for writing in the diary per day can be beneficial. Such goals can be three things to be grateful for or 3 things that could be accomplished today. Or we can have a limit of minimum words per day.

8. Start Your Day With Your Favorite Small Task

Start your day with a small but your favorite task. It can be having a freshly ground coffee or a stroll in the park or reading a section from your favorite book. It Boosts our morale and lifts our mood.

9. Plan For A Picnic Or A Vacation

Planning for a picnic or a vacation with family or friends is a pleasant process. Having something to look forward to can boost our happiness and morale till the actual picnic or holiday gets over.

10. Build On Your Strengths

Do something you’re good at. It builds the confidence. We can then tackle tougher tasks

11. Don’t Focus On The Whole Staircase, Take The First Step

Decide a goal to be achieved and work relentlessly one step at a time without taking the pressure.

12. Try New Things

Experiment with your favorite recipe or favorite badminton smash. Creativity is an essential part of mental health.

13. Boost Brainpower With Couple Of Dark Chocolates Every Now And Then

Dark chocolates improve alertness and mental skills. Treat your brain with dark chocolate once in a while.

14. Share Your Story

If you have a personal story of achieving an objective in the face of adversity such as illness, share it with everybody. You will feel better, and others will be benefitted from your experience.

15. Sometimes don’t add new activities to get more pleasure

Sometimes, it is essential to focus on what we have got. There is no point in losing our peace of mind on things we don’t have. We must appreciate the things which we already possess.

16. Remember the good times

When under pressure, revisiting good old memories helps negate the stress and pressure.

17. Laugh wholeheartedly

Watch a favorite comedy clip or spend some time with a funny friend or read a comic book. Spending time with morning laughter clubs is a riot. Laugh wholeheartedly without any inhibitions.

18. Online blackout

Take a break from social networking sites and online presence. Forget charging your smartphone for a day and get lost in the woods.

19. Dance around while doing housework

Enjoying whatever we do is the best way of completing the task efficiently within the given timeframe. It improves productivity.

20. Write it down

If something is making you extremely happy or is bothering you, write it down on the paper. It helps us look at it from a different perspective.

21. Be with your best friend

Spending your time with pets lowers the stress and makes us feel happy. Best friends also can generate the same feelings.

22. Be a tourist in your town

It makes us look at our place with a very different point of view. Instead of focusing on issues and problems, we start looking for tourist attractions, favorite food hubs, exciting places to visit, meeting new people.

23. Practice forgiveness

Forgiveness is crucial for mental health. Carrying garbage of ill-will towards people can be very taxing. It saps our energy. Forgiving and forgetting make a lot of room for happiness in our mind. Don’t let our lives become a garbage truck.

24. Try and find out the silver lining

Behind every problem we face, there always is an opportunity waiting for us. We need to focus on the opportunity hidden behind the problem.

25. Feeling stressed? Smile.

Smiling helps lower our heart rate and reduce stress.

26. Appreciate other people

Appreciate people for helping you out. Sending a handwritten thank you note goes a long way in cementing the friendship

27. Do something with friends and family

Arrange small get-togethers for family and friends.

28. Go for a walk in nature

Spending time in nature boosts our energy and positivity.

29. Try something new and make mistakes

Get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Learning a new language or a skill can be an excellent way to stimulate your brain and creativity.

In case of mental & emotional health, Preventive Maintenance is always better than Breakdown Maintenance.