The topic of mental health is one that isn’t well understood by the general public. On one hand, this is because matters of the mind are esoteric. On the other hand, the subjects of mental health and mental illness have long been misunderstood and demonized, delaying scientific progress and social acceptance by a few centuries. Your mental health will have a major impact on your quality of life, however, so it’s important to manage it effectively. Here’s what you need to know.
Physical Health
The biggest surprise about mental health is how closely connected it is to your physical health. While it’s easy to dismiss mental illness as something that’s “all in your head,” that alone can be debilitating, but there’s the additional problem that it can make your physical body less healthy. Likewise, poor physical health can cause mental health to worsen. Therefore, one of the best ways to manage your mental well-being is to take care of your body. Start by giving your body to materials it needs with a nutritionally complete diet. You can also use supplement green to help you fill in the gaps in your diet without adding extra calories and more of the nutrients you already have enough or too much of. However, the effect of your diet on your mental health is secondary to the effect of your physical activity. Regular exercise has a more direct impact on your mental well-being, and this has a lot to do with the chemical serotonin. This feel good chemical is comparable to dopamine, but instead of being released as a reward, it tends to be released by physical activity. In other words, serotonin is an incentive to keep your body moving, and failing to stay active deprives your body of this mood regulating chemical.
Sleep
Another crucial way to keep your mind healthy is sticking to a proper sleep schedule. Sleep has a profound, restorative effect not only on the body, but also on the mind. However, these benefits are best achieved with a surprisingly specific set of criteria. First and foremost, doctor’s recommend that you get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night, but it’s also important that the time that you go to sleep and wake up each day remains fairly consistent. If your sleep schedule is erratic, the quality of your sleep will suffer, and this leads to a two pronged assault on your mental health. First of all, the lack of energy that comes from restless sleep will simply make you feel worse on a physical level, and that in turn can impact mental health. More directly, restless sleep will be marked by more awareness of your dreams, and that can be disorienting and distressing. Dreams are often full of bizarre imagery and stressful situations, but you forget all about them when you wake up when the system works as intended.
Mental Stimulation
Last, but not least, one of the most important aspects of mental health is the health of the brain. After all, the brain is an organ within the body, and it’s therefore subject to many of the same rules. For example, a lack of mental exercise can lead the brain to deteriorate, albeit very slowly. This is thought to be the primary cause of diseases like Alzheimer’s, and that would explain why it primarily affects older people. Keeping your brain busy is just as important as keeping your body active, and hobbies provide a great way to do that. Hobbies tend to be engaging, and they also tend to require the development of new skills and knowledge, making having fun one of the most potent tools for self care.
Taking care of your mind is just as important and just as complicated as keeping your body in shape. However, there are ample proven strategies for mental health management that you can take advantage of. These tips can help you find your footing, but you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for more and better solutions.
