10 Tips for Stronger Mental Health

To stay fit and healthy it’s important to take care of your mental health as well as your physical health. There are little things you can do each day that all contribute to your mental wellness.

Add these 10 Tips for Stronger Mental Health to your daily routines and feel the difference:

1. Get enough sleep. A lot happens in your brain while you sleep – for both your physical and mental health. Sleep also helps to regulate the chemicals in your brain that manage moods and emotions. When you don’t get enough sleep, you may start to experience feelings of depression or anxiety.

Most adults thrive with 7-9 hours of good quality sleep each night. Experiment and see how many hours work best for you.

2. Eat nutritiously. Good food is good for our bodies, plus it’s good for our mental health too. A deficiency in certain minerals, such as iron or vitamin B12, can negatively affect your mood.

Eat a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meat, and healthy fats like avocados. Avoid processed foods with unnatural chemicals. A healthy diet helps both your body and mind feel good.

Limit caffeine, as this can increase feelings of anxiety.

3. Avoid alcohol, smoking, and drugs. These items can affect your mental health also.

Drinking too much alcohol can leave you with a thiamine deficiency, which can cause challenges with your memory, coordination, and confusion.

Withdrawal symptoms of smoking and drugs can lead to a host of issues. For example, you may feel irritable or anxious without having smoked, while withdrawal effects of drug use may include low moods and anxiety.

5. Try to reduce stress. Stress can sometimes be unavoidable but learning what triggers it and how to cope with it is key for your mental health.

You can learn to better manage your worries by making a list or schedule of what needs to be done. Prioritize the most important items and do those first. When you get used to doing this each day, you’ll soon realize that your tasks are manageable, and you’ll feel less need to worry.

Once your important tasks are taken care of, find relaxation methods that work for you and let the stress of the day melt away.

6. Make time to exercise. Regular exercise helps to boost the production of chemicals in your brain that improve your mood. This helps to eliminate low mood, anxiety, and stress.

7. Have fun. Even if you are living a busy lifestyle, be sure to set some time aside for fun. Fun is actually very important to your mental health, life satisfaction, and a healthy outlook on life.

8. Be sociable. Having a few good friends is good for your mental health. They can support and encourage you in good times and bad, giving you inspiration and motivation to live your best life.

9. Volunteer. Helping others can be good for you too, as well as those you are helping. A little community spirit can go a long way to making you feel good about yourself.

Find a charity that speaks to your heart and volunteer your time to help others.

10. Ask for help. Learn to recognize the signs that you aren’t feeling good and need to ask for help. There’s no need to feel ashamed about having to ask for help. We all go through tough times, but if you have support around you, you’ll be able to make it through to the other side.

If you feel as though your friends and family cannot help, or if your mental health issues have started to get too much for you to cope with, make an appointment to speak with your doctor.

Your mental health is important and, if not looked after, it may start to affect your physical health as well. Do the little things regularly that can help you to build strong mental health. You’ll love the difference in the way you feel.

Finding a work-life balance is good for both your physical and mental health. But many times, heavy job responsibilities steal that balance away. When that happens, both our work and home life can suffer unwanted consequences. Work Life Balance

But how can you achieve that balance and still excel at your job? Work Life Balance

Use these strategies to create the work-life balance you seek:

1. Avoid checking your work emails outside the office. While in the office, you’ll probably check your work emails often to ensure that any meetings and deadlines are met. However, checking them when you’re off work allows your work life to encroach on your home life. Work Life Balance

Set boundaries with yourself and your work colleagues regarding emails, so that you can take care of work communications only while at work. Work Life Balance

2. Learn to say no. You may love your job, but it’s usually unnecessary to be available to your boss 24/7. We all need a break occasionally, and there is nothing wrong with saying no once in a while. Especially outside of your allotted work hours.

3. Work smarter, not harder. Instead of working all hours of the day, with very little rest, work smarter. You’ll actually get more done in a shorter period of time.

Prioritize important tasks and do these tasks first each day. This way, the most important things always get done.

Avoid unproductive activities, such as unstructured meetings or constantly checking your social media accounts. Work Life Balance

4. Leave work at work. This may be hard, and may not always be possible, but when you clock off for the day, make a mental note that work has finished.

Perhaps take a moment to acknowledge that work has finished by stopping and taking a breath before your commute home. The reason for this is to ensure that you are not bringing the work and any stress associated with it home. Work Life Balance

5. You don’t need to be perfect. Have you ever been on your way out of the office, only to turn back around because you thought of a way to make a report or task perfect? Sometimes, it pays to remind yourself that you and your work are good enough. Work Life Balance

6. Focus on things outside work. For some of us, our work is our life, but what happens if one day we lose our job? Where does that leave us? It may be a scary thought, but it’s important to have a life outside work.

Develop some hobbies that interest you. Spending time doing something that you love reduces stress and energizes you while relaxing you and uplifting your mood. Add some “happy time” to your life!

7. Make your own rules. There has been a shift in work attitudes, especially among younger workers. More people – even bosses – are recognizing the value of work-life balance. Come up with your own ideas that will help you separate your work from your home life and run them by your boss. They might just agree! Work Life Balance

Finding a balance between work and your home life can be difficult, but it’s well worth the effort! Work Life Balance

There are so many reasons why it’s important to have a purpose. However, most people have never considered what their purpose is. It can be challenging to establish your purpose if you seem to spend all of your energy just surviving your day to day life. However, knowing your purpose can make life a lot easier! Why You Must Know Your Purpose

It’s worth taking the time to discover your purpose and to build your life around that purpose.

Consider these reasons why you might want to discover your purpose:

1. Knowing your purpose provides a foundation for making decisions. How will you make a decision that’s right for you if you don’t know your purpose? When your purpose is clear, your options become much easier to evaluate. Why You Must Know Your Purpose

Whether your goal is to attend Harvard Law School, run a marathon, or start your own company, knowing your purpose makes the best option for nearly any decision much clearer. Why You Must Know Your Purpose

2. When you know your purpose, you’re more likely to persevere. It’s easy to give up if you’re not committed. Your purpose is the thing that you’re committed to. When those inevitable obstacles pop up, you’ll be in a much better position to overcome them.

3. Life is short. Why go through each day mindlessly wandering around? You have a direction for your life when you have a purpose. Why You Must Know Your Purpose

Your purpose might be saving the albino zebras or becoming a horror novelist. It doesn’t matter what your purpose is, but you can live a more meaningful life if you identify it.

4. Knowing your purpose provides clarity. You know what’s important and what isn’t if your purpose is clear to you. If you’re obsessed with making the PGA Tour, there’s no reason to worry about politics or the fact that your neighbor isn’t mowing his grass. You have bigger fish to fry.

5. It minimizes distractions. Many of the distractions in your life are the things that interest you, but not enough to be a genuine purpose. It’s the things that you like to dabble in that can be distracting. When you have a real purpose, these semi-serious interests get kicked to the curb. Why You Must Know Your Purpose

6. It all but guarantees success. With greater focus and perseverance, you’re much more likely to be successful. It’s very difficult to be successful at something you feel half-hearted about.

Imagine something that you’re totally committed to achieving. Now, imagine that it’s also very meaningful to you, and it’s also very interesting to you. How likely are you to be successful?

Contrast that with something you’re only mildly interested in that you consider to be rather meaningless. How successful will you be? The difference in your results would be staggering. Why You Must Know Your Purpose

7. It adds to your charisma. Someone with a purpose is much more interesting than someone who is just drifting through life. You’re much more attractive to others when your purpose is clear to you.

Think of someone you know whose life is committed to something. Now think of someone you know who seems lost and inconsequential in the world. Which would you rather be? How would you rather appear to others?

When you know your purpose, life is more meaningful and easier to navigate. Decisions are easier to make. You’re more interesting to others. Your much clearer on what you’re trying to accomplish. Why You Must Know Your Purpose

Your purpose is something that only you can determine for yourself. Think of all your interests, and then consider how meaningful you think each one is. Your purpose is somewhere in there waiting for you to find it. It’s never too soon or too late to find your purpose! Why You Must Know Your Purpose

13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

Anxiety is a common affliction, and that’s not surprising. The modern world is much more demanding and complex than our brains were designed to handle. Pain is a symptom of a broken body. Anxiety is a symptom of a broken mind.

Consider all you ask you mind to do. You want everyone to like you. You don’t ever want to be embarrassed. You want everyone to like everything you say and do. You don’t want anyone to hurt you in any way. You don’t want anything to happen that you don’t like.

That’s a lot to ask of your mind. No wonder you feel anxious. 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

Reduce the intensity of your anxiety with these strategies: 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

1. Go for a run. Actually, it doesn’t have to be a run. It could be a yoga class, tennis match, long walk, or some good old-fashioned calisthenics. Exercise is an effective way to burn off that extra stress.

2. Declutter your life. Clutter adds to anxiety. Tidy up your environment and notice how much better you feel. Start with the rooms and areas in which you spend the most time. Include your personal space at work, too. 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

3. Declutter your brain. Take care of the things that are on your mind. Procrastination creates mental clutter and stress. Trying to remember things is challenging for your brain too. Make lists and use a calendar and alarms to ease the load on your poor brain.

4. Spend time with your pet. Pets are great for reducing anxiety. Play on the floor with your cat. Take the dog for a walk. Sit and watch your fish.

5. Think about something positive. You’re only anxious because you’re thinking about something that makes you anxious. Give yourself a break and think about something else for a while. 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

6. Change your diet. Your diet can have a negative impact on your stress levels. Play around with your food choices and find out what works for you.

7. Give yourself something to look forward to. It can be a great relief to have something positive to look forward to. No matter how stressed you are about work, knowing that you’re heading out of town for a couple of days next weekend can take the edge off.

8. Distract yourself. This is what bad habits are, distractions. However, not all distractions are bad habits. Read a good book. Re-watch your favorite movie. Try a new restaurant.

9. Find a solution. Maybe you can solve the issue that’s creating your anxiety. If there’s something you can do to resolve the situation, get busy and do it! 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

10. Take slow, deep breaths. Your breathing naturally becomes shallow and faster when you’re stressed. You can counteract a lot of the physical symptoms of anxiety by just slowing down your breaths and increasing the depth.

11. Play the name five things game. Bring your mind back to the present. Look around your environment and name five things you see. Now, name five things you feel. For example, “I feel the pencil in my hand. It feels smooth and warm.”

– Try to name five things you hear. 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

– Smell the air and describe what you smell. Smell nearby objects until you’ve described five smells.

11. Dance. Or sing. Or jump around. Do something you don’t normally do. Anything out of the ordinary can break your pattern and relieve some of your anxiety.

12. Dance. Or sing. Or jump around. Do something you don’t normally do. Anything out of the ordinary can break your pattern and relieve some of your anxiety.

13. Get help. It nothing seems to work, seek professional help. 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety

Give you mind and body a break by minimizing your anxiety. Avoid the belief that you just have to suffer with the discomfort of anxiety. Do everything you can to find relief without making your challenges worse. If you’re unable to find a suitable solution, get help from a professional. 13 Ways to Tame Anxiety