Mental health in today's society
What is the first thing you think of when you hear someone mention the topic of mental health, Is it depression or anxiety? Nowadays, it is common for someone to be suffering from mental health due to the nature of society and how we get told to be constantly working from a young age by the people who support the hustle culture movement, which ultimately leads to burn out. Mental health diagnoses are also increasing due to the fact that people are now becoming more open about their feelings and are no longer scared of the stigma that surrounds mental health.
As mentioned above, in today's society It has now become more socially acceptable for people to discuss the issues they have with their mental health. In today's world, we have it engraved into our minds that we have to constantly be working and grinding for long hours each day which causes us to forget to take time out for ourselves and often neglect our basic needs. This eventually causes us to feel drained and feel low in the long haul. Throughout this article, we will be giving some simple but effective tips on how to maintain and improve your mental health.
Practice meditation
Meditation has always been seen as a spiritual practice but it's so much more than that. A recent article produced by Harvard University has shown that meditation helps to train the brain to become better at dealing with stress and anxiety levels. Which ultimately can lead to us becoming depressed. Whilst being an important staple for people who are struggling with depression. Meditation has many benefits such as improving your sleep, which helps to improve your overall mood. Whilst also enhancing one's attention span and enhancing emotional health.
You can practice meditation anywhere. You can do it in your bed first thing in the morning, you can practice meditation whilst on a walk, or even do it on your lunch break. There are no set instructions on where you can practice. You can do meditation for as long as you want, it can be as little as 5 minutes to an hour. Research suggests that the recommended time to practice meditation is 40-45 minutes per day and the effects of meditation start to come in after 10 minutes. If 40 minutes of meditation is too much for you at the start, you can split it into 20-minute sessions. Do 20 minutes in the morning and the other 20 minutes in the evening. The most important part is that you're taking this time out of your day to help your mental well-being.
Take care of your body
Your body is a temple, it's what gets you from A to Z in life. It's the most important tool that you have been given to navigate life. Your physical health plays a huge role in your mental well-being, whilst also being an important way of keeping fit and healthy. A recent study shows the findings of people who exercise would have fewer days struggling with mental health, compared to the people who don't exercise. It is still unclear how exercise does help with mental health, but recent findings in an article from Mental Health UK have found that people who exercise have up to 30% lower risk of suffering from depression.
If you are wanting to start doing physical activity to help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety, you can start out by doing something small, whether it be a walk around the park, or 10-minute pilates session, or anything of your choice. These are the fundamentals of looking after your physical and mental health. You don't have to jump into a 45-minute H.I.I.T. workout to get some movement in. You can start out with something gentle that will slowly ease you into working out and getting a routine. Lastly don't overwork your body and be easy on yourself.
Engage in a creative hobby
Creative hobbies are something we put on the back burner and push aside despite it being something we enjoy doing or just putting our minds at ease. Recent articles and studies have shown that including creative hobbies in your weekly routine, helps to improve brain function, reduce stress and improve your mental health. Doing something like this is also a good way to meet like-minded people and socialize with them.
Doing creative hobbies is such a great way of producing endorphins that will help to make you feel happier and feel more positive. Creative activities allow you to express your feelings and emotions, there's a variety of hobbies that allow you to do that such as; Photography, painting, and drawing. You can use these art forms as a way to express and communicate your feelings. Doing this allows you to express yourself and allow you to get all your emotions out. Not only does it allow you to express yourself and release stress from the body, but doing something creative allows you to feel accomplished from the task you have given yourself, which acts as a reward system. You don't have to do something creative every day but it is beneficial and has many advantages doing so. It's a great way to take time out for yourself and just spend some time doing something you love.