Let’s talk about Mental Health

When people talk health, they usually talk about staying exercise and staying fit. But not many times do they talk about MENTAL health.

The truth is, people only really think about mental health if they experience having mental problems or it happens to someone close to them. This is why most people’s resolutions or goals related to health usually revolve around going to the gym more, jogging and other forms of physical exercise. Most neglect the mind.

The irony of this is that the mind, or more specifically, the brain, is part of your physical body. Yes, when we talk about our bodies, we are generally referring to everything from the neck below. But the truth is, our minds are arguably the most important part of our physical bodies. This is why mental health matters so much, it is both part of the body but also transcends into something greater -THE MIND!

As you think about your health goals in general, it is very important that you consider your mental health too. This is because, if your mind is already in good state, you are more likely to push yourself to pursuing every other goals you may have. Your mind is where everything begins.

How do we improve our mental health?

It is one thing to say we should work on our mental health and improve it, but how exactly do we do that?

One simple way to take care of our mental healths is to be aware of what we eat. This is easier said than done, but is very simple to understand: foods are good for your mental health and others are not. Without getting too specific, an immediate example is that healthy, natural food is more likely to be better for you than processed food or fast food. This one thing can change your mental state more than you can imagine.

Another way you can improve the state of your mental health is by actually keeping your body physically fit. Physical fitness may mostly serve your external body, but because it causes your blood to flow faster, it allows more oxygen to reach the brain, thus making it operate at a very high level.

Your brain is the organ that uses the most amount of oxygen in your body and thus more oxygen for it means it can operate better. Therefore, exercise is actually very important for your mental health too.

Except the two aforementioned methods, there is also positive self talk. Self talk is what you say to yourself with the little voice in your head. What you tell your mind is what you will live out in the external world. It is important to remind yourself you are worthy, as corny as that sounds, it is the truth. The more you get your mind to be positive(which not to say think good things all the time), the better.

Positive thoughts do not mean you should be delusional. They just mean you should reframe issues into something you can live better by. For instance, when something bad happens to you, instead of sulking and looping over the thought too long, just immerse yourself in the feeling but be willing to ultimately let it go when you have lived it. Remind yourself that you may not be okay NOW, but time will heal you. Do not go into a thought pattern that tells you it’s all over and everything is bad. Dooming yourself to negative self talk is very detrimental to your mental health.

These are just some short examples on what you can do to help improve your mental health before you are forced to face it due to bad circumstances. Just like it’s better idea to exercise before you are obese, it’s better to keep your mental health sharp before you need help so that you eventually never need the help.