Physical and mental health go hand in hand. Yet I have the impression that more often people focus on the physical piece and less on the mental side. Saying how you feel and what's on your mind is something people usually don't do; even to people they know well.
How often do you hear someone answer Fine When you ask how things are going. Giving an honest answer, saying that maybe things are not going so well at that moment, is not very common. If you do, the other person quickly feels uncomfortable. Because that's not what people are waiting for: to hear someone's soulful thoughts and misery.
Yet for me that is what makes contact real, what makes me happy. And what I find beautiful: that someone lets you see and hear how things are going. That you can take a look behind someone's front door.
Mental health is the health of your mind. It relates to your thinking, your feeling, how you treat yourself and others. Your mental health, in addition to your physical health, is important to your overall well-being. How you feel mentally impacts many things. Think about your daily functioning, your memory, your state of mind, how you deal with stress, how you handle setbacks. With good mental health you are usually more positive in life, you function better, you can deal with setbacks more effectively and you experience your life more pleasantly.
Because of the PTSD I myself regularly struggle with collapsed mental health. Being and staying positive, motivating myself, not going into the darkness and staying mentally healthy I find quite challenging at times. Of course, I also fortunately have plenty of periods when I feel good and mentally fit, but I know from experience that there will always be times when things don't go as well.
To stimulate myself and keep a mental finger on the pulse, I regularly try out new things. Some things stick and others don't really suit me after a few tries. There are few things that integrate really well and for a long time in my system. And for which I find the motivation to keep doing them. At this moment there are three things that I have been doing for quite some time and that I notice have a positive effect on my mental health. I'd like to share those. Maybe they can work for you too; that would be nice, wouldn't it! And they are things that don't take much time. Nice too, right.
One of the things I do every day is to say some affirmations out loud. An affirmation is an affirming thought, a kind of mantra. It's a short phrase that I say and repeat a number of times with the goal that I start to believe it, that it changes my feelings and mindset.
I speak each affirmation three times. The power of repetition is that the beliefs are eventually stored in long-term memory; thus, they integrate into my system and have a positive impact on my mental health.
When coming up with an affirmation, it is important that you formulate it positively. Because if you formulate it negatively you are going to end up believing it. And that's not what you want, right! Which affirmation works for you is a matter of trial and error. There is no "one size fits all" solution. Maybe you have a negative thought that often goes through your head and you can turn it into a positive affirmation. Or maybe you have a goal you want to achieve and you can formulate that goal in an affirmation. Among the phrases I myself use is "everything that doesn't help me, I let go. This helps me discharge at those times when I am holding stress in my head or body, getting myself stuck or noticing that my head is full.
Saying positive affirmations out loud daily is a simple, approachable way you can use to change your mindset and take care of your mental health. For example, they can help you develop more self-confidence, reverse negative thoughts, get going and take an action, and they are effective in lowering stress. For me, affirmations are the positive voice in my head that encourage me, motivate me, help me focus on all the beautiful and positive things in my life. And I find that they act as a mental shower. When I utter them it's like my brain is being cleansed. I feel fresh and clean in my head; ready to start the day. That's why I always speak them early in the morning; usually when I take my morning walk with Sophie. Sometimes I find that I have needs throughout the day as well, for example when I have a stress moment. By saying them again then, I feel the stress go away from my body.
So I say: highly recommended! Give it a try, and maybe it will make you as happy as I am. Hang in there though, because the effect is not immediate.
Negative thoughts are not helpful to your mental health. We can think of that. But did you know that expressing negative things to others also acts as a poison to your own mental and physical health?
Your brain is constantly busy creating unity between what it experiences (the processes that take place in your brain) and its environment, your body. The moment the brain experiences stress, for example, it sends signals to the body so that certain substances (hormones) are produced and organs and muscles react. This is the so-called fight/flight response; the body's natural response.
Whether there actually is stress does not then matter to the brain. As soon as the brain thinks there is stress, it reacts. And the cells in the body are put to work. With possible consequences in the body: impairment of immune system function, increased blood pressure, fluctuations in blood sugar (leading to snacking on generally unhealthy things) and reduced libido.
So by believing in your brain that you are stressed, you simultaneously create stress in your physical system. Processes in the brain thus cause the body to change.
This works the same way with negative thoughts and saying negative things to others. Negative thoughts in your brain and saying negative things, negativity anyway, has a destructive effect in your body. AND on your mental health.
So sitting in your car cursing again at all those slow, irritating fellow road users, remember that this is not helping anyone, especially yourself. What's more: you are damaging your own health. Being aware of this helps your own mental health.
Since my body is already not performing optimally, where I can, I try to do my best to give it a hand. For example, for a while now I have set myself the following goal: no more saying negative things to others. At least not if it is not necessary. And if it is necessary, for example because someone is overstepping my boundaries, then I try to formulate it in a neutral way; so not in a reproachful tone, or in the superlative negative way. To remind myself daily of this intention, I have three questions on my phone's screensaver. These questions, based on the Triple filtertest, were once devised by the Greek philosopher Socrates: they were used to promote critical thinking in education. But they can also be applied very well in communication with others:
Am I sure that what I want to say is true? (And what is true then, because true is a subjective concept. Everyone has their own truth, but that aside)
Is it edifying, is it positive: is it coming from a good place in your heart?
Is it useful for me to say this? Does it add anything positive? Does it help the other person?
If I answer one of the questions No answer, then I keep my mouth shut. Or at least I try to. I'm not yet to the point where I can always put it into practice. Out of frustration or anger or because I am super overexcited, sometimes something does slip out of my mouth that is not nice.
But I do notice that it is getting better and better. Practice makes perfect shall we say. This way I take care of my mental, and indirectly my physical, health.
The third and final tip I want to share with you is: write things down. And not so much positive things or the things you experience; I don't keep a journal. I did in the past, and still do in some periods, but that's one of those things that I don't get anchored in my system long-term. Apparently the payoff is not big enough for me, or I would do it constantly.
But so what I do is write things down when they keep grinding in my head; a so-called mental worry drop. At the times when I have recurring negative thoughts, I write everything down; that way I get the negative thoughts out of my head. And I can create order out of the chaos in my head. Writing down my thoughts makes me think about them; it is a form of reflection that works positively for my mental health.
Also, when I experience so much stress that it feels like my breath is being squeezed, in addition to doing breathing exercises, it helps me to write down everything that comes into my head. Writing it down allows me more distance from the thoughts and it doesn't feel like I "am" my thoughts, but have the thoughts. I literally create distances.
I wish I was able to inspire you. Maybe not necessarily with any of the above tips, but maybe it will encourage you to think about how to maintain your mental health. Good luck! Do you have things of your own that work well? If so, please share them below.
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