Our mental health is something that we don’t often discuss or perhaps push to the back of our minds when it comes to prioritizing. However, we all have moments or periods within our lives where it all gets a bit too much and our mental well-being takes a knock.
If that sounds like something you experience then you’re certainly not alone. As a society, we tend to push any notion of being weak and having problems with our mental health. While the stigma is breaking down somewhat, it’s still rife and something that needs tackling further.
With that in mind, there are some helpful tips out there that can help boost your mental health this year and beyond. Let’s explore the best advice given for those who are looking to improve their mental well-being in 2023.
- Relax and find ways to reduce stress
There’s a lot in life that can cause stress. Work can be stressful and your personal life can have its fair share of stressful situations and moments. Some are more prone to stress than others and it’s something that often enough, you can’t help but feel.
However, stress can have a significant impact on your health and well-being. Even your physical health can struggle when it comes from too much stress in your life.
That’s why it’s important to relax and find ways to reduce the stress in your life. Identifying the triggers that cause stress is useful because you can work on removing that stress in your life. There are plenty of ways that you can reduce the stress in your life, especially if you find yourself prone to feeling stressed on a regular basis.
From going out for a walk to taking a bath or reading a book, it’s important to find the outlets that work for you and your mindset. Everyone is different, which means a hot bath or a glass of wine won’t work for everyone.
- Prioritize yourself for a change
It’s often the case that we put others before ourselves and that’s a mindset that needs to be corrected. While it seems selfish to put yourself first, it’s a priority that will not only benefit yourself but for the loved ones you care about, around you.
By not looking after yourself and putting yourself first, you put yourself in a situation where you’ll never be looked after. After all, you can only rely on yourself to look after your well-being. With that in mind, it’s important to prioritize yourself and to give yourself that much-needed
- Spend time outdoors
The outdoors is a place that we often underestimate for its power. In fact, spending time outdoors could be just the medicine you need on a tough day. Whether you’re struggling with a project at work, or you’ve been feeling down lately, going for a walk or just embracing a bit of sunshine in your backyard is something that can make a big difference to your mindset.
If you’re someone who doesn’t typically spend a lot of time outside, try to set some time aside in your day, to get outside. That first breath of fresh air whether it’s right there on your doorstep or you fancy taking a deeper breath at your local seaside beach is enough to reset the mind.
The more time you spend outdoors, grounded and connected with nature, the better you’re likely to feel as a result.
- Speak to a healthcare professional
If you haven’t already, it may be worth approaching a healthcare professional for support. The cause of your mental health and what you may be feeling could be down to a number of things. These could be related to other areas of your health and underlying problems that you hadn’t considered before or noticed.
Our mental well-being and physical health are interlinked and they impact each other both positively and negatively. It’s worth speaking to your doctor if you’ve not been feeling great lately and you’re needing a bit of advice on what to do next.
- Get yourself a support network at home
A support network is something that everyone needs in life. Even those that are introverted in nature, need human and social connection. It’s therefore important to consider who you have around you right now. Who is it that’s been there for you through thick and thin?
What about those friends or family members that have perhaps, in hindsight, made you feel worse in situations? Supportive friends and family should make you feel good – not bad. When it comes to your mental well-being, the people around you are particularly influential and it’s important to surround yourself with the right people.
Start building your network of support at home and in the workplace. Your friendship group should be people who support you, rather than drag you down emotionally. Toxic friendships and relationships should be out the door.
- Seek mental health treatment if required
For some people, tackling their mental health isn’t something they can do alone. Sometimes, they need support and guidance from professionals who have knowledge of what you might be going through.
Mental health treatment is something that’s readily available for anyone that wants it. While most would choose to just get on with it, or push it to the back of their mind, it’s beneficial to tackle mental health problems with professional help.
A lot of the stigma with mental health results in people not getting the guidance and help that they so desperately need. Instead, they’re fearful of getting help and bottle it up. That’s never going to help in the long run and as we all know, when you bottle something up, it eventually comes spilling out.
- Try to get more sleep
Sleep is an important part of your mental well-being and something that many neglects. Life gets busy and sleep gets sacrificed as a result. It’s important to try and get as much sleep as possible.
Ideally, you should aim for around seven to nine hours a night on average. If you’re not getting that, then that’s likely to do some impact on your mental well-being. If you struggle to sleep at night, find some useful practices to help fall asleep faster. From sleep sounds to using an eye mask to block out any light.
8. Look after your physical health
Your physical health is definitely something you want to be mindful of when it comes to your mental well-being. As we’ve mentioned, it’s interlinked with your mental health and vice versa. If you’re not looking after your physical health, chances are, you’re doing damage to your mental well-being.
It’s necessary to find physical activities that you actually enjoy doing, rather than doing simply because you feel everyone else is doing it. Look at
9. Embrace the negative emotions instead of bottling them up
When it comes to your mental health, not everyone is blessed with having a good day. There are going to be bad days in life and what is referred to as a ‘bad mental health day’. If you have one of these, don’t try to cover them up or bottle them up in an effort to push forward with your day.
Embrace these negative emotions and understand that these emotions are part of living and being alive. We can’t be happy all the time and these negative emotions are a human part of who we are as a human race.
Helping boost your mental health can be done in many ways and 2023 should be a year that more of us focus on it moreso.
