How to Boost Your Mental and Emotional Health?

Posted On January 25, 2021October 30, 2021

Posted By Alex Perez - Mental Health Writer, B.A.

Defining Mental and Emotional Health

Mental health is your ability to process, interpret, and comprehend everything that happens around you.

Your mental health impacts how you think, feel, and carry on in everyday life. It likewise influences your capacity to adapt to pressure, overcome difficulties, make connections, and recover from disillusions and other life’s mishaps. (1)

Mental health covers psychological, social, and emotional health.

Emotional health is your capacity to digest and express the emotions that arise from your experiences.

Good mental and emotional health isn’t only psychological wellbeing or the absence of mental health issues. Being mentally healthy is considerably more than being free of phobias, depression, anxiety, or other psychological disorders. Mental health is most appropriately defined as the presence of positive characteristics in your mindset and personality rather than the absence of mental illness. (2)

Here are a few ways to help you improve your mental and emotional health to lead a stable and happy life.

Take Care of Your Mental and Emotional Health

The Foundations

Be Healthy

-Eat Well

A healthy diet will make you feel better. Eating healthy will also improve your mood and lessen anxiety and stress. Additionally, not having enough specific nutrients (carbohydrates, minerals, water, vitamins, proteins, fiber, and fats) may add to some mental illnesses. For instance, there might be a connection between low levels of vitamin B12 and depression. A healthy diet and a proper eating routine can help you get enough of the nutrients you need to be mentally and physically balanced.

-Sleep Well

Rest influences your emotions. When you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll notice that you get more easily irritated. So it’s imperative to ensure that you have enough rest during the day and get enough quality sleep each night.

– Exercise Daily

Suppose you are not convinced yet of the importance of daily exercise for your mental and emotional wellbeing. In that case, I’ll tell you that in ancient times Romans already used to say: “Mens sana in corpore sano,” which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” In other words, this means that exercise is a crucial part of mental and emotional health.

Your body lowers the level of stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline while you work out. Meanwhile, neurotransmitters like serotonin, endorphins, and dopamine are stimulated, which will naturally lift your mood. Hormones are the main reason exercise has a ground-breaking counteractive effect against stress, anxiety, and depression.

Make small improvements in your daily routine to add activities such as using the stairs rather than the elevator, stand up longer, sit down less, or go for a short walk instead of taking the car. To get the most advantage out of these changes, focus on having 30 minutes of activity every day, and attempt to do your exercise outside. Exposition to sunlight enables cholecalciferol production that your body transforms into vitamin D, a natural antioxidant. Vitamin D helps your body with the conversion of tryptophan, maintaining the level of serotonin, the happy hormone, in your brain.

Be Mindful

The incredible benefits of mindfulness and relaxation techniques is available for everybody who wants to practice these skills. The only thing that you have to do is to open your mind and take your time to get the most out of each technique (3).

Let’s take a look at some of the exercises:

Body Scan Meditation: You gradually pay attention to body parts and sensations, from the feet to the head. You bring awareness to your body by scanning every single part. This type of meditation is done to learn to know your body and manage eventual pains, tensions, and aches.
Mindful Walking: A type of meditation performed while walking where the goal is to focus. You will become aware of what you are feeling and experiencing at the moment. Mindfulness includes controlled breathing and Guided Imagery.
Greeting the Sun Yoga: A series of poses performed in a certain order to create a flow of movement. Each pose is in harmony with your breathing and performed in a sequence build heat in the body.
Guided Imagery: You empty your mind to create a mental escape by focusing on visualizing peaceful, calm, and pleasant images in your mind. This technique is practiced under the guidance of a qualified practitioner.
Biofeedback: You gain awareness of your body’s physiological functions using electronic sensors to get visual or auditory feedback. Biofeedback will help you make little changes in your body, like relaxing specific muscles.
Grounding Meditation: The experience of sustained focus is known as while meditating is called ‘grounding.’ You can use Controlled Breathing and Body Scan Meditation while doing Grounding Meditation.
Controlled Breathing: This calming breathing technique consists of breathing in profoundly through your nose, hold your breath for a moment, and exhaling through your mouth. Even if you have only a few minutes a day, you can practice controlled breathing. This relaxation technique is useful to prevent panic attacks, stress, and anxiety.

Be Grateful

Discover a balance among positive and negative feelings.

Try to turn the little things in life into positive emotions.

Be grateful for what you have and don’t desire what you can’t have.

The Practice

Take Time to Heal, Learn and Grow (4)

Take time to heal negative emotions through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Learn to understand your emotions and develop emotional intelligence that build emotional health.

Lear from your mistakes. If you experience a negative response, like an anger outburst, on certain triggers, analyze your reaction an learn to deal with these negative emotions in order to have a more appropriate response next time.

Continue growing as a person by cultivating kindness and practicing forgiveness.

References