With all that is happening in our world today we all need positive mental health habits to keep us sane and grounded. These 10 positive mental health habits are sure to make a difference in your life and help you navigate this crazy world you are living in.
With everything going on in the world your mental health should be your top priority. For decades mental health was not taken seriously. When it was discussed it was mocked, ridiculed and scorned. Because of this millions of people suffered in silence or were ostracized because of it.
Now -finally- things are changing. Mental health is more commonly discussed and its importance is beginning to be magnified across the globe. There is still a lot of work to be done to bring mental health out of the shadows but more light is being shined on it than ever before.
In this article you will learn about the 10 positive mental health habits that I share with clients every day as a psychotherapist and how they can change your life. So read on to find out what these habits are so that you can begin using them to improve your life today.
MENTAL HEALTH HABITS TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE
Nature
The first positive mental health habits that can make a huge difference is connecting to nature. Connecting to nature can be truly healing and life changing. Knowing that despite whatever mental or emotional obstacles you are experiencing, abundant life still exists and is still thriving can be very grounding and healing.
Being in nature also helps to cleanse your energy field. The nature beings naturally absorb all that you are holding and cleanse it from your auric field. This is often why when you come back from being in nature you feel more alive and vibrant. You have been energetically cleansed and healing has taken place.
Also being out in the sun is healthy for you and gives us some much needed Vitamin D. Vitamin D is an important component of your chemical structure that you need for good bodily health and functioning. Again the sun even on a cloudy day can give you the nutrients that your body needs to maintain good health and thrive.
The majority of human beings in the western world are actually Vitamin D deficient. This leads to all kinds of health issues including depression where a deficiency can make depression symptoms worse.
This article from the University of California, Berkeley on Why Is Nature So Good For Your Mental Health gives a really good overview of its benefits based on a 2018 study. It concluded that its participants felt more alive and had a greater sense of well-being after being out in nature which I wholeheartedly agree with.
Self-Care
The next positive mental health habit that you can do is self-care. There are certain foundational components of self-care that are extremely basic but millions of people struggle to do daily.
They are: eating, sleeping, resting and drinking water.
These don’t seem too hard but millions of people neglect to do them every single day. Due to this they experience many adverse effects to their mental and physical health when they are not done on a consistency basis.
Eating: Most people do not eat regular healthy meals. And when they do eat they are eating “food” with no nutritional value. The lack of regular meals due to poor planning and stress along with the poor nutritional value impact the body. Long-term this can lead to illnesses and disease. This is something all people can do to better care for themselves but so many often neglect.
Sleeping: Regular sleep is one of the most important things you can give to the human body. Unfortunately, too many people think it’s a place in their lives where they can shortchange themselves and cut corners. This article by the University of Michigan on Why is Sleep Important goes into further detail.
Most people across the globe do not get adequate sleep. This is often because of the pressures of modern life and all that comes with it from basic survival to the desire to achieve. Regardless of the reason your physical health suffers. The lack of sleep is linked to a host of physical issues that include: high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
And of course, it plays a huge role in mental health and mental clarity. When you are having any type of challenge with your mind, sleeping helps your hormones to balance themselves and helps your brain to do a reset. When you deprive yourself of this you continue to do harm to your body and mind.
Not to mention when we sleep we are able to receive communication from the spirit world. This allows you to receive important insight into your experiences on earth and the best way forward. Often it is in your sleep that your body and brain can get the rest it needs to process experiences, heal and recover. It is also during this time that you can receive messages from your soul on a higher level.
Rest: The word rest is very in vogue right now and that is not a bad thing. Rest is not just about sleeping. For me the word rest is the absence of working or being productive. It is being intentional about saying that you will not be engaging in activities of production tied to work or achievement.
For many of us this is very hard particularly if you are a black person. The element of always needing to be producing something is one of the most toxic aspects of American culture. Taking the time to rest has many benefits but the one that should be appreciated the most is being able to hear your own thoughts. You need to be able to hear yourself in order to find out what you really think and feel about a situation, any situation, in your life.
When you don’t stop you are barely able to hear yourself think. You cannot process your feelings in order to get to a solution. This is how anxiety and tension builds up in the body impacting your mental health, concentration and focus. Rest is not just one thing. There are many things that can aid you in slowing down and really connecting with yourself from within.
Drinking Water: Again another basic component that we all need to do for our very survival but so few do well. You need water to survive and in adequate amounts. Most of your vital organs are over seventy-five percent water. The entire human body is on average sixty to seventy percent water.
So if this is a foundational component of the human body and your organs need it to function, then why don’t you drink enough water?
Drinking water flushes toxins from your systems and helps your body secrete chemicals and waste that it no longer needs. But you deny your body the ability to do this effectively by not drinking enough water to remain healthy and hydrated. Not to mention what it does to help eliminate stress hormones from the body. It is vital and important to your functioning and one of the easiest things you can do to take care of yourself.
Breathwork
Another important positive mental health habit that I consider essential for your health and healing is breathwork.
Now no, I am not talking about the breathing you are doing right now as you are reading this article. I am talking about conscious intentional breathing designed to help you process limiting beliefs and release the unprocessed emotions that you have stored in your body.
This article by Mind Body Green explains in further detail The Science Behind Breathwork + 5 Benefits Of The Practice.
But a regular breathwork practice can clear up your mind, increase mental clarity and enliven you in ways you never knew were possible. By enliven, I mean you will feel more alive and more awake with a regular practice. This is because stored emotions that muddle your mind and body will be released energetically through the breath. This expands your emotional capacity and your ability to deal with stress. With regular practice it can truly change your life.
boundaries
Another positive mental health habit that is often overlooked is boundaries. Boundaries are especially important for women. Women are socialized out of having them due to gender roles.
Women are often trained that they can’t say no. Their duty to others is more important than their own emotional needs and well-being. Women have been conditioned that being self-sacrificing and all giving will make them a better woman/wife/mother. Blah, Blah, Blah. All nonsense.
This is actual garbage that causes a person’s mental health to suffer. Never feeling like you can say “NO”. Feeling guilty for needing personal space and time to process your own emotions and feelings. Always being at the beck and call of family members despite your own needs and other responsibilities.
Boundaries as a positive mental health habit actually safeguard your mental health. It allows you to set up a perimeter as a reinforcement for honoring your own needs. Boundaries are also a sign of respect you give yourself. They show that you value yourself and care about your own needs.
The University of Illinois Chicago has a great article on the importance of boundaries and why you need to create them.
Move Your Body
Moving your body is another positive mental health habit that you should endeavor to practice in your life. Movement is not just for the purpose of exercise and being in good health. Those are of course important benefits but there is so much more.
Movement, whether it be walking, jogging, or my personal favorite, yoga is so good for the body. It releases stored energy and emotions from the body.
Moving regularly allows you to be in your body and connect to it. An important key to having good mental health is managing pent up emotions and not suppressing them. The reason emotions are suppressed is that you are afraid you cannot deal with the emotional response that it may trigger and you really don’t want to feel.
You actually can deal with your emotions. You just need to give yourself the time and space to do so through slowing down and being with yourself. Movement can aid you in this process. I love this article by the University of Colorado Boulder with this great title: Mental Health Is…Moving Your Body. It is so true!
Learning To Let Go
One of the more challenging habits to adopt for positive mental health is learning to let go. What does that mean?
It means grieving anything in your far or recent past that has caused you pain and suffering. Grieving this pain through self awareness. Or with the support of a therapist to help you build your self awareness of what you need to release and let go of.
A lot of mental suffering is caused by rumination and the replaying of events that you can never change. We all have moments in the past we wish we could change. Moments you wish could have been different. Especially if it led you to experience pain and suffering.
Grieving and letting go in no way means that the pain and suffering you experienced is not meaningful. It is. It contributed to who you are today and helped to shape your life experiences.
But most of people do not engage with their pain and suffering in constructive ways. We don’t accept that things have happened that were completely out of your control and there was nothing you can do about it. You can’t change the past. All you can do is accept it, see the lessons it has for you and move on. Release yourself.
Your body needs your help to move the experience and the emotions out of your body so your mind no longer suffers. So much suffering is at the root of why the majority of people suffer mentally. Learning to let go is not easy but with the proper support and guidance you can free yourself from a mental prison.
Speaking Your Truth
As mentioned above with boundaries, another glossed over healthy mental habit is speaking your truth. There is so much societal conditioning that wants you to play along and act nice. You are not supposed to acknowledge that what you have experienced, or are seeing around you, is pretty messed up and that you feel impacted by it.
Suppressing your truth hinders you emotionally, mentally and energetically. Being hindered in this way leads to profound mental and emotional imbalances. By not speaking your truth you are suffocating yourself in a way. You are continually telling yourself that you don’t matter. And that no one cares about what you have to say.
Now while no one who is currently in your life may care about what you have to say, those people can be moved out of your life. They can be replaced by newer and better people who actually care about you. But more important than the people around you is that you care about what you have to say. Stop choking on your words to be nice, keep the peace and not ruffle any feathers.
Speak up. Say what’s on your mind. And more importantly, say what is on your heart.
Silencing Your Inner Critic
We all have an inner critic. Its goal is to keep us on track and make sure we accomplish what is necessary to live our life. But for far too many of us it is a crippling source of pain and frustration.
For many, it is the voice that tells you everything you have done wrong in the hope that you won’t make those same mistakes again. You may become frustrated and angry with yourself when you align with this voice and take its point of view about your life. It is hard to really understand your needs if the inner critic is leading the show.
It’s important to begin to work with your inner critic. It is not your enemy. It is just a part of your operating system that has been over-functioning. I know, I just made you sound like a computer but it is an analogy that is really helpful.
You have to sit with this part of yourself. Get to know it. Ask it: what role it plays in your life? Find out how it got that job? And does this part of yourself even want this job? These are mental health techniques I use with my clients all the time and they work. Speaking to our emotions directly and listening to their responses can be profoundly revealing.
You’ll get nuggets of insight and information that you never would have received if you were battling with yourself and arguing with your inner critic. It can be a powerful process that I work with clients to use every-single-day. I have seen the transformation and regulation it can bring to their minds and bodies and the same can happen for you.
A wonderful book I recommend that explores this topic is: Self-Therapy by Jay Earley. This book can be very powerful so I encourage you to take it slow. If you have a therapist maybe bring it into your process with them.
Forgiveness Towards yourSelf
A positive mental health habit that should receive more attention is extending forgiveness towards yourself.
What does this mean?
It means taking yourself off the cross, to use an old metaphor. You have to show yourself some (or a lot) of grace and compassion. This is something that we often don’t do as women. You continue to internally berate yourself for past mistakes and choices. Choices made when you had less wisdom and were not aware of what the consequences would really mean.
You need to understand that who you were then is not who you are now. That growth and change is possible and perfection is not the name of the game. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself as you would someone you love deeply with kindness and compassion.
This leads directly into healing and accepting your past…
Healing & Accepting Your Past
Often you want the past to stay in the past. But as the other old saying goes, wherever you go there you are. You can never leave any part of yourself behind no matter how hard you try. So stop trying.
The better and healthier thing to do, because it is a positive mental health habit, is to look at your past in a supportive space and process those experiences. You don’t have to jump into the thick of it right away or jump into the most complex experience. But you can gently begin to explore what needs to be healed within you.
You are carrying a lot. And it weighs you down. It clouds your mind because it’s unprocessed within you. You cannot keep suppressing and avoiding your past if you want to have a brilliant future.
Embracing Yourself & Your Feelings
My personal favorite positive mental health habit is embracing yourself and your feelings. This is a game changer for so many of us especially if you are a black woman.
To fully embrace yourself when you may have experienced societal rejection is a powerful rebuttal of cultural conditioning. Not shaming yourself. Embracing your feelings. Even those that you were told were ugly or bad, fosters a deeper sense of self-acceptance.
Part of having good mental health is being kind and compassionate towards yourself and embracing all of who you are. The self-recrimination and shaming of all that you are has to end to be mentally and emotionally well.
So here are the more than 10 positive mental health habits to improve and transform your life! Yes, I know I gave you more than ten but I couldn’t resist. There is so much you can do to take care of your mental health and it seemed important to share all that I can. I hope some of them connected with you enough to begin trying them out in your own life. Happy healing!
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