What are 5 ways to improve mental health that are sustainable? Improving your mental health can seem like a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be. In this article you learn what are five ways to improve mental health that will change your outlook on your life forever. With these practices you will be able to move from feeling overwhelmed to feeling at peace.
The journey to good mental health can seem like a long and winding road. There is a lot of information coming your way but it is important to keep things easy and manageable. Seeing your mental health as just another thing you have to take care of will not aid in your healing. It’s better to keep things: easy, practical and manageable.
In this article you will learn five easy and simple ways to manage your mental health effectively. Now easy does not mean you won’t have to do anything. Your mental health won’t change unless you are willing to change and be consistent with that change. Consistency will be the only thing that leads to improvement.
Read on to learn what are five ways to improve mental health that can change your life forever.
What Are 5 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health?
Processing Your Trauma Improves Your Mental Health
One way to improve your mental health is processing your trauma. This is not an easy process but it is essential.
To balance and restore your mental health you have to heal from any suffering and pain you have experienced in your life. Being well is “hard work” in that you have to devote consistent time to it and it has to be a priority. You can’t throw a bandaid on your pain and suffering or distract yourself in the hopes that it will go away.
You have to be mature about it and you have to grow up. Part of being mature means facing the realities of your life through a clear lens. You know that there are some deep things that you need to heal that you have been avoiding up till now. You may have been afraid, hesitant or confused. But it is something you have to do because look where you are currently.
Are you happy, satisfied and at peace? No. Do you want to have a better experience of life? Yes. So a change has to be made.
Healing from your past doesn’t have to be a terrifying process. While it can be intense, it can also be profoundly life changing and soul expanding. Who you will become through the healing experience will make the journey to get there more than worthwhile. Which leads into the next point…
You Have To Be Brave To Improves Your Mental Health
A second way to improve mental health is by being brave. What does being brave have to do with mental health? You must be brave to improve your mental health. You cannot allow your fear and discomfort to stop you from moving towards deeper and more meaningful conversations with yourself. You don’t have to face this alone. There is where the support of a trusted friend or professional can come in.
Being brave means accessing your inner reservoirs of bravery in order to allow you to do the deeper healing work that is necessary. While it can be emotionally scary at times, you have to step into this space in order to continue your path of healing and transformation. When it gets uncomfortable you cannot stop. You have to breathe and continue to move forward, one step at a time.
And speaking of the breath that leads to the next point…
Breathwork Improves Your Mental Health
Another way to improve your mental health is by connecting to your breath. In order to regain or build a new foundation for your mental health connecting to your breath is key. You have to build a conscious and intentional relationship with your breath in order to heal your mind and become more emotionally regulated.
The benefits of this cannot be overstated and are truly life changing. This is one of my favorite breathwork meditations that I recommend to all of my clients. But the magic does not happen overnight. They happen every day moment to moment when you choose to connect with your breath in a conscious and intentional way.
Remember you are not doing this for anyone else.
You are doing this for yourself, for your health and your healing. This is why having good mental health, and continuing to make it better, is a cultivated practice. In this practice, you have to choose yourself again and again every single day. You have to care enough about yourself to choose your mental health as a priority. And you must make the conscious choice to align with the idea that your mental health is a priority every single day.
Which dovetails into the next point…
Boundaries & Feeling Safe Improves Your Mental Health
Boundaries are a foundational element for good mental health and go both ways in your life. You have to have good boundaries with others. And you have to respect the boundaries that others have in their lives which you may bump up against.
So let’s start with you…
You deserve to have your boundaries respected. Period. Nothing else really needs to be said after that. But for most of us this is not so simple. You may have grown up in a home or environment where you were not allowed to have boundaries or they were not respected. You might not have seen what boundaries looked like in your environment. There may be some confusion about your boundaries and how to negotiate them with others.
You may be an accidental boundary violator and may not even know it.
So for you to develop boundaries, you have to begin paying attention to your own needs and what makes you feel safe. Safety is not only a physical issue. Physical safety is actually the bare minimum, the bottom of the barrel. Physical safety is the most basic thing that should be taken into account at all times. But emotional safety is where your boundaries should begin.
Emotional safety allows for you to have good boundaries overall in your life. It allows you to be clear in your own mind about what is and is not good for you. It allows you to say what will and won’t work for you and back it up with whatever actions feel most appropriate for you in that moment and beyond. From this space you can put the necessary things in place to protect your mental health and establish good boundaries.
And this also allows you to become more aware of the boundaries of others and what they have put in place. When you have your own boundaries it makes you more aware of those established by others and the importance of respecting them.
Being Compassionate Towards Yourself Improves Your Mental Health
The compassion you hold for yourself is a key component of your mental health. Often due to traumas and other difficulties you may have experienced this is not something you are even aware that you need. Often the person you are the hardest on is yourself. But when creating good mental health you have to extend that compassion to yourself.
Being compassionate means letting go of the critical voice you have inside of yourself. It means allowing yourself to understand why you may have made certain choices. And looking at these choices with compassion and understanding for what led you in that direction. It is being loving towards yourself. It is acknowledging how hard it is some days. You are not perfect and you don’t need to be to extend compassion and kindness towards yourself.
When you do this you relieve some of the internal mental pressure you may be carrying that you have to be right, correct, or perfect at all times. The release of this internal tension allows you to be able to breathe and think more clearly leading to a better experience of being in your body and being with yourself.
So I hope you were able to learn five ways that you can shift your mental health for the better forever. Remember to treat yourself as you would a loving, kind and dear friend. Establish boundaries, breathe, and be brave in your healing process and your life will change without a doubt. Be brave, loving and kind towards yourself. I wish you the best.
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