There are many activities to improve mental health that are available to you. In this article I share twelve of the most important ones that I often share when working with clients. These activities for mental health can be incorporated into your daily life and can be the most helpful in restoring balance to your mind and body.
When you are trying to improve your mental health you might not know where to start or what would be most helpful. You know you want things to improve but the task may seem daunting or overwhelming. In this article I share that there are many different activities that can be very helpful in improving your mental health.
As a psychotherapist, there are some that I regularly share with clients that I want to share with you today. You will learn how journaling, exercise, focused breathing and sleep, among many others, are integral to you having good mental health.
So read on to learn about these twelve activities to improve mental health. You will learn why it is so important for you to include these basic activities into your life for your mental health and wellness.
12 Daily Activities To Improve Mental Health
Activity To Improve Mental Health:
1. Focused Breathing
Connecting with your breath in a focused and intentional way is the easiest and most accessible thing you can do for your mental health. Period. I could just end it right there but I won’t because your breath is so important.
You probably don’t often even think about what your breath is giving to your body. You probably see breathing as just one of the automatic responses of your body. Your breath is that and so much more.
Connecting with your breath in a focused and intentional way can be wonderful for nervous system regulation. This brings a sense of ease and calm to your body and nervous system. If you are new to this idea, here is an article from the University of Toledo on the subject providing some education on its benefits.
I have also created a guided meditation Deep Breathing For The Nervous System to support people in connecting with their breath. I fundamentally believe that connecting with your breath is a game changer when it comes to improving your mental health.
The society we live in is so incredibly stressful which causes us to breath in our upper chest. Breathing this way causes anxiety, and can even increase it, leading to even more anxiety and tension in the body. Your breath, and an intentional breath practice, can decrease a lot of these effects.
2. Meditation
Meditation has become more and more popular and is now more widely accepted and approved of here in the west. Where it was once considered weird and fringe because of its roots in ancient non-European cultures, it is now widely respected and continues to be studied scientifically. If you would like to learn more about its benefits this article by Healthline may be helpful.
For most folks though they feel very frustrated because they feel that they cannot meditate. They cannot make their mind “be quiet”. Making your mind be quiet is not the purpose of meditation.
Most meditation techniques acknowledge that making the mind “be quiet” is difficult for all human beings unless they have had extensive meditation training. And by extensive I mean several years.
But you don’t have to have several years of training to meditate. So don’t get disheartened, meditation is for you too. First you have to let go of the idea that your mind needs to “be quiet” in order to meditate. That is a misconception. Your mind does not have to be quiet.
You just have to bring your focus to something else like your breath or your body.
So you see, everyone can meditate. Even you.
Yes you.
And with all of my clients the type of meditation I recommend to them is somatic meditation. This is meditation focused on connecting with your body. You concentrate on an area of your body for meditation and focus.
People are normally amazed that for years they thought they couldn’t meditate but when they meditated by connecting with their body they calmed right down. Their mind is still doing its thing but it is no longer a distraction.
Your mind is not your enemy. It just needs to be put in its proper place.
3. Journaling
Journaling is another simple technique for your mental health that is often taken for granted. I recently wrote two blog posts about the benefits of journaling and shared nineteen somatic journal prompts that help you connect with your body.
Journaling is helpful in getting you to understand and process your feelings and emotions. When you understand your feelings and emotions you can gain mental clarity. With increased mental clarity higher wisdom just naturally comes through causing you to feel less overwhelmed, more grounded and secure.
activity to improve mental Health:
4. Being Out in Nature
Sunshine and fresh air are good for the soul!
Nature is so healing and it can often cleanse and lighten you energetically without you even realizing it. Being in nature can bring you more present in your mind and body decreasing anxiety and stress.
The sounds, the air, seeing all of the beauty around you can calm the mind, ground you and bring things in perspective. Also connecting with nature and the nature spirits can help you to feel less alone which is really important when managing your mental health.
5. Avoiding the News
The news…my advice is to stay away from it at all costs. The psychic Sonia Choquette, who I absolutely adore, talks about certain thoughts taking you into a bad neighborhood.
Watching the news will definitely take your mind and mood into a bad neighborhood. One you will need to get out of immediately. As I am sure you already know nothing good is happening on the news or at least they will never report on anything good.
The news is designed to take you into a lower vibration of fear and anxiety (not great for mental health). This is how it grabs hold of you to keep your eyeballs glued to the screen. While they have you there, scaring the hell out of you, they will also roll out their ads so they can make a lot of money off of you in the process.
Watching the news is not helpful to you in any way, shape or form. It only increases your anxiety and fear response making you feel powerless leading to…You guessed it! More anxiety and fear. It’s a vicious circle designed to trap you.
6. Eating Regularly and Well
Eating is such a basic thing for all of us. But most of us do not do it well especially here in the United States. This is not about diets which by the way I don’t believe in. This is about the fact that this society has people on a hamster wheel where they cannot even take care of their own basic needs in healthy ways.
Most folks skip meals, eat late in the day and when they finally do eat, they grab something that is quick and convenient with no nutritional value. So we need to stop this and the first way we do that is by slowing down.
Make your first meal of the day something that adds minerals, nutrients and brings healing to your body. This is different for everyone. What works for Susie is not going to work for Jane. Take the time to find out what works for you and then give yourself permission to do that thing on a daily basis.
Put yourself first. Prioritize your physical health. Eat.
7. Seek Professional Support
Get a therapist. I know for a lot of folks the idea is scary and intimidating. But it should be a foundational tool for your mental health.
I am a therapist. I could go on and on about the benefits but I won’t because therapy is not a magical elixir that will make everything better in your life. It will not.
But what it will do – with your consistent effort of showing up for yourself – is cause things to shift and change. When you take the time to focus on yourself you increase your self awareness.
That is basically what therapy does, it causes you to increase your self awareness. It causes you to connect the dots. With awareness, and the connection of these dots, change begins to flow through you.
Activity To Improve Mental Health:
8. Exercise (Particularly Yoga)
Moving your body in a focused and intentional way for at least 30 minutes a day can be deeply healing. *Are you noticing a theme about being ‘focused’ and ‘intentional’?*
You have to move in order to move old and stagnant energy out of your body. The type of movement you do doesn’t matter as long as you are moving. As you move, your mind and body are reprocessing all of your emotions, stored feelings and experiences in ways you are not consciously aware of. Energy always has to be moving for growth and change to occur.
You see this cycle in nature and it is occurring within you as well. So support your body by making the time for this to happen. Exercise is vital for your mental health. Vital.
And here is a plug for yoga. I know I know you always hear how good it is for you but it really is. And it’s not the physical aspects. I am not talking about you becoming more flexible. I am talking about you clearing your mind and connecting with your breath and body. All things that have been mentioned so far.
To engage in a practice where you have to slow down, concentrate, connect with your body and breath cannot be overstated. You don’t have to be flexible to do yoga. The flexibility can increase with regular practice. That will automatically happen as your muscles loosen and stretch.
What’s more important than the flexibility of your body is the flexibility it gives your mind. It increases your ability to process stressful feelings, emotions and situations. It expands your emotional capacity because it expands your connection to your body and your breath which is wonderful for regulating your nervous system.
So don’t let body shame or false misconceptions stop you from connecting with something that can be so deeply healing for you.
9. Limit Social Media
Social media is an energetic and mental drain to the human body. It limits your ability to hear your own voice in your head. One of the purposes of social media is to always have you focused externally and never within. But it’s within yourself that you always find the answer.
Social media plays on the denser emotions you hold in your body such as fear, envy and insecurity. It traps you in a cycle and does nothing to lift and harmonize your energy in any way.
Like the news, it is only there to promote corporate interests and make money off of you. Like I said above, it’s another bad neighborhood. So I would encourage you to take a break from it. Either limit your time daily or give yourself a break altogether.
Your mind and mental health deserve it.
10. Get Your Sleep
Sleep like your breath is an essential tool for living but it is something that is often pushed aside in our go-go culture. Have you heard the phrase: I’ll sleep when I’m dead? What a horrible thing to say and put out in the universe.
Sleep on the most basic biological level gives the body the time it needs to recharge and heal. A lot of deep cellular healing takes place when you are sleeping. If you deny yourself good sleep, or feel that you can function on only a few hours, you are denying yourself a key opportunity for your body to rejuvenate itself and heal. You are ignoring a key aspect of your health.
Don’t fall into the insanity of you’ll sleep when you are dead. Don’t stay up all hours of the night doing work and activities that don’t help you with having a balanced life and mental wellness.
11. Know Your Limits and Respect Them
Women often have trouble with this part, especially black women, because you have been trained to be beholden to the needs of others. You’ve been socially trained to put their needs before your own.
You don’t need to be perfect to be treated with love and compassion.
You don’t need to be perfect to be treated as a full human being.
You are human and you are not capable of meeting everyone else’s needs and that’s okay.
If you know that something is not within your capabilities to do for another person, or you just don’t want to do it, acknowledge that to yourself. Then be honest with the other person without guilt, shame or embarrassment. Respect yourself.
Say no. Own your no. It’s in your vocabulary for a reason so use it.
Activities to improve mental health:
12. Doing Things That Bring You Joy
The word joy is often thrown around but what is not often acknowledged is that for many women they do not know what this word means. They know the meaning in the literal sense but not what it is like to experience this within their own bodies.
I just wanted to acknowledge this because I know that this is true for many people. It was true for me for many many years.
With that being said, I think a simple way to connect with your joy is to do something that you may not often give yourself permission to do. You may have discounted it as frivolous. The things you might think of as frivolous, that you don’t have time for, or that don’t serve a purpose to your overall life but you have a curiosity about – do those things.
Follow your curiosity. See where it leads you. It doesn’t have to make sense or have a purpose. It doesn’t have to be a part of the next thing you do for your job, career or family. You can do things that are just for you because you want to.
If there is a particular subject that gives you joy to study or learn about then dive in. You don’t need to explain it or justify it to anyone else. Give yourself permission to explore. Follow your curiosity and I bet it will lead to something that gives you real joy.
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