Maintain Mental Wellbeing



Your mental wellbeing is very important to every aspect of your life!

Mental wellbeing refers to your state of mind - how you feel and how you deal with everyday life.  If you have good mental wellbeing, you feel happier, more optimistic, more confident, more resilient to stress, and more sociable (of course, being an introvert doesn’t mean your mental wellbeing is poor).

Here are a few key controllables that can make a difference to maintaining a positive mental wellbeing:

When we think about mental health, we often associate it with things like stress management, therapy, drugs, and meditation. So, what does exercise have to do with it?

Well, exercise, and physical movement in general, is an excellent way to elevate your state of mind. During exercise, your brain releases endorphins that make you feel euphoric and energized for hours. It doesn’t need to be anything drastic. Even as simple as taking a walk in the park or going for a nice jog can drastically elevate your mental state for the entire day.

When you eat right, you feel right. In our modern world, the average person’s diet is quite poor. We often rely on packaged foods that are filled with sugar, sodium and trans fats.

Whole, nutritious foods provide the body and brain with the essential nutrients they need to function optimally. This improves your mental state and ultimately makes you a happier, healthier, and more resilient person. A good starting point is to switch just one of your meals for something more nutritious. For example, if you normally eat a sugary cereal in the morning, switch to oatmeal or eggs.

It's also important to make sure you stay well hydrated – the recommendations for daily water intake is 24ml of water per kilo of your body weight, meaning a 75kg person for example should consume 1.8L of water every day alongside good intake of fruit and veg.

The people around you can have a profound effect on your mental wellbeing. Inherently, we are pack animals – individuals adapt their behaviours to those of a collective group. So, if you constantly hang around bitter people with a victim’s mentality for example, it will rub off on you. On the other hand, if you associate with positive and energetic people, you will naturally adapt your behaviour to adapt and undoubtedly become one of them.

There’s a good saying, “You are the average of the five people you associate with the most.” and there’s a lot of truth to it.

Take a look at your social circle and the people you spend the most time with. Sometimes we need to make changes that we don’t want to. Maybe you can be the positive influence that attracts others to want to be in your circle.

We all have our bad moments, and everyone feels a bit blue at times. That’s normal; we are human.

Maybe you’re going through a particularly stressful period at work. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed and not in control. Maybe there are family problems that are dawning on you. Whatever the case might be, it’s important to share these emotions with people and not isolate yourself. This can help tremendously.

Taking part in building or developing something bigger than yourself can drastically increase your sense of belonging and improve your mental state. These can include volunteering at the local sports club, religious group, or an emergency service. Throw yourself in with enthusiasm, and you’ll be amazed at the profound effect such activity can have on you.

There are many other different things you can do:

  • Do you enjoy writing? Start a blog to share yourknowledge and experience with the world.
  • Do you want to contribute to a good cause? Donate to a charity.
  • Do you want to practice your leadership skills? Take the lead on work projects.
  • You can also help organise different sports events (e.g. charity football games or fun runs) and raise money for good causes.

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