Hey, are you mentally healthy and strong? 

Not sure about it? Let’s take a test; answer these questions in Yes or No. 

• Do you forget to buy oranges when you drive back home after work?
• Do you feel hard to focus on your work in the office?
• Do you also forget to pay your bills and pay them on the very last day or when your spouse screams at you to do the same?
• Do you feel often tired at work?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then I am sorry to tell you that, you might not be as mentally healthy as you might have thought you are. The questions that I just asked are the signals that your brain is giving you to slow down.

Studies have shown about 73% of the world’s total population suffers from mental health issues like stress, anxiety, memory loss, depression, lack of concentration, panic attacks, and so on. There can be several reasons that can affect your mental health including unhealthy work-life balance, lifestyle, career issues, personal & emotional issues, relationship problems, health issues, hereditary, etc.

Now, just relax; I don’t want you to feel intimidated by these statistics and science data. I just want you to know that it doesn’t matter what problem you are facing right now, you can solve it. I believe in you and I know you do too.

Life is all about having problems and finding solutions for them, right? So, just chill as I’ll be sharing my super simple tips that you can implement right away, starting today, and can serve your mind with better health. 

Note that these tips or exercises are both physical and mental. Some tips are more of like habits that you need to develop and some are total exercises for which you have to sweat.

Here are 6 simple and easy-to-implement things that you should be doing if you want to stay mentally healthy. 

1. Let go of things that are out of your control

Everyone has problems in life; some have big ones like career or relationship issues and some have small ones like they don’t know what to wear to the party because the dress they wanted is now spoiled.

Not even a single person on the planet can say that they are problem-free; including you and me. So, I just want you to relax and calm down; you don’t have to control everything in your life and the true fact is that even if you have to, you cannot. You cannot control every single thing happening in your life. 

We all know stress is a very common issue when we talk about mental health, and these day-to-day problems are the root causes of stress. When you think and think about your problem which actually doesn’t deserve that much thinking, what you are doing is wasting your energy and giving yourself mental trauma, which is USELESS & BASELESS. 

People who are mentally healthy know which problem is worth giving their energy to. They don’t pay much attention to things that are out of their control. They focus on the things that matter to them the most and work accordingly. This also helps them to be productive as they are fully focused.

So, it is better to let go of things that are out of your control than keep thinking about them and wasting your energy.

2. Take proper amount of sleep

Sleep is also an important aspect when we talk about our mental health. Staying up late at night and watching Netflix, playing video games, or scrolling through social media, is not going to support you in staying mentally healthy. The lights and rays coming out of these gadgets can develop insomnia.

Studies have shown that irregular sleep reduces the reach of glucose levels in the brain by upto 6% and which by the way increases your sugar intake. It makes you feel sleepy and tired all day which further reduces your focus and concentration levels. It also affects your productivity at work as your mind is not in its best state. 

According to science, the sleep of 6-7 hours is considered healthy for an adult. The best time for healthy sleeping is between 10 pm to 5 am. 

Did you know? There are 3 stages of sleep: Deep sleep stage, Alert stage, and Dreaming stage. Each stage lasts for 90 minutes and the sleep is considered sound sleep when you complete this whole cycle(90×3) twice without any interruptions. So, make sure to take quality sleep without any disturbances.

3. Meditate every day

Meditation acts as a detoxifier when it comes to staying mentally healthy. It reduces your stress and anxiety upto 84%. It helps your mind to freshen itself and helps you to think clearly. Meditating every day helps you to filter your thoughts and make a clear decision. It also improves your concentration level and memory power.

Now, it might take you a week or so before you actually start enjoying meditation. You should make a habit of mediation and do it every day to see quality results. It’s not something that you started one day and expect the results the very next day. It might be difficult at the start, you might feel bored or fall asleep but when you cross the struggle period you are gonna love it. 

Start with 15 minutes every day and gradually increase the timings as per your need. You can meditate virtually using apps like Calm, Breethe, Headspace, Buddhify, etc.

4. Don’t care about what others will say/think

One of the most common reasons that cause you mental trouble is that you care a lot about others. What are they gonna say, how they will feel if I do this/that, what they are gonna think, and the list never ends.

But the truth is everyone is so busy thinking about themselves that they don’t even care about others. Here is a graphic showing what actually happens.

Really, no one cares about the things that are going on in your life. Everyone cares about themselves only. It’s just a misconception that is in almost every mind.

Besides this fact, there will be some people who will take more interest in your life than their own. For people like those, I would say just let it be. You can’t do anything with these guys. They are gonna say/think or feel, the way they want to; no matter what you do. So, it’s better for you to focus on yourself and not what others say/think or feel about you because thinking about these useless things will going to give you mental trouble and ultimately affect your mental health, negatively.

5. Know that your happiness is your responsibility

Does your happiness depend on someone else? Is someone else responsible for making you happy?

PS: Someone means any person other than YOU (any includes your spouse/partner too).

If the answer to this question is Yes, then you need to worry a little, because it should not be the case. 

Mostly, women are the ones who fall under this category. They are the ones who are ever ready to make sacrifices for their family and society. They don’t prioritize themselves and their happiness. Generally, they are dependent on their husbands or children to make them feel happy and they feel guilty to choose their happiness over others’.

If you are a woman who is reading this right now, I just want to tell you, Please don’t do this to yourself. You deserve to be happy and no one can do this for you. You have to do this by yourself, for yourself.

Your happiness is your responsibility and not someone else’s.

Happiness is not something that will come to you, it is something you choose for yourself, each and every time. Being happy is totally in your hand. People who don’t have the key to their happiness in their own hands are the ones who are always dependent on others to make them feel happy. They are more likely to suffer(without any reason) as they keep their happiness behind others. 

Lack of happiness in someone’s life is the main reason they get depressed and live life in misery. This affects their mental health badly. People who are mentally healthy know what makes them happy and they do the same to be happy. They know that if there is something that’s bothering them, it’s their responsibility to change it. No one else is going to do it on their behalf. 

Related: How to be happy even when you don’t have a reason

6. Take proper care of what you eat

You often have heard of this saying – A healthy mind stays in a healthy body. 

Not to mention but your eating habits do affect your mental health. Studies have shown that people who eat spicy food a lot tend to be more aggressive and suffer mood swings quite often in comparison with those who take mild and less spicy food.

Food such as avocados, walnuts, eggs, green and leafy vegetables are good for your brain health. For more information on how the food you eat affects your mental health. Click here.

Conclusion

When it comes to staying mentally healthy, you need to take a little scan of everything that goes into your mind and ask yourself – Does it matter? 

And then decide to take any action or not. It’s just simple as that. In the above post, we have talked about 6 things that you should consider doing if you want to stay mentally healthy and those are:

• Let go of things that are out of your control
• Take proper amount of sleep
• Meditate everyday
• Don’t care about what others will say/think
• Know that your happiness is your responsibility
• Take proper care of what you eat

These tips are too simple and small to take into consideration but do affect your mental health a lot. Now above all, what is that one thing that resonates with you the most and how do you take care of yourself to stay mentally healthy and strong? Tell me in the comments below.

Related post that you might like

• How to be happy even when you don’t have a reason
• 7 ways to stop feeling overwhelmed
• How to lift yourself up when you are feeling low

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