Good lifestyle and good mental health are two terms that always go side by side. Mental health is not just part of overall health but also cannot be neglected to live a good, happy and healthy life. Unfortunately, even simple changes in lifestyle tend to significantly affect our quality of life. Things become complicated for those who have to deal with mental health issues such as depression, stress, or anxiety. To live a good and healthy life, we have to make sure that our lifestyle will have a positive impact on our mental health.
What is mental health?
Mental health covers the emotional, social, and psychological well-being of an individual. From how we feel, think, and act to how we cope with life, it affects a variety of things. Not only this, but mental health also affects our relationships, how we make decisions, and how we deal with the stresses in life.
Lifestyle changes such as a change in our diet, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction, all have a major impact on improving our mental health. Many people keep their focus on personal development only, and never think about mental health, which has a massive impact on our life.
Those with a good lifestyle face fewer mental issues than those who do not consider it important. Some common lifestyle factors that affect our mental health and must be considered to prevent the risk of mental issues are mentioned below.
Lack of physical activity
The way we keep ourselves fit plays a vital role in improving our mental health. Doing enough physical activity or exercising regularly is important to maintain our mental health and prevent the risk of psychological problems such as depression, dementia, anxiety, and stress. Even regular low-impact physical activities like jogging and walking play an effective role in reducing the occurrence of depression. Lack of physical anxiety not just affects mental health but also makes it tough to keep weight under control.
Lack of sleep
Most of us are well aware of the fact that our sleeping cycle affects our mood and plays a major role in preventing the risk of issues like insomnia and anxiety. Those who do not sleep properly, in length or quality, are more likely to develop issues like sleeping disorders, insomnia, depression, and stress than those who sleep properly. But on the other side, following a good sleeping routine help to improve your mood, mental health, and sleep depression. Proper sleep also helps to improve your ability to deal with stress as well as depression.
Unhealthy eating habits
These days we all love eating junk, and frozen food. The shortage of time for cooking and lack of interest in it makes it tough for us to have good eating habits. Either we eat too late or prefer unhealthy food, both of which have negative effects on our mental health. Along with our mental health, unhealthy eating habits also affect our physical health. The high intake of unhealthy food affects our digestive system and keeps us stressed which further affects our sleep cycle as well as mental health.
Support system
When it comes to lifestyle and mental health the support system is connected to the relationships. Our relationships with others have a great impact on our mental health. The way we connect with others, interact or communicate with them, all affect mental health. Those who have healthy relationships live happier than those who do not have strong relationships and connections.
To improve as well as maintain your mental health, it is important to firstly improve your relationship with others and have a good support system by your side. Spending good time with family, friends and loved ones makes you feel happier which further affects your mental and physical health.
Meditation and relaxation
Meditation and relaxation affect the mental health of a person in different ways. Deep breathing, meditation, relaxation, and other similar techniques help to improve mental health. Over time, these techniques change the way our brain processes emotions.
Those who rarely do meditation, relaxation, or yoga find it tough to have better control of brain processing such as pain and emotions. The use of mental health apps is one of the best ways to keep good control of your mental health. Mental health apps are specially designed to improve sleep cycle, which is essential to maintain and improve mental health.
Final thoughts
One of the best ways to improve mental health is by improving your lifestyle. No doubt living a healthy lifestyle is not as easy as it seems to be. But keeping good control of bad habits and using the right mental health apps help you achieve your goals with less effort. Along with this, developing a purpose and sense of meaning in life through the job, learning new skills, etc. also helps in improving mental health.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the managing director of Psychreg.
