Life can certainly be very stressful at times. This is true no matter what you might do for a living, no matter who you might live with (if anyone), and no matter how much money you might have – life can always be stressful.
If you’ve ever felt this kind of stress, you’ll know that it can affect you not just physically but mentally too. This is why it’s so important to de-stress where possible. However, there are actually a number of ways to help you improve your mental health and will also help you de-stress, solving the problem from both directions. Read on to find out more.
Get plenty of sleep
Sleep is absolutely crucial in terms of your mental health. This is the one time during the day (or rather, the night) when your body can focus on itself – this means it can recover, heal, and de-stress. If you don’t get enough sleep, this process can’t happen, and you’ll wake up feeling as stressed and mentally unwell as when you went to bed.
To improve your mental health, you must ensure you sleep for enough time. Ideally, you’ll let yourself wake naturally, as being awoken by an alarm is not good for you. However, if this is not possible, you’ll have to give yourself a bedtime and stick to it, ensuring that you get the right amount of sleep (somewhere between seven and nine hours) during the night. This will improve your mental health and help you to feel happier and healthier.
Eat healthily and exercise
If you don’t eat healthily, your physical health will suffer. You’ll miss out on important nutrients that ensure your immune system is able to work at its best, and your mental health will suffer, too, because you don’t feel good. You might develop acne, for example, from eating poorly. This can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, and even depression. Using Duac gel will help, and eating a good diet will improve things too.
Exercise is also important and should go hand in hand with eating the right foods. When you exercise, not only are you able to get fitter and healthier, but your body will release hormones that make you feel great, instantly improving your mental health.
Find a connection with others
Social interactions are a crucial part of good mental health for most people. Even if you prefer to keep to yourself, it’s still a good idea to connect with others when you can, whether that’s attending an event, getting involved in online forums, or visiting your family from time to time.
When you have other people to rely on and be around, your everyday stressors will be much less of a problem, and your mental health will have a chance to improve. Plus, talking to others about your issues means you can potentially find answers that you wouldn’t have come up with by yourself. Since these answers could remove your stressors entirely or at least give you a way to deal with them better, your mental health will improve.
Ellen Diamond did her degree in psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. She is interested in mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.
