Mental health should be given just as much—if not more—importance as physical health. They always go together in making sure you can function properly every day.
Taking care of your mental health is much easier said than done. But the good news is that you can always take it slow. Try taking baby steps such as resisting the urge to just lay in bed all day.
Having strong mental health allows you to accomplish more things daily and generally keeps you in a better mood. Here are eight benefits of taking care of your mental health.
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Mental Health Benefits of Exercise
Exercising isn’t great only for your body and physical well-being. Working towards getting your blood to flow properly throughout your body has also proven to improve your mental health and make it stronger.
Jogging around for an hour every day can already strengthen your mental state by a lot. Exercising helps you think clearly. It improves your focus and makes you more level-headed especially when you have an important decision to make.
Mental health issues do affect your memory and perception negatively. You can literally forget things or remember memories differently. But with exercise, you can slowly make your memory sharper.
With good blood flow, you’ll also get to have more energy to power through the day. You’ll feel less exhausted and more motivated to work on your deliverables and finish your tasks. Exercising also helps you sleep better. And when you’ve had a good sleep, you’ll also feel more energized. It’s a cycle that you definitely want to keep being in.
Exercise can also help reduce stress and anxiety. People who exercise have reported that they feel less stressed and nervous. That’s because exercise helps release happy hormones like endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. It also helps reduce cortisol levels which are responsible for stress.
Exercising is not a cure for mental health issues, but it does help in making things better. Take care of your mind and body, and the rest will follow.
How Music Can Improve Your Mental Health
Music could have a positive impact on your mental well-being. There are a lot of studies that back up this claim.
Music can be associated with certain emotions. Remember the song that was playing while you were at a party enjoying yourself with your friends? Or maybe that one song you danced to with your crush at prom.
Whatever it is, listening to the same song again could help bring back the positive feeling you’ve associated with these memories. Even when it’s only playing in the background, your “happy jams” have the power to put you in a better mood.
Some therapists might also recommend actively listening to music. Instead of leaving it to play in the background, you might want to try setting aside some time to listen to music. Really focus on the lyrics or the emotions it evokes in you.
Doing so helps you take control of your feelings and thoughts, especially when you’re feeling a bit helpless. Focusing on interpreting the message of a song could make you realize that you’re still the one who decides how you get to feel about it.
And once you get this extra assurance or validation, you just might feel more confident and empowered to accomplish the tasks you have to do.
Why Yoga is Great for Mental Health
Doing yoga is much like exercising. But rather than activity and continuous movement, yoga focuses more on relaxing your body and bringing you inner peace.
As you grow older, it’s inevitable that your brain also slowly declines age. But studies have shown that yoga can decelerate the brain’s natural ageing process.
People who do yoga have better memory retention and cognitive skills compared to people their age who don’t engage in the activity. Yoga improves your focus and concentration so that you can work on your tasks efficiently.
Yoga brings you peace. It’s movement paired with meditation. And it could be highly therapeutic. When you have inner peace, your mood also follows and improves. You’ll feel less stressed and happier.
Chaotic and intrusive thoughts can mess with your head and affect your overall well-being. The challenge lies in being able to calm these thoughts and manage your emotions.
Yoga doesn’t magically make your problems disappear. Rather, it helps you breathe for a moment so that you can come back to your thoughts and be your own voice of reason. It keeps you from being overwhelmed by all the things happening around you.
You’ll also feel brave enough to tackle problems head-on instead of letting them paralyze you. Having strong mental health means you won’t have much problem dealing with things on your own. And you’ll be less likely to ignore them or procrastinate solving them.
Prioritizing Your Mental Health
One of the greatest challenges in prioritizing your mental health is the lack of motivation to do anything. These crippling thoughts and emotions are enough to weigh you down and make you unable to do or accomplish anything.
If it gets too overwhelming, just know that you’re doing well. Because sometimes, getting out of bed is already more than enough.
The key is not losing hope that things will get better. You have to recognize that all this is temporary and that it’s never too late to start taking control of your life again.
To recap, here are some benefits of having strong mental health:
- It helps you think more clearly and have better focus in doing everyday tasks.
- It helps sharpen your memory so you can work more efficiently.
- It gives you an energy boost to power through the day.
- It helps you sleep better and feel less exhausted when you wake up.
- It helps reduce stress and anxiety so that you won’t feel overwhelmed by the things happening around you.
- It also puts you in a better mood overall.
- It helps you feel more in control of your thoughts and emotions.
- It calms you down enough to give you the courage to face your problems instead of running away from them and letting them paralyze you.
If ever you find yourself needing assistance with regards to your mental health, look into some youth and family mental health services. Don’t be afraid to ask for help where you need it. Recognizing that you need help is already a big step towards healing. You should be proud of yourself for acknowledging it and wanting to get better
