5 Ways to Hack Your Mental Health

For many generations, mental health has been a widely avoided topic of conversation due to its negative stigma and the lack of knowledge on the matter. There have been years of misconceptions of what mental health truly is. In recent years, the effects that one's mental health plays on an individual's everyday life has been brought into the public eye. Current studies being published are beginning to emphasize the importance of one's mental state by shedding light to the inaccuracy of these lifelong stereotypes, and these once avoided conversations, are now taking place.

Prioritizing your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health. Just as you maintain a good healthy diet or exercise plan in order to keep your physical health in check, we have now discovered that the same amount of effort should be put into strengthening your mind and its wellbeing.

Let's talk about the necessary steps we should take to ensure better mental health.

5 Ways to Hack Your Mental Health

Here are 5 tips to help you take better care of your mental wellbeing:

• Social Connections

By creating social connections, one can develop positive relationships with others and take the opportunity to learn new hobbies, explore outside of your comfort zone and create a healthy bond within yourself. Finding optimistic and rewarding ways to spend your time can help eliminate stressors and generate growth. These connections can open up a space of comfort where the individual feel safe to share their thoughts and develop healthy coping mechanism to strengthen their mental wellbeing.

• Staying Active

Exercising or taking part in activities you enjoy that require energy not only benefits your physical health, but the chemicals released from your brain into your body have also been shown to improve your mood. Staying mentally active has also been shown to release these same endorphins. Playing thought provoking games, reading a book or participating in brain related exercises demonstrates an improvement in one's mental health.

• Relaxation and Meditation

Finding new ways to relax is a great start to eliminating stress! Some exciting ways to invest in your mental wellbeing while creating a sense of relaxation is by participating in yoga or meditations that allow you the opportunity to ease your mind, focus on your breathing, become one with your body and let loose of the negative energy you carry alongside you. Participating in holistic exercises such as these have been known to lower the stress hormone in your body and ultimately, leading to a more improved mental health.

• Healthy Diet

Foods that are high in fats and sugars have been known to cause your body fatigue and feel sluggish throughout your day is has been tied to impaired decision making and even slow down reaction time. By obtaining a well-balanced diet, it can allow you to think more clearly, stay alert, improve your attention span and concentration all of which positively influence how you are able to maintain a healthy mind and body. Like your body, your brain required food to produce energy to operate. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables is the best way to fuel your mind!

• Proper Sleep Schedule

Sleep has been closely link to have profound effects on emotional and mental health. Gaining a sufficient amount of sleep, specifically REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, allows the brain to process your emotional information. Your brain is in charge of evaluating memories and thoughts during sleep, so a lack of sleep has been linked to lowered positive emotional content and an increase in suicidal ideas and behaviors. Taking the initiative to create a healthy and consistent sleep schedule can improve your daily life as well as boosting your mental health.

Conclusion

Although it is not always easy to take control of your mental health, we have learned how important it is to prioritize our mental wellbeing. Now is the time to break the stigma around mental health and take the steps to improve the relationship with our minds! Learning how to change the way we think, act and speak can influence our health in more ways than one. Prioritizing one's mental health with simple acts such as creating a healthy sleep schedule, sustainable healthy diet habits, making time for relaxation, staying active in ways you enjoy and developing meaningful connection can make a significant difference in your life. Invest in yourself!