A To Z Of Mental Health Care : Practices You Should Follow

All of us are susceptible to mental health concerns, although varying in intensity, at some point in time or another. While therapy is one of the answers to coping with mental health concerns, it may not be affordable or pocket-friendly for everyone. Following are the A-Z practices that we would suggest people may inculcate and practice on their own to understand the importance of mental health, and take care of it.

Art Is Healing

Engage in some form of art daily. Any form of art that allows you to be involved in the process of creating is greatly beneficial for our emotional expression. It could be cooking, painting, dancing, or anything. The reason we suggest it should be process-oriented is for it to take away the internal pressure to constantly achieve and be productive. Instead, we get to be immersed in the creative process, helping us enjoy the journey, reducing our anxieties and worries and making us realize the importance of mental health and well being.

Break-Time Is Key

‘The true route to success is not through pushing ourselves beyond our limits but rather through rest, compassion and working with the rhyme of the body’. Making sure to get intentional break time/rest during study/work hours is one way to ensure good mental health care.

Choose Your Tribe

Sayings like ‘Your network decides your net worth’ and ‘One bad apple can spoil the basket/barrel’ tell us that the people we choose to have around us will, over time, define who we become as well. So choose your friends wisely, and allow only those who help you become better to have access to you. This will help you maintain good mental health care and well-being and also make you understand the importance of mental health.

Dose Of Vitamin D

Sunlight is the pertinent nutrient required by our body but also the one we least get. Vitamin D is crucial for brain health and grey matter, and is helpful in reducing anxiety, depression and maintaining optimum level of hormones thereby contributing to your good mental health care and well being.

Also Read | Self-Care Tips To Feel Happy And Rejuvenated

Eat With Caution

What we eat actually does become what we are, how we feel and what we do. Everything we eat eventually contributes to the makeup of our cells, the hormones and neurotransmitters released (like Dopamine and Serotonin crucial for mood stability and psychological acuity), and our immune system. In order to understand how to improve mental health, it’s important to know that the brain and body together make up the mind and food affects everything.

Here are a few things to look at-

• Eat fruits towards the morning (ideally local and seasonal fruits of all tastes and colours)
• Eat vegetables throughout the day, whether raw, cooked, boiled or steamed.
• Get plenty of healthy fats, dry fruits, herbs and spices.
• Do not skip meals
• Do not eat meals too close to bedtime

Healthy eating habits can help you maintain good mental health care and well being.

Read on to know more about the importance of mental health and how to improve mental health.

Feelings Should Be Dealt With

The main reason people feel so anxious in their mind is because they constantly fight their feelings. One way to understand the importance of mental health and well being is by learning to recognise that feelings are not always accurate representations of reality and learn to let feelings come and go.

Gratitude

When we are always grateful we shift our perspective towards an attitude of thankfulness which promotes mental health care and well being. Gratitude is key to take away our woes because our brain naturally begins to focus on what we are grateful for rather than what is agonising us.

Hunchback? Stretch Frequently

Often, our sedentary lifestyles cause us to feel stiff, which affects both brain and body and therefore, our mind and makes us realise the importance of mental health and well being. It is important to stretch every hour or so, just mild stretching in the opposite direction of its usual usage is good enough to aid your mental health care.

Also Read | Tips To Lift Yourself Out Of A Low Mood

“I Work Out!”

Working out each day has been found to be one of the best things for our mental health care and well-being. Studies on happiness, well-being and life expectancy suggest that getting our heart rate up at least once a day even if for a few minutes has fantastic health benefits. To ensure the maintenance of our bones and muscles, they need to be put through some kind of strain and exercise. Furthermore, when we work out, endorphins are released, which makes us feel good, light and stabilises our mood.

Inculcate the habit of meditating every day to ensure good mental health care and well being.

Journaling

Many things happen during the day and usually, we do not get the time or the headspace to process all the feelings and information that come our way. So use journaling to explore your mind, express yourself and sometimes even to unlock healing to maintain mental health care and well-being.

Also Read | Start Journaling, Manage Stress

Keep Cold

Want great brain health? Take cold showers for a few seconds every now and then to give your brain the jolt to increase alertness, clarity, and energy levels. Realising the importance of mental health can help you to enjoy your surroundings and the people in it.

Love Thyself

Practise actively showing affection to yourself through words or actions. Become your own refuge. Reconfigure the inner critic’s voice and be compassionate.

Music Is Essential

Music is indeed therapeutic–this is something people realise after understanding the importance of mental health. But a certain kind of music goes beyond soothing our minds, to soothing our brains and bodies. This is music that is created at 432 or 440 hertz and includes binaural beats, meditative music, instrumental music, especially Indian and other oriental instruments. This frequency has been clinically proven to reduce acute and chronic anxiety and induce mood stabilisation thereby ensuring mental health care and well being.. Mornings after waking up, during a shower, while meditating or before sleeping are great times for this kind of music.

NO!

Learn the art of saying ‘no’! Self care and mental health care is more often than not about being able to say no to what is not healthy or right for us. One may or may not be able to afford/have access to fresh fruits every day but we can say no to junk food every day.

Ommm…

‘The body needs movement and mind needs stillness’. Meditation is not about how many hours one can meditate but rather the art of practising stillness, of reeling back one’s attention from the chaos and into the present. Whether you sit down or engage in dynamic meditations which involve movement, inculcate the habit of meditating every day to ensure good mental health care and well-being.

Also Read | 8 Ways To Change Your Self-Talk For A Healthy Mind

Patience

One aspect of resilience is the ability to be patient and allow things to unfold. Do not be quick to judge, act or speak. Instead observe, analyse and listen.

Keep on reading to understand more about the importance of mental health and how to improve mental health and well being.

Question

Healthy scepticism is the greatest ally in mental health care and revolution because we build the capacity to question those things around us which could be subconsciously seeping into us and wreaking havoc. Question the content you watch, the trends you aspire for, the terms commonly used etc.

Read & Write

If you are under-thinking, read.

If you are over-thinking, write.

Both reading and writing have been shown to be crucial to both brain health as well as mental health care.

Journaling can help you explore your mind, express yourself better and sometimes even unlock healing.

Start Today

One way to realise the importance of mental health and improving on it is by working on the goals you have set for yourself today. One of the leading causes of anxiety is procrastination and rumination upon the task. Don’t wait for motivation, slowly build the practice of building motivation by taking action.

Under My Skin

Acupressure is one the most underutilised tools for our health, it takes minimal effort yet has long-lasting benefits. Learn facial acupressure and yoga to help with headaches and anxiety. Practising acupressure can decrease stress and induce deep relaxation thereby helping with mental health care and well being.

Also Read | Happily Solo: 9 Ways To Foster Healthy Independence

Visualise Yourself

Every now and then visualise your future self, how you would like to live, who you would like to be. As opposed to daydreaming we are not lost but rather consciously visualising how to grow with the image of our ideal self in mind.

Water Water Everywhere

Hydration is key to brain and body health. Studies suggest that dehydration is a huge factor in depressive and anxious states as well as lethargy and fatigue.

X Factor: YOLO?

Make time for the things that truly make you happy – pet a dog, sing, dance in the rain, go explore the city, read, paint. Learn the art of balancing ambition with acts of happiness and satisfaction.

Zzzzz!

It is pertinent for our bodies to get good quality and enough sleep. Not every body requires seven to eight hours of sleep, some may need much less. So, it will be helpful to understand the importance of mental health and requirements of your body and make it a point to get that many hours of sleep daily. Another point to note is that our sleep hormone, a.k.a. melatonin is released in our bodies post sunset, hence making sure to follow the natural rhythm of our body clock will be helpful to maintain good mental health care and well being.

If you feel the need for a nap, make sure to take a ‘Cat Nap’ i.e. a nap for 15 to 20 minutes, exceeding this, our bodies enter deep sleep and the disturbance caused to this cycle leads to us waking up feeling irritable and lethargic.

As much as we nurture our physical health, it is important that we nurture our mental health too. Following the few practices we just spoke about would work as preventive measures for mental health issues. However, in case you find yourself or someone close to you going through mental health concerns that are interfering with their daily routines, it will be a good idea to seek help from a qualified and experienced mental health practitioner.

Nilanjana Parijat is a depth-oriented, and holistic wellness psychologist, with extensive hands-on experience in working with children, adolescents and familes. She currently works with Reboot Wellness, Gurugram.