What is mental health?

Mental health is wellness for your mind regarding emotional, social or family problems. Just like your physical body your mental well-being can get injured as well. Many look over the fact that your mind can have diseases just like the rest of your body. When you don’t pay attention to your mental health your physical health becomes a problem. Some diseases that affects your mental health are Depression, Anxiety disorders, Schizophrenia, Eating disorders, Bipolar depression, and Addictive behaviors.

It’s very important to talk about mental illness, one in five adults have at least one mental illness. Fortunately, many people are starting to openly talk about mental health. But the topic of mental health is still under talked about. Especially about the link between mental and physical health. There are very severe diseases such as schizophrenia that are linked to heart and respiratory diseases.  Mental health shouldn’t be taken lightly, doing so can really affect your physical health.

Why is Mental Health Important?

Mental health can affect what decisions you make, whether it is healthy or unhealthy. If a person has a good mental health, they are more likely to make healthy decisions. Eating right, exercising and talking to people are just a few things that increase mental and physical health. In the wrong mindset giving up addictive habits like smoking or consuming alcohol seems impossible to do. When you have a poor mental health you don’t take care of yourself well which leads to many massive problems.

5 Ways to Improve Mental Health:

Exercising:

Exercise is the corner stone of physical health. Exercising is also a great way to help clear your mind, improve your mood, self-esteem and energy level. Therefore exercise is great for your mental health and simply makes you feel great. Serotonin and endorphins are released and their job is to make your body feel great. While they ease and combat mental illnesses, for instance anxiety and depression. Even just a 10-15-minute walk can make the difference. Exercise is a stress reliever as well, which is great considering how detrimental stress is on the body. Especially if you have a chronic illness like psoriasis, where flares are triggered by mental stress. Exercise can also serve as a distraction, encouraging your brain to build new pathways that promotes calmness and well-being.

Eating right:

Poor mental health leads to poor decisions. Eating unhealthy foods, and low nutrient foods are linked to pretty severe mental illnesses. Stay away from the processed foods, refined carbs, sugary foods, and fast food. Eating unhealthily make you feel bad, but it puts you at risk for obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and more. Also avoid skipping meals. Skipping meals makes you tired and will make you develop a very unhealthy snacking habit. Eating a balanced diet help increase brain function, and fight development of other mental illnesses. Along with keeping mental illness away you will see results in your physical health. Try to integrate fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains into your diet, it will positively influence how you feel.

Getting support:

Since mental illnesses can affect you socially, seek support from friends and family, they can give you that “push” you need to feel good. Your environment is a factor of how severe your mental illness is, a troubled situation at work, home or school can really affect you negatively and allow for your illness to grow. Therefore, it is imperative to create relationships within home, work and/or school, so you have room to improve. If you are nervous to reach out soon, that’s okay, then go seek medical intervention from your doctor, you may need medication and counseling on top of these tips and that is more than okay!

Sleep:

Sleep deprivation can be a cause of a mental illness, so it is important that you get a goods night rest. Getting the right amount of sleep, can make you feel “recharged” and improve your overall mood. Not getting enough sleep, also put you at risk for depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder. Also sleep affects the neurotransmitters and stress hormones which can wreaks havoc in the brain. This can impair thinking and emotional regulation. Sleep can also improve other aspects of your physical health such as weight loss or even muscle gain.

Give up the unhealthy habits:

Mental illnesses encourages you to continue bad habits, such as eating unhealthily, smoking and alcohol consumption. They all have something in common, temporary relief. It gives an unhealthy reliance on something that doesn’t help with your mental health. Nicotine in cigarettes interferes with chemicals in our brains, specifically dopamine. The cause of the addiction to nicotine is the need of that “feel good” feeling dopamine gives off. It alters your brain and puts you at risk for cancers as well respiratory diseases. Try to develop positive habits like meditation or other mindfulness activities to fill up your time.

Conclusion

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health since they go hand in hand. Without structure in your diet and the rest of your life your mental health will struggle. The 5 best ways to improve mental health are: exercise, eating right, getting support, sleep, and getting rid of unhealthy habits. When you are able to change your mindset into a growth mindset you will start to see results in every aspect of your life.