Ways To Boost Your Mental Health At Home

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Maintaining a high level of mental health has never been as important as right now. A pandemic and subsequent lock down means long stretches stuck in the house; and, if you like to get out and socialize, the enforced house arrest can feel like hell. For those who already suffer from mental health issues, it’s essential to keep tabs on any negative emotions.

Of course, it’s not as if you will have help. Sure, Zoom video calling makes it less tough, and some professional therapists will conduct sessions online, yet the options aren’t comprehensive. You may find that you’re alone with only your brain for comfort, and that can be tricky. If you don't take action while you’re locked down, your well-being could be in jeopardy when the world begins coming into its new normal.

Thankfully, there are tons of resources that can be accessed, and the following come with no guarantees, YET they may give you the boost you need to manage self-isolation.

Meditate

The simplest and most effective thing you can do when life starts to get challenging is to meditate. What’s incredible about this tool is that you can do it from anywhere in the world. All you need is a quiet space and plenty of focus. Don’t worry if you don’t have the latter because you’ll build staying power the more you practice.

There’s no reason to fret about understanding the “dynamics” of meditation at all. Yes, most people do it one way, but if your methodology is a little different, it’s not an issue as long as it works. At first, try and channel your thoughts towards a single goal for a minute or two. Then, the more you get used to the feeling of weightlessness, the longer you’ll be able to meditate.

Meditation allows you to eliminate thoughts and emotions that lead to stress and anxiety. Therefore, meditating once a day should act as a factory reset for your mind and body.

Go Outside (If You Can)

Depending on the rules, you may not be allowed outside at all. Certain countries have only relaxed their state of emergencies, and even then it applies to kids and pregnant women. So, going outside every day may not be an option. However, if it is, you should take the opportunity to leave the house and relieve the tension.

A PNAS study found that spending ninety minute outside of the house can lower brain activity. Now, this doesn’t sound like a good thing, but it’s essentially a form of meditation. You use walking (or any form of exercise) to forget about the problems that appear as if they are insurmountable. They seem that way because you’re surrounded by and have nowhere to go. Of course, leaving the confines of your property instantly opens up the brain to a new, healthier environment.

Repair Stuff That Makes You Self-Conscious

It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t change anything about your body if you think the step is too great. After all, it’s not as if you can get your old features back once they’re gone. Still, you don’t need to revolutionize the way you look to make you feel better about yourself when you stare into a mirror. Repairing can be as simple as updating your wardrobe or meeting a wellness goal. Moreover, think about your smile for a moment - does it impact the way you act when you’re in public? Lots of men and women will try not to smile as smiling shows oral flaws and imperfections. With Invisalign treatment, though, you can straighten out your teeth in no time without invasive procedures. Plus, the treatment is proven to work, so the odds of boosting your smile are high.

Review Relationships

Mostly, your relationships will help you to get through tricky periods in life. Without a strong core of people who support you no matter what, maintaining your mental health is hard. That said, not every relationship will be healthy. Some are toxic and people don’t realize it until it’s too late.

One of the resources you have in abundance is time, and you should use it to reflect. Analyzing whether a friendship, partnership or romantic relationship is helpful will allow you to cut the cord if necessary. The key is to watch out for the telltale signs, such as a lack of compromise and constant judgment. Inc has more if you’re interested.

Purging people from your life is a decision you shouldn’t take lightly. Yet, it could be the correct one if those people only bring negativity.

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Take Time And Be A Listening Ear

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When you get up everyday the first thing you think about it what you have to accomplish. Having tunnel vision and focusing on your own life is great, but what if there were people around you that really needed your help? You might not even notice what is happening around you unless you took a moment to look up or reach out. Perhaps you want to become a better friend this year or you want to find a way to make more time for your parents. This might be the perfect opportunity to consider all of the people around you who might need a little extra help.

Your Best Friend

You and your best friend used to tell each other everything. You’d even know what she had for breakfast most mornings! As life gets busier and you grow older, it is very easy to drift apart and become distant. When this happens it can be a lot harder to spot when your best friend is in need. Reach out to your bestie this week and check up on her; a good catch up will put you back on the right track again.

Your Parents

As your parents get older they will start to lean on you for support. This means that a lot of your time could be taken up by caring for them. As much as you’d love to help them as much as you can, it’s not always feasible for you. You have a full time job, a family of your own and you need time for yourself too. You can click site for more information on assisted living, if you think this will help your parents out. You don’t want to see them struggle or suffer, so this might be the best way to help them live a more comfortable and fulfilled life. Look into your options and you will soon find the right solution based on their situation.

Your Partner

Nowadays you and your other half are like passing ships in the night. You hardly ever see each other because you’re so busy. When this happens it can be very difficult to see if they’re struggling with anything so you need to figure out exactly how you can communicate with them. As soon as you open up these lines of communication everything will become so much easier for you.


You may never have noticed that any of these people in your life need your help. You have been so focused on accomplishing your own goals and living your own life that these things have bypassed you gradually. Now that you are more aware of the people around you, you will know how to spot when something is wrong. Knowing how to help someone who plays a significant role in your life is so important. Start carrying out a good deed every single day and help people who matter the most to you. Small and simple things go a very long way to a person in need, so never forget that.

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How To Be Healthy In A Relationship

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Beginning a new relationship with someone should be a joyous thing. However, there are several ways that a relationship can become less than healthy. It can affect not only your emotional health but also your physical health if your relationship doesn't progress in a healthy way. You might find that you get into bad habits for a number of reasons, from becoming too absorbed in your relationship to encouraging each other to make less healthy lifestyle decisions. When you're no longer in the dating game, a lot of things can change, but it's important to take steps to remain healthy in every way.

Don't Lose Your Sense of Self

Relationships need to be healthy in an emotional way, helping to protect your mental health. One of the most important things to remember is that you need to remain an independent person, with your own sense of self. While you can also become a couple who are in sync, you don't want to end up like a single entity, instead of two people with their own thoughts and feelings. Both of you should make sure that you still have your own friends, hobbies and time to yourselves so that you can maintain healthy boundaries between you.

Take Care of Your Sexual and Reproductive Health

Although you might be in a monogamous relationship, you still need to think about your reproductive and sexual health. It's smart to make appointments for regular STD testing, particularly if you reach a point where you're considering not using condoms. If you're not planning on having a baby any time soon, don't forget to think about your choice of contraception and ensure you're using at least one effective method of birth control. Remember that condoms are the only form of contraception that can prevent both pregnancy and disease.

Make Healthy Choices Together

It's more common than you might think for couples to get into unhealthy habits together, especially once you reach the stage of cohabiting. When you live together, it's very easy to feed into each other's laziness or lack of willpower. You can convince each other that pizza for dinner again won't hurt or that it would be much better to snuggle up at home than to go to the gym. But if you make an effort to make healthy choices together, you can encourage each other to be health instead of unhealthy.

Grow an Open and Trusting Relationship

Being able to trust each other and communicate is essential in any relationship. You need to spend time nurturing an open and trusting relationship if you want to have a healthy and loving partnership. Good communication is vital for a strong relationship, so spend time talking about issues both big and small. If you don't talk about things, feelings can get buried and go ignored until everything bubbles over. You should talk regularly, even about issues that might not seem like a big deal.


If you want your relationship to be healthy, you have to nurture the relationship but also take care of yourself.


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What's Holding You Back From Achieving Well-being?

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At different points throughout your life, you’re going to feel great, then not so great. Just like you’ll have healthier periods than other. But all in all, it’s often best to aim for feeling great and being healthy most of the time. It’s only realistic to expect that you’re going to have some off days and down periods. But it’s way more important to find yourself on the best possible track in life, so that your well-being is cared for the majority of the time. If you find that you’re making life choices that are affecting your health and well-being, then it may be time to take a step back and work on that.

Here are five different things that you could find are holding you back right now.

1. Your Job

First of all, there’s work. Now, for most of us, work can be the main catalyst for stress and that really is only a natural thing. If you think that you’re more stressed than you should be right now, first take a look at your career and workload. If you’re spending more time stressed out about work and getting things done than you are enjoying it, it’s time to make a change. Sometimes, you will need to change careers or company, but sometimes you may just need to balance out your busy day job with more downtime outside of work.

2. Toxic Relationships

From here, if you find that you’re unhappy in your relationship, then it’s also time to do something about it. There are lots of different signs that you’re in a toxic relationship as https://www.prevention.com can show you. If you think that this sounds like your relationship, or any relationship that you have, it may be time to walk away. If it’s breaking you down mentally and physically, it will be the best for you in the long run.

3. A Bad Lifestyle

From here, if you know that you are living unhealthily, then it could be time to start making a change to your habits too. If you’re drinking too much, suffering from addiction, not sleeping, or just eating junk all of the time, it will impact on your overall well-being. So make the right decision today to benefit your health in the future.

4. Embarrassing Health Problems

Then, there are health problems themselves. And getting the flu can be annoying, but if you’re dealing with embarrassing health problems, then you need to get a specialist, such as https://www.urologygeorgia.com, to correct them for you. It’s so important that you can deal with poor health, even if you’re embarrassed, if you want to improve your well-being.

5. YOU

But have you ever thought that it could be you yourself that’s in the way of you living a happy and healthy life? Sometimes, we can’t even see that we’re the problem! If you’re making poor choices over and over again, if you’re not taking control of your life, if you’re thinking negatively all of the time - something's got to give. It’s hard and it will take time, but once you decide that you want to make a change and you want to be happy and healthy, then taking steps in the right direction could really turn things around for you.

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Tips For Living With A Mental Illness

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Most of you may know that I am currently working on my doctorate in Clinical Psychology, so it is only right that I touch on the subject of mental illness because although we are living in 2017, it is still a subject of taboo for some, especially when it comes to different cultural groups. Dealing with mental illness is hard, not matter the degree. It's a very difficult issue to deal with because unlike other problems that are physically visible to the people around you - struggling with mental illness is very easy to hide, which makes it even more dangerous.  

It was once overlooked because people just put it down to attention seeking, and because of this people tend to be really frightened about opening up, but it's the year 2017, there's no need to feel like that anymore. There are so many different ways to get help, manage and improve how you feel on a daily basis.

While there are many severity types that span the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, for those who are able to cope with their symptoms a bit better than others, here are a few tips that will help you to keep a healthier perspective on things.

 

Focus on your strong points, but be aware of your limits.

You may not get as much done as maybe other people would, because you will be facing a lot of different things that cause you stress. But this shouldn't be seen as a negative thing. Because of all this, you are most likely very good at being patient, and patience is a great skill to have.

When having a mental illness, for some reason people tend to be quite creative. It doesn't always work out that way, but in some cases of Autism especially, people usually have great attention to detail and use their brain to store it full of knowledge and information. You would be surprised as to how many actors, musicians, and artists are actually Bipolar (manic-depressive.)

Don't look at yourself as being strange. You are unique in your own way, and that isn't because of your mental illness - it's because you're a human being. So put your attention and energy onto all the wonderful traits that you - and only you - can offer this world.

 

Get yourself the treatment you need.

There are far too many suicides that go on because people feel as though it's the only resort. The pain that it causes to feel that alone, dealing with such an issue that makes you so low that you don't want to be in this world with the people that love you. - That's a very dangerous spot to be in. That's why it's so important to seek medical help and discuss what the best treatment will be for you. - You don't have to suffer in silence or go through it alone. There are plenty of support that will give you all the information that you need to find what's best for you. You may find that going on medication that balances your mood is necessary, or talking to someone about exactly how you feel everyday is a more suitable option. Some people even find that herbal vaping or aromatherapy for health issues can help sooth and relax things like depression, anxiety, and even mood swings. So it really is just about discussing options and finding something that you agree to.

 

Get support but don't let it consume you.

It's very easy to feel like the odd one out when you're with a group of people, whether you know them or they’re just complete strangers - you know how you're feeling, and that’s pretty much all you’re able to focus on. Your mind is most likely racing with one thousand and one different things going on in your head all at the same time. If you're anxious, this will be ten times worse. Even if no one is looking at you, you will feel that this is specifically for a reason, and you will be analyzing everything like crazy!

Going to support groups for your illness can be amazing, because you're essentially in a room with all other people dealing with the same issue. Although it may feel as though you're on your own at first, the more times you go, and the more you open up - you will learn so much, not only about others, but yourself too. Groups are there to remind you that you're not weird, and you can find comfort in the idea that you will always have a place to go.

But having said that, don't use your illness as a crutch or an excuse to hold you back, or take the easy option out without having to push yourself. Sure, it may be a lot harder for you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

 

Don't allow anyone to treat you badly.

For some strange reason, a lot of people that deal with a mental illness are deemed weak by other people. For example, if people are aware that you're a little different, unfortunately, most people will treat you different - even though you never asked them to do that. People may also try and take advantage of you because you are seen as an 'easy target'... Don't let them do this to you, however much they try. You're not someone that can be messed with, or someone that should just put up with silly things because 'you're different'. Don't ever feel like you need to settle in a relationship, or be silent in a conversation because the other person is trying to enforce some sort of power over you.

 

Finding work isn't impossible

If you're generally quite up and down, then searching for a more flexible job will be best. This may be freelance work, working from home, or if you're lucky, working for someone that is able to give you clear instructions, somewhere quiet to work in, and time off when you need it.

It's very easy to think that not mentioning your illness is a better route because it won't restrict you from the kind of work that you get offered - but don't do this. Your employer needs to know if you're not well. - Not so that they can judge or pity you - but just so they have a better understanding of things. Especially if you do have to take multiple days off, or shorten your hours.

 

Take responsibility for your actions.

Just because you may be a little different, doesn't always mean you get special treatment. For example, if you're in the company of others, whether that be family, friends or even strangers, - if you have a really bad day, and you lose your temper and get quite angry and aggressive - once that is all over and done with, you have to think about the possibility that you may have affected anyone while they were in your presence. Yes, it is horrible having to deal with emotions like that, but it's also horrible to see someone unraveling and losing control right in front of you, and you are not able to do a thing. So ask them if they're alright, and apologize for breaking down like that.

The same thing goes for if you made plans with people, and then end up changing your mind.  Don't just bail on them, let them know in advance so they're not left looking forward to something all week for nothing. You would like someone to take your feelings into account, so do the same for others.

 

Find the people that will accept you for you.

Friendships can be very hard to keep when you are dealing with a mental illness. We can all have the odd ‘good day’, which is great, and your friends may love to hang out with you. But then the day will come where you feel as though that dark gray cloud has positioned itself right above your head, and all you can feel is the weight of the rain hitting down on you. On days like this, your friends may not want to be around you, because they can't deal with how you are. - Let them feel this way. If they don't feel comfortable with you on your 'off' days, then you shouldn't want to feel comfortable around them either. That's why we have so many different people that come into our life - they all have different purposes. You just have to either be patient, or find someone that can be with you on a good or bad day regardless.

Relationships can be a lot trickier, not so much to find - but to maintain the relationship. Whether it be a few days, few weeks or few months of trying to act as 'normal' as you possibly can, you are sooner or later going to have to breathe and be yourself. - It's very scary, but how do you know you've met the right person if they haven't yet met you properly? You don't want to find out later down the line that you wasted eight months of your life, hiding a big part of yourself, trying to be the 'perfect' partner, only to find out they were a super idiot!

What about the people who are selfish and only like the sound of their own voice, or people that always think they're right and are never willing to compromise? - If they can all manage to find a relationship and keep a healthy one going - then you have absolutely nothing to worry about!

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