What Is Good Mental Health?

Why is sleep so important? We all know how lack of sleep impacts our mood, our actions, and our thoughts. There are many things that can affect our energy levels. Poor sleep or lack of it are a big contributor to this. Try to watch the video ‘5 Tips for Falling Asleep’. You can also download the document ‘Sleep Information Sheet’.

Why is a healthy diet important? We know that our diet can have a huge impact on our physical health and lots of research points to our diet having a real impact on our mental health. We might have all heard the expression ‘brain food’ and we have all probably used the expression ‘comfort food. What we eat can impact how we think and what we do.

If we take time to be aware of ourselves and be in the present moment, noticing our own thoughts and feelings and the world around us, we can gain a better perspective. It can stop us dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Try focusing all your attention on your breathing for a few minutes, to try and ‘drop anchor’ and bring your attention back to the present. Sometimes this is known as being more mindful. Be mindful and meditate. Mindfulness and meditation help you to be in the present. Try our mindful breathing video to help you feel calmer.

Spending quality time with friends or family, talking to someone about how we are feeling or finding ways to help other people can all help stop you from feeling isolated and improve your wellbeing. This can be online, by phone or seeing someone in person. Make time to connect. Social contact is good for your mental health – even if you do not feel like engaging with other people when you are low or anxious. It gives a huge opportunity to gain reassurance and positive reinforcement as well as creating the opportunity to offer reassurance to others. Making others feel better is a way of validating how we are.

Why do we need to exercise our mind? Gaining new skills is in itself very rewarding. It provides a sense of purpose and achievement. We can reduce the amount of time spent thinking about the past and can look forward and think about the future.

Helping others, especially those who are less fortunate than yourself, can help to put things into perspective and make you feel more positive about your own circumstances.

How do we benefit from exercising every day? Exercise acts as a natural anti-depressant. Even if we do not feel like exercising, we almost always feel better after exercising, remembering that moderation is key. We do not need to run 3 marathons a week. Walking the dog 3 days a week will probably have greater benefit to most of us.

Regular exercise has been proven to reduce stress, ward off anxiety and feelings of depression, boost self-esteem and improve sleep as well as contributing to additional health benefits such as increasing energy levels, lowering blood pressure, improving muscle tone and strength and reducing body fat.

The way we think, feel and behave are linked. Sometimes we develop patterns of thoughts or behaviours that are unhelpful so recognising them and taking steps to think about things differently, can improve your mental health and wellbeing.

You cannot choose your thoughts just as you cannot choose the weather but you can choose how you respond to them.

How to reframe unhelpful thoughts. Think about how to reframe unhelpful thoughts as thoughts are not facts, they reflect how we are feeling at that moment in time. Have you ever noticed yourself thinking about the worst thing, making mountains out of mole hills and these negative thoughts never actually materialising? We all worry. It is our instinct, it is natural.

Check out our short video to get some practical tips on how you can challenge your thoughts and start to break unhelpful cycles.

Why should we ask for help? A problem shared is a problem halved. It can feel difficult talking to those close to us, even though they are probably the most eager to help. Some find it better to talk to someone we do not know. Always remember that helplines, therapy services and other organisations are there to help everyone.

Why do something for yourself? We can make sure that it is something we enjoy. Think about something that you used to do that you really enjoyed. How did it make you feel? How many things have we stopped doing because of the way that we feel? It is logical to think that if you start to do the things you enjoy, you will also benefit from the ‘feeling good’ factor.