4 Self-Care Tips That
Help Improve Your Mental Health
by Celes Alasco
Updated June 21, 2023
A lot of health experts suggest that other than our physical health, we should also observe and take care of our mental health. Do you also agree?
Our brain has the largest function in human anatomy. It controls our major process such as moving, speech, decision making, and a lot more! Even when we are asleep, our brains still continue to do their job.
Inevitably, our bodies experience exhaustion and fatigue due to external stress, and so does our brain! 😱
This is why mental health awareness shouldn’t be ignored. Here are four essential self-care tips to help your brain cope amidst the daily stressors.
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Puzzle Games - the Perfect Brain Booster!
In this busy world, most of us would believe that multitasking is a skill. It becomes a popular norm that the more you do things at the same time, the more you are productive. But recent studies have shown that multitasking is not helpful at all, as this puts our brain to stress even more through having multiple things to deliver, instead of allowing our brain to focus on one task at a time. Most of the mental health professionals agree that a focused brain can deliver more quality work than those who multi-task.
To help improve your mental health, engage yourself with puzzle games. This helps to lessen your mental stress as this focuses on one task—-solving a puzzle! Its benefit is to help your brain develop strong decision-making and it would also enhance the level of your cognitive skills.
Here are the puzzles you can engage with:
✅ Non-virtual Puzzles
Scrabble, Jigsaw, Logic puzzle, Rubik's Cube, Sudoku, crosswords, and etc.
✅ Virtual Puzzles
Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, Modern Combat, Star Front Collision, and the like.
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Calm your Mind with Meditation
Ask any healthcare professionals about your mental health tips and their famous answer will be meditation. ☺️
Meditation has been widely used across the globe in battling mental health issues. Aside from that, meditation is now used in wellness activity in major fitness and health industries. This includes Yoga, Pilates, Animal Flow and other physical movements that will coordinate mind and body activity.
People who meditate often have better performance because it enhances a person’s focus, detail, attentiveness, creativity, sharp listening and memory, and is able to comprehend better. Aside from having an inner sense of peace, people who meditate are more likely to have empathy and compassion.
Meditation exercises include breathing exercises and listening to the sounds of nature such as rain, sea waves, crackling fireplace, forest, and the like. This self-care activity will help you calm down and gives you mental peace. Or simply, find a quiet place to think of the things that you are greatly thankful for.
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Make Your Physical Exercise a Habit
Studies show that regular exercise plays a major contribution to human’s overall health and well-being. A person’s physique is the most visible output of doing exercise. While internally, it helps us to perform an active metabolism, strong heart and lungs, steady muscle endurance, and also a good sense of balance and coordination. But what about our brain? What does regular exercise contribute to one’s mental health? 🤔
According to fitness and health professionals, regular exercise can boost brain abilities.
Yes! The so-called brainpower which includes intelligence and reflex skills. This works through neurogenesis when you perform a cardiovascular activity. Neurogenesis creates new cells that improve a person’s mental health performance.
Since we’ve mentioned that exercise gives the person a good physique, how will this make you feel when your physical body is fit and healthy? When you were able to run up and down a stair without feeling exhausted? Or when you lift things effortlessly? Of course, you will feel good about yourself and this builds your strong confidence and self-esteem—which is also good for your brain. A regular exercise is a mood booster that lessens a person’s risk or mild symptoms of anxiety and depression.
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Self-Love and Better Sleep
Last but not least is—self-love.
When you love yourself, you are likely going to take care of yourself, don’t you? 😏
You will be more aware of securing your overall health and wellness. And you will never going to deprive yourself of anything—including sleep.
Sleep deprivation can increase the level of mental stress and can lead to more serious mental health issues as well as chronic diseases.
Sleep problems like insomnia have a significant effect on a person’s mood and cognitive behavior. However, self-love is the key to combat sleeping problems.
According to mental researchers, having a good quality of sleep can increase a person’s mental health performance, because sleep regenerates our body and allows it to recover from day-to-day activity.
To help you get quality sleep, the first thing that you need to do is to audit your sleeping habits. If you find yourself having a problem getting sleep, try to relax your mind before going to bed. You can adjust your bedroom light or temperature and discover what settings can help you with relaxation. You could also plan to commit to a sleeping pattern, where you stick to a waking and sleeping hour. Lastly, however optional, have a relaxing bath before going to bed.
Mental health awareness is important in every person’s daily life. And these are just a few of the essential self-care tips to improve your mental health. You have the sole power to fight off any stress, depression, and anxiety. But the saying remains true that no man is an island. So make sure that you keep yourself connected with your loved ones and be honest with the support you need.