How to Improve or Sustain your Mental Health and Wellness

"The strongest people are those who win battles we know nothing about."

Mental Health

Mental health is a topic that has been discussed over many years, but people seem to still struggle with the idea of what it really is and what it really means. If our mental health is not in tact, then we can't expect ourselves to function properly. As we know, or maybe this will be your first time hearing it, the brain is what controls everything in our body. It controls all your organs, tells your body parts how to move, and holds memories and emotions that we can hold onto for years and years. If your brain isn't functioning at it's highest capacity or in it's healthiest state, then trying to expect ourselves to function in that way is impossible. Most of the time I know that people who have already "mastered" their mental health are the ones trying to give the advice. Although that's very helpful because you have a clear view of someone who made it through, it doesn't help in your understanding as you go through it. As a young person trying to figure out their life, sometimes I struggle with my mental health, and how I view my current situation, so trying to figure out a plan for myself became all that more important to keep things under control.

A Direct Plan

So similar to your body, to keep it in shape, or keep it in a healthy state, you have to take care of it and work it out. Same goes with the brain, you have to exercise your brain, challenge your brain to make you push yourself. Challenges of mental health usually come when you focus all your attention on what may not be going right, or on all the things that you feel as though could be better in your life. If you live in constant unhealthy comparison or constantly feel as though you're not good enough because you see someone else has something that you may want, or their life is unfolding in a way that you viewed for yourself, you'll never reach a point of peace. The biggest plan in managing your mental health is finding peace. Finding peace within the distraction, finding peace within the wait, finding peace with comparison and confusion. The biggest way we can find peace is living in the moment of today, being present in whatever opportunity we're given. Once you begin to understand and have an appreciation for your current situation, then moving onto the next phase becomes easier because you've already given yourself a head start. The next phase would have to be providing yourself with daily affirmation. Daily affirmation can start out as you just fooling yourself into saying positive things about yourself, but as you constantly say it, you have no choice, but to begin to believe it. Just like in school when we say something more and more we start to believe it cause we believe or have been told it's true. Same goes for positive affirmation, the more you say it, the more that it becomes your truth. Lastly, referring back to my stress reduction routine, breathing, yoga, and centering your thoughts is also an important part in improving your mental health. If your mind has a centered foundation, it will improve how you react to challenges or a spike in your mental well-being

Sustaining

Now you've reached the point where your beginning to understand what mental health means for you and how you're able to control it. Now it's just all about continuing the routine that got you to this point of improved mental health. Every habit that we have, needed to be repeated multiple times for it to become a habit. It had to become a routine so that we do it without having to think about doing it. Luckily once it's a routine, it will come easily when you're in the heat of stress or frustration. Since you've practiced these habits so much, it will just come naturally, without any added stress or confusion.

Encouragement

My ability to get to a place of a more controlled and at bay mental well-being took quite some time. It is very possible though when you take it seriously. Don't allow yourself to continue to live in it because you've convinced yourself that you're not strong enough to make it through it. Take on the issue and don't allow it to control you anymore. When you understand that it's something that be controlled and conquered purely by a change in your routine, you'll begin to naturally see the change and naturally enter into a phase in your life where your mental health doesn't have the ability to completely cripple you. "Anything that is human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary." - Fred Rogers