Good Habits for Mental Health

 

Mental health and inner balance affect not only our sense of self, but also our work, personal life and other areas of our existence. Developing and safeguarding the psyche hinges greatly on cultivating the appropriate habits, both consciously and subconsciously. Below we will tell you about 7 healthy habits that will make you feel better every day and treat your inner world with care.

 

Try venturing beyond your comfort zone more frequently

The brain works in such a way that a person performs a huge number of actions unconsciously, automatically. After all, if you think about something for a long time every time, it will take a lot of time. In our usual comfort zone and picture of the world, we cannot always look beyond the horizon that we have set for ourselves. 

And if we do not purposefully put ourselves in situations that pull us out of this comfort zone, then the horizon of vision becomes narrower and narrower until it turns into a point of view. Leaving your comfort zone allows you to look at things with a fresh look, to see something new and unusual in the familiar.

Constant learning enriches a person, his mind, brain, worldview, and allows him to look at the same things from different points of view.

But how to start leaving your comfort zone? An example of a small step is to change the usual course of things. For example, you receive a message by email or instant messenger and immediately, impulsively want to respond. Unless it's something urgent, try not to respond immediately. Waiting at least 5 minutes will help you look at the message in a completely different way, with fresh eyes, and perhaps respond more constructively.

Constant learning enriches a person, his mind, brain, worldview, and allows him to look at the same things from different points of view. Try to constantly learn new information and expand your horizons. Watch new films, read books, take courses, meet and communicate with new people.

 

Be grateful for what you have

We very quickly get used to everything good, and we stop noticing that we have it. At the same time, we begin to complain that we don’t have something, lament that we lack something. When we say gratitude to someone or for something, it always evokes positive emotions, makes us happy and reduces stress levels. 

When we don't notice the good around us, we become immersed in negativity and painful emotions. Pay attention to all the good things that happen to you and you will feel much better.

 

Use less social media

We often overdo our time on social media and it takes a toll on our mental health. More and more people prefer virtual communication to real communication and spend all their free time on gadgets. Try deleting social networks from your smartphone and viewing them only on your computer. You will feel how much free time you have for other things and relaxation. 

You can also turn on silent notification mode when you are doing work tasks or spending time with loved ones. Try to let social networks distract you from real life and real experiences as little as possible.

 

Don't forget about live communication

Live communication allows you to receive much more signals and information that people need to fully perceive each other. No virtual channel conveys to us the smallest details, micro-movements in the voice, facial expressions and other important details in communication. It is full-fledged live communication that enriches us mentally and to a greater extent allows us to record positive moments in relationships. 

Make personal appointments with friends and family as often as possible, especially if it’s easier for you to stay at home and not go out. It is very important not to close yourself off from the world and live communication and purposefully build personal interaction with others.

Spend more time in nature

Breathing fresh air is very beneficial for efficient brain function. No matter how many plants you have at home, it is important to go outside from time to time, and best of all, go out into nature. No environment inside the house can visually, auditorily or kinaesthetically replace what the forest, mountains and fields give us. We live too little time in developing cities, but we spent many millennia in nature for our civilization to be able to change what is inherent in us evolutionarily. 

When we move away from nature, we do not get enough visual contrasts, noises, smells, tactile sensations that we would like to receive in our cosy homes. Our homes may be state-of-the-art and comfortable, but nothing man-made can replace time spent outdoors.

 

Move more and play sports

Movement is life. A person is, first of all, a body that needs physical activity both for survival and for intellectual activity. The areas of the brain that are responsible for intelligence are closely connected with those that are responsible for physical activity in the sensorimotor cortex. And the development of our intellectual abilities is associated precisely with physical activity.

To feel good and not have problems sleeping, you need to develop a routine.

 

But physical activity is different, and it is absolutely not necessary to exhaust yourself with training and build up piles of muscles. It is best to walk more and use transport less. And if you really want to work out in the gym, you need to do it carefully, according to an individual program and under the supervision of a trainer.

 

Get enough sleep

Healthy sleep is vital for a person. With sleep disorders, for example, insomnia, breathing problems may occur and the brain is poorly enriched with oxygen. If a person sleeps shallowly, he does not get enough sleep phases, and as a result, he may suffer from lack of sleep and constantly feel tired. 

When treating mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, sometimes it is enough to build a normal lifestyle and normalize sleep. It is enough to establish the most important physiological functions of a person, and everything changes.

To feel good and not have problems sleeping, you need to develop a routine. It is advisable to get up before 8 o'clock in the morning, but not earlier than 7. If you're still required to wake up at 6 AM due to work or other obligations, it's recommended to retire for the night no later than 10:00 PM. 

You need to wake up gradually, give yourself time to recover from sleep, lie in bed for a while, and then calmly get dressed and start your business so that the day does not seem crumpled. Ideally, you should adhere to your personal biological rhythm of waking up and get up when you feel comfortable.

 

Mental norm and pathology

A person may behave contrary to social norms either because he is a criminal and behaves that way on purpose, or as a result of physical or mental health problems. Normality and pathology are usually differentiated taking into account three main criteria: time, culture and society. 

At every period of time, in every culture and in every society, the definitions of normal and pathological may change. For example, in the modern American community, homosexuality is considered the norm, but in conservative areas, as before, it is perceived as psychopathology.

In people who were genetically predisposed to become OCD when it came to cleaning, the availability of cleaning products brought out and amplified what might not have manifested without these external factors.

 

Often the attitude of society influences the course of mental illness. For example, in some African cultures, symptoms of schizophrenia are much less severe than in the most expensive private hospitals in New York. The fact is that among many African peoples it is not customary to isolate a sick person from society. 

On the contrary, he is given responsibility for certain activities. In this case, even in the presence of hallucinations and delusions, the disease progresses more easily, and sometimes the person may experience psychosis.

It happens that society, on the contrary, increases the manifestation of psychopathologies, as happened with depression, bulimia and OCD. For example, by the end of the 70s in the United States, the number of people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder increased. This was due to the widespread availability of publicly available cleaning products. 

In people who were genetically predisposed to become OCD when it came to cleaning, the availability of cleaning products brought out and amplified what might not have manifested without these external factors.

There is no clear and understandable dividing line between psychopathology and normality.

To determine whether there were illnesses that were common to all cultures and societies, the World Health Organization conducted a large study of psychiatric illnesses in the mid-1970s. Research teams were sent, among other things, to the most remote places on Earth - Africa and Alaska. It turned out that all cultures are characterized by diseases of major psychiatry. 

In all countries, people are being treated for schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and other major mental illnesses. However, the perception and even the course of these diseases depend on the norms of the culture or society.

There is no clear and understandable dividing line between psychopathology and normality. This division, as well as the degree of deviation of the phenomena of a person’s mental life, always varies depending on external conditions: time and sociocultural factors.