When we hear mental health, most people think of mental illness. However, someone doesn’t need a physical ailment before they can work on improving physical health and it’s the same with mental health. Everyone could benefit from improved mental health.

Mental Conditioning 

Reach out – Stay connected to people. Don’t try to go it alone. Build relationships on trust and caring. Connect with people you can share with.

Take a break– Get down off the horse and smell the roses. Go to lunch with friends, spend the weekend with family, and take a vacation.

Share with others – Join a group of people with common interests. It doesn’t matter if it’s flower gardening, hiking, or French cooking.

Take on a challenge – Work at being a better you, whether it’s physical or mental either will improve your mental outlook. Read more, take a class, learn a new skill, challenge yourself.

Get some sleep – Everybody knows how important sleep is to mental health but too many do too little about it. Sound familiar? Mayo Clinic: 7 Tips to Better Sleep.

Avoid stress – Know your triggers, be aware of the situations that trigger stress and avoid or prepare for them. If you know your Aunt Lilly is going to ask you in front of your entire family when you’re going to grow up and settle down, either avoid Aunt Lilly or strike before she does. Have some fun with it. “Why Aunt Lilly, I thought you knew that after 30 you don’t have to grow up!”

Get outdoors – Personally, if I couldn’t get outdoors to enjoy nature and unwind, I’m not certain my mental health would survive in tack. Here’s Proof Going outside makes you Healthier

Exercise – Wait, I thought we were talking about mental health not physical? We are.  APA (America Psychological Association) The Exercise Effect

Help someone – There are few things anyone can do to improve their outlook, spirit, and mental health more than helping others. The Benefits of Helping Others.

Quit worrying! Yes, it is possible to quit worrying. It’s not easy, but it can be done. If you want to improve mental health and make life more enjoyable reduce the time you waste in worry.

How Do You Stop Worrying?

First, replace the word worry with concern, get it out of your inner voice, don’t speak the word or write it. Replace worry with concern. Worry is a condition; concern is a situation one can relate to. You can be proactive about a concern.

Any concern can be placed in one of two categories

  1. Something can be done, so quit being concerned and do something about it.
  2. Nothing can be done, so quit wasting time on something you can do nothing about, life is too short to waste it on worry.

A Challenge for You

Even the healthiest people can always improve. That’s how people go from good to great. Here’s the challenge. Pick one of the 10 ways to improve mental health and work on it for the next 30 days. Let us know how it comes out.

If you liked this post, you might enjoy Stop stressing at work now!

Photo credit: Foter.com