5 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Mental Well-Being

Life can be full of ups and downs, and sometimes it can take a serious toll. If you’re going through a period of negativity or stress, you know it can be difficult to stay afloat. However, there are strategies you can implement in your daily life to ease the burden. Keep reading for five ways to improve your mental well-being.

1. Seek Professional Help

First of all, if you’ve been questioning the status of your mental health, it may be time to talk to someone about it. This is a time to be honest with yourself and receive the assistance you need. There’s no reason to be embarrassed for getting help. In fact, admitting you need assistance can be empowering and shows you’re looking out for yourself.

You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home to receive treatment. Therapists and health care providers can meet with you using telehealth services, which eliminates the need to go in-person for a doctor’s visit. If deemed appropriate, you can also get mental health medication online that’s delivered straight to your door. No more pharmacy visits or to discourage you from getting help.

2. Have a Support System

Aside from speaking with a professional, having a support system of friends or family can also be helpful. Knowing there’s a community of people you can trust and who have your back can lift some weight off your shoulders. Having this kind of positive relationship is encouraging during times of stress. They can check in on you and support you through difficult situations, which you’ll find are much easier to face when you’re not alone.

The most important part of creating a support system is knowing who to trust. Evaluate your friendships and be honest with yourself — is this friendship healthy or toxic? Negative relationships will only bring you down and add to your stress. Make sure your friends are trustworthy, and don’t tell anyone too much until you know them well enough.

3. Make Time for Self-Care

Taking good care of yourself is vital to improving your mental well-being. If you forget to incorporate some time for rest and relaxation in your week, how can you expect to unwind? Designating deserved breaks should become a staple part of your daily routine. This will also allow for you to focus on more positive things if your day was stressful.

Think about an activity that brings you joy. Is it working on a craft, curling up with a good book, or sipping tea with a facemask on? Perhaps making sure you get to visit with friends once a week and catching up is therapeutic. Whatever activity brightens up your day, make time for it, even if only for a short while. And be sure to view this time as sacred — treat it as an unchangeable task on your schedule. Doing this prioritizes your mental health and allows you to have time to focus on your wants and needs.

4. Practice Mindfulness

Spending too much time and energy on the negative will only increase stress, anxiety, and depression. This is why trying to refocus your thoughts can be beneficial. Practicing the art of mindfulness can do just that in your everyday life.

Mindfulness is essentially a meditation technique where you intently focus on your feelings in an objective way. This means you allow yourself to feel your emotions without seeing them as negative or positive. This allows you to process whatever is happening in the moment without judgment.

After you’ve allowed yourself to experience your emotions, then you can take action accordingly. For example, if something is frustrating you, take some deep breaths and think about why you’re upset. Remind yourself it’s perfectly alright to feel that way, and determine how you will react. You’ll be taking time to fully think through your thoughts and determine the best solution, rather than acting too quickly.

You can also try meditating, during which you think about how an event or situation made you feel. This can be great for processing traumatic or highly stressful circumstances. Either approach can be very helpful for trying to take better control of your actions.

5. Try Grounding Techniques

Another highly recommended anxiety technique is known as grounding. This is similar to mindfulness in that it involves refocusing your thoughts. However, grounding involves distracting yourself from your feelings in times of great stress, rather than honing in on them. Doing this can calm you down in the middle of a panic attack or other stressful scenario. Moreover, grounding techniques usually focus on the physical aspect of your feelings, rather than the mental.

Breathing exercises are very popular for grounding. Focusing on the air coming in and out of your lungs can slow your heartbeat and relax your mind. If you want to try, you can use the 4-7-8 strategy. This goes as follows:

• Inhale through your nose for four seconds
• Hold your breath for seven seconds
• Exhale through your mouth for eight seconds

Closing your eyes while practicing breathing techniques will prevent you from being distracted or feeling worse. Try to focus on your body, and do your best not to think about anything else.

Focus on You

Remember that whatever your mental health journey looks like, it all comes down to prioritizing yourself and your needs. Putting your mental health as a top priority will improve your respect for yourself and feel empowering. Make time to relax, take every thought captive, and get what you need to off your chest.