7 Ways to Improve Mental Health and Reduce Stress and Negative Emotions
Human beings are inevitably exposed to psychological stress. They are always exposed to obstacles, challenges, setbacks and failures. Therefore, it is impossible for humans to avoid the feeling of failure, frustration and alienation.
Despite the fact that individuals go through stressful situations, many of them are able to maintain their physical and mental health through their psychological resilience or coping mechanisms. Through their interaction with the environment, humans need to continuously balance their internal and external conditions in order to achieve a balance between themselves and their external circumstances. Psychological resilience is one of the personality traits that drives individuals to deal well with stress and maintain their safety from both a psychological and physical standpoint.
Ways to improve mental health
Don't worry. This cannot continue forever. With the increasing awareness of mental health issues, and the availability of resources that can help you to get rid of negative emotions and lack of desire, you can follow self-help methods that can help you to improve your mood and mental state.
These methods are effective in general cases that can affect people due to daily stress, whether social or economic, or exposure to shocking or sad situations, and the inability to bear responsibilities and feel burdened.
However, if negative emotions persist for more than two weeks without any apparent reasons, and the person is constantly feeling guilty, anxious, uncomfortable, sleepless, or sleeping for long hours with eating disorders, then they should visit a specialist.
What are the factors that affect mental health?
It is natural for a person to feel sadness, anxiety, and anger in the presence of influences that can contribute to this, but some factors can lead to a vicious cycle of negative emotions that are difficult to get rid of. At that time, he would like to know how to change his mental state? But with an understanding of the reasons first.
Before following ways to improve mental health, you should be aware of the factors that lead to its deterioration, as presented by mind.org, including:
Loss of a loved one or relative, and the grief and shock resulting from it.
Exposure to abuse, violence, or trauma during childhood.
Post-traumatic stress disorders due to exposure to an accident, witnessing a traumatic incident, or loss of a loved one.
Exposure to stigma and social isolation due to a disease or unacceptable act.
Physical illness or chronic health condition.
Exposure to discrimination, racism, and bullying.
Difficult economic conditions and job loss leading to debt, poverty, and deprivation.
Neglect of physical health.
Severe physical stress and exposure to stress over a long period of time.
Providing healthcare for a sick person for a long period of time.
Drug and alcohol abuse.
Physical and mental health problems.
How to get out of a bad mental state?
With the discovery of the reason behind your exposure to a bad mental state, it is important to follow ways to maintain mental health, and give yourself time to assess what you feel from time to time, and understand the motivations that made you lose the sense of balance, and then determine which of the ways to improve mental health can help you.
The most important thing is not to force yourself to be joyful and happy, and not to indulge in negative emotions, but to be aware that everything you feel is fleeting and will pass, and let the emotions penetrate you and take the time you deserve no more or less, then do what can boost your psychological state and save you from the confusion of your thoughts and the weight of feelings on your chest.
Tips to Improve Mental Health
Acquiring new habits and doing different activities can be one of the ways to improve mental health, which leads to the elimination of negative emotions, in addition to following other tips that can help you live your life with a better approach.
Among the ways to improve mental health that you can follow are:
1- How does communication with others improve mental health?
2-Taking care of your physical health
3- Learning and participating in creative activities
4-Giving
The ability to give is not only one of the ways to improve mental health, but it is also one of the human actions that can achieve happiness and satisfaction, and volunteering comes as one of the forms of giving that can relieve the feeling of tension, reduce depression and anxiety, and give a person a goal in life.
You can volunteer in charitable associations and activities in your community to help the elderly or children, or even on the level of relatives and friends, by listening to them and supporting them in times of distress, and offering help in a project that belongs to them or moving from one residence to another, and other kind and gentle acts that make others happy, give you a better feeling about yourself and the world.
5- Communicating with nature
Communicating with people is not the only thing that can improve your mental health, but if you can get out of your narrow world and loneliness into nature, from green areas or mountains or sitting in front of the sea, this may reduce feelings of tension and anger.
Planting plants and raising pets such as cats and dogs, or even playing with them in the street, can also enhance your mental state and relieve anxiety and give you peace of mind, by giving your mind a broader view of the world, as nature does not know prejudices and cannot disappoint you.
6- Mindfulness (Live in the moment)
Many people summarize mental health problems with a common expression, which is that thinking about the past and indulging in what has happened and ended causes depression, and being preoccupied with the future and the fear of what may happen makes you anxious, while rest is to live in the present moment.
Try to stop excessive thinking about the past and the future, and make sure to live the day itself with its feelings and challenges, learn from it and gain experience, and prepare for the next day.
Understanding your condition and psychological situation and following ways to improve mental health can be able to relieve the stress and discomfort you feel, but you should not hesitate to seek help from specialists if these methods do not work.