Life comes with its fair share of stressors that can negatively affect your mental health. You might have difficulty sleeping, have a hard time focusing, and feel more irritable than usual. You don’t have to accept feeling this way
It’s important to find ways to relax, unwind, and relieve yourself of the things that are causing you to feel out of sorts. To give your mental health a boost, try out one or more of these activities. The best part is all of them are free.
1. Get Some Sunlight and Fresh Air
Your daily schedule is probably full, making it difficult to take some time out for yourself. The quickest way to become burned out is to keep pushing yourself up to and beyond your limits. Before it gets that far, take some time for yourself.
You don’t have to do anything special other than go outside for a few minutes and get some fresh air and sunshine. Taking a short break from what you’re doing to go outside does wonders for your body and mind.
2. Gardening
Having a green thumb isn’t required to enjoy gardening. You don’t even need a backyard to tend to a garden. If you have an outdoor green space, you can plant fruit, vegetables, herbs, plants or flowers. For indoor spaces, you can cultivate an herb or vegetable garden.
Gardening indoors or outdoors has numerous mental health benefits, like reducing your stress levels, giving you something else to think about, and the sense of accomplishment you receive as you watch your crops grow.
3. Walking
The physical health benefits of walking are well-known, including weight loss, increased endurance, stronger muscles and bones, and improved heart and lung health. The mental health benefits of walking are equally impressive.
Walking at least three days a week for 10 to 30 minutes at a time can result in stress relief, more restful sleep, improved moods, and feeling less tired, which can increase mental alertness. Make time to take a brisk or leisurely walk.
4. Laughing
Think about how you feel after having a good laugh. Believe it or not, laughing has more mental health benefits than you may realize. Laughter is a stress reliever that increases your emotional well-being, improves your mood, and reduces feelings of anxiety.
Find something that makes you laugh, like your favorite sitcom, a standup comedy show on television, or spending time with people who tickle your funny bone. There’s truth in the adage of laughter being the best medicine.
5. Journaling
Keeping a journal is a great way to relax your mind. There are different methods of keeping a journal, from writing down your thoughts and feelings like in a traditional diary, sketching and drawing, or pasting stickers on the pages.
The benefits of journaling include managing depression, reducing stress, and coping with anxiety. It’s a great way to organize your thoughts and sort through things that are troubling you. Any notebook can serve as a journal.
6. Pet Play
There’s nothing like owning a pet to make you feel better about yourself and improve your outlook on life. Taking care of them gives you something to look forward to, and their constant companionship and unconditional love are like no other.
Being around pets can improve your mood, decrease feelings of loneliness, and lower your stress levels. Even if you don’t own a pet, offering to pet sit for someone you know or volunteering at your local animal shelter will do wonders for both you and your furry friends.
7. Exercise
It’s likely that whenever you visit your primary care physician for a checkup, they ask about how much you exercise. They’ll also remind you of the numerous physical health benefits of exercising at least a few times a week.
They may or may not also extol how much your mental health improves with regular exercise. Exercising can reduce the symptoms of depression and stress, and reduce the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
8. Reading
The mental health benefits of reading have been proven to be so overwhelmingly beneficial that bibliotherapy treatments have been developed. Bibliotherapy involves reading books in conjunction with traditional forms of therapy.
Reading books for leisure is a pleasant way to escape from reality for a little while, and helps people to organize their thoughts. Research has also shown that symptoms of depression drop in people who regularly read.
9. Volunteering
If you’ve ever volunteered for a charitable event or cause, it probably made you feel good about yourself and fortunate for what you have. Those are just a couple of the ways volunteering positively impacts your mental health.
Besides reducing stress levels, volunteering gives you a sense of purpose and of being part of something bigger than yourself. It also increases satisfaction in your life and gives you a greater sense of self-esteem and confidence.
10. Meditation
Clearing your mind or focusing on a particular thought is the principal idea behind meditation. There are different types of meditation, including guided and transcendental. It’s also an element of some religious practices.
The positive effects of meditation on the mind are numerous. They include enhanced emotional health, increased self-awareness, attention span improvements, better sleep, better memory functions, and bringing forth feelings of kindness.
11. Puzzles and Games
Playing games and puzzles isn’t just for kids. The mental health of adults can be greatly augmented by engaging in game and puzzle play. The games and puzzles can be traditional board games, paper puzzles, or jigsaw puzzles.
Memory and reasoning, problem-solving skills, a greater sense of control, and mood enhancement are examples of how puzzles and games boost mental health. Games like Sudoku, Wordle, and crossword puzzles are excellent choices. Digital versions of these games and puzzles also work.
12. Deep Breathing
When you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, you’re often advised to take deep breaths to calm down. There’s scientific evidence to back up the advantageous impact deep breathing has on your mental health.
Aside from the reduction of stress, deep breathing provides you with a general sense of well-being. It also lessens feelings of depression and anxiety. The next time you feel as if you need to clear your mind, taking a few deep breaths may do the trick.
13. Gratitude and Achievement Journaling
Other methods of journaling that are effective in keeping you mentally healthy are keeping gratitude and achievement journals. You don’t need a fancy book to write down your thoughts. You can even use an online journal or free journaling app.
In a gratitude journal, you write down three things that you’re grateful for each day. An achievement journal works similarly except you write down three things you’ve accomplished every day. These journals provide feelings of happiness and well-being.
Inspiration link:
