How to Save Your Mental Health - 5 Easy Tips

The need to take care of one's mental health as one does at one physical health no longer raises questions or doubts. At the very least, we are witnessing serious steps toward the destigmatization of mental disorders. In addition, more and more often, celebrities and public figures are being empowered to talk openly about the mental illnesses they are experiencing and to encourage their fans not to be afraid to ask for help. Gradually, society's priorities are changing - taking care of oneself and one's health is coming to the fore.

However, when it comes to preventing mental health issues, few people know what to do. There are dozens of self-help strategies, but not everyone has the time or money for yoga with animals, wellness hippotherapy, and crystals that help (do they?) to relax. Besides, this kind of self-caring should become a habit, something you do not something you just talk about.

Monitor your condition and periodically give yourself a day of rest (I mean real rest)

You know yourself when you have to breathe out and allow yourself to rest in the endless stream of tasks and deadlines. Also, you know that after a short pause you will have the strength to work even more productively. However, although the benefits of such a psychological "detox" are obvious, for some reason we feel selfish and lazy at the mere thought of rest. To avoid inappropriate and completely unfounded remorse, treat such a day off as prevention - by taking one "healthy" day to "recharge," you give your body (including the immune system) time to catch up and prevent a very real "sick" day in the future.

Find something to do before you go to sleep

If your main remedy for fatigue is "binge-watching" soap operas until late at night, it's not surprising that the next day you feel broken and completely exhausted. Do a little experiment - for a week do not watch anything before going to bed. Use this time to read, meditate, draw, color something, finally call your mom, flip through a magazine, watch the trees in the window, lie in the bath - in general, choose what you like most. Yes, for many people "hanging out" with a TV series is an effective way to overcome daytime stress, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just helpful to find something else - something that doesn't involve sitting in front of a monitor until 2 a.m.

Think about the things you only enjoy while on vacation and bring them into your daily life

On vacation, we tend to treat everything easier - without blinking an eye, we replace the gym with a swim or a walk, have dinner with friends at a coffee shop or buy a salad and go to the park for a snack. We also don't check our email because we set up an autoresponder ahead of time and put our phone into airplane mode. But what if you could add a pinch of that serenity to your daily routine? For example, let yourself go for a jog downtown instead of working out at a sweltering fitness club? Or set your phone to "do not disturb" mode and put your smartphone in your bag at 10 p.m.? Of course, such measures are not a substitute for a full-fledged vacation, but they will help you win some personal time and defuse the situation a little.

Ask for help even if you think "it's not that bad yet"

You don't have to wait until you feel really bad - the sooner you start treatment, the more likely you are to recover quickly. If something is going on with your mental state that's interfering with your life, don't be patient - talk to someone and ask for help. It is best to go to someone whom you trust and who will be attentive and sympathetic to your problem. In addition, you need to find a doctor who will give you professional help and not let the problem develop.

Stop being a workaholic and get some sleep

Yes, it's now trendy to be a workaholic - to work seven days a week, to write in work chats in the middle of the night, and to sit at meetings with friends, tucked into the phone. But many trends are unsuitable for everyday life. It's also impractical and dangerous to exclude sleep from your life. Unlike the report or letter to the boss, sleep is really important - it affects your psychological and physical health. If you regularly deprive yourself of a good night's sleep, expect a disaster.