Revive & Refresh: How To Care For Your Mental Health

It’s easy to make health goals, right? Many of us want to exercise more, eat less junk food, or reach a healthier weight to feel better about ourselves and improve our quality of life. These are all great goals to strive toward, but they can be challenging if we are not also caring for our mental and emotional well-being.

Caring for your mental health is essential to a productive and happy life! Learn more about how you can be proactive below.

Detoxify Your Life

Certain people or situations can trigger us to feel bad about ourselves. Identifying toxic influences and creating healthier boundaries can do wonders for our peace of mind and happiness.

• Identify unhealthy areas: Is there something in your life that you know is toxic? This could be a relationship, a behavior, or a situation. Identifying these areas is the first step to taking care of your mental health.

Connect With Others

Our connections with other people can enhance our life, bring us joy, and help us through tough times.

• Make time to be social: Engaging in healthy social activity is a meaningful way to spend time. Try to set aside at least 30 minutes each day to connect with others.
• Not all connections have to be in-person: Reach out to friends and loved ones via text, email, video chat, or a phone call.
• Organize activities: If there is something you enjoy doing, ask someone else or a group to join you!

Support Others

Did you know that 1 in 5 people will experience a diagnosable mental health condition and that all 5 will go through a challenging time that affects their mental well-being? While we may not have all the answers when a loved one seeks our advice, there are meaningful ways we can support them.

• Listen actively
• Ask what you can do to help
• Do not judge

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, contact your primary care physician. The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can also be reached Monday through Friday from 10AM – 8PM EST: 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or [email protected].