World Mental Health Day

 

Happy World Mental Health Day! 🤪😁😀😸🤩

What is said to be a state of good mental health?

Inner peace, calmness, focus, concentration power, relaxed mindset, positive thoughts and energy, and spiritual activeness.

Nowadays, in a world of stress, peer pressure, digitalization, social media addiction and hustling to be better than the ones around us, self-care is being neglected. But in such a world like this, there is a dire need for good mental health.

Mental health affects our decision-making, thinking and in simple terms, our life. There are many ways for maintaining mental health:

• Good sleep. No oversleeping, no under-sleeping. From age to age, lifestyle to lifestyle and person to person, sleep patterns vary. But on an average, 7-8 hours can be considered necessary for all.
• Healthy diet. Eat food rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals, good fat and important nutrients; also, prioritize complex carbs consumption over simple carbs. Make sure to measure the amount of nutrients you need to intake for your age, weight, height, and other factors. Reduce consumption of sugar and refined wheat flour, as well as processed foods since they contain preservatives that are chemicals which may impact your brain and body negatively. 
• Physical Activity. Workouts, sports, yoga, running, etc. Anything. Whatever pleases you. Besides the advantage it gives for your physical health, exercising your body also releases endorphins, which help in brightening the mood, thereby keeping you healthy mentally too. 
• Sun exposure. Exposure to sunlight is thought to increase the brain's release of a hormone called serotonin, which is associated with boosting mood and helping a person feel calm and focused.
• Mind games. Analogies, puzzles, logical reasoning, math, etc. helps to keep your mind refreshed and active.
• Digital detox. I don't think I should explain. It's quite obvious.

These are the common ones listed above. My personal strategies are the following:

• Music. I love singing and listening to music. It calms me down and makes me feel refreshed. I am into Carnatic music. 🎤🎵🎶
• Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation. I prefer yoga over all other forms of physical exercise. Doing the asanas and suryanamaskara makes me feel relaxed and active. After doing a round of pranayama, I tend to feel that my breathing capacity has increased, and my mind feels calm. Meditation also helps to relax. 🧘
• Gym. My second favorite form of physical activity after yoga, is going to the gym. I like walking on the treadmill and using the cross-trainer. Though I don't do it as regularly as yoga, I enjoy gym-ming as well.
• Reading and Writing. I like reading fiction and self-help books a lot. I like writing too; I'm working on a novel series which I am planning to publish! And I have a blog as well. These are my hobbies which make me feel happy. 📚
• Doodle Art. I love doodling and I'll let you decide for yourself whether I'm good at it, hehe. Here's one I'd done, and I calligraphed my name.

I'm also trying to improve painting skills because that's something I'm not pretty impressive at. But doodling is also a hobby of mine which makes me feel relaxed and uplifts my mood. 😄

• Logical reasoning, puzzles, IQ tests. I like doing mind games and puzzles and logical reasoning questions. 🧠
• Nature photography. I like photography, especially of nature. I also like spending time outside in our balcony and the terrace, since it is really relaxing and fun. I like going for walks in parks. My blog profile picture is one which I took at a park in our city. 📸

• Chess. I like playing chess. It's a good game for improving strategic thinking skills and brain power. Hence, it teaches you to think rationally and keeps your brain refreshed.
• Prayer. Having gratitude for what you have and being spiritually active plays an important role in mental health.

• Digital Detox. I hardly use social media (unless it's for content creation) because I don't want to fall into the trap of addiction. I only use YouTube to upload my videos and to watch some videos of the channels I have subscribed to, and I watch some videos that could help me in understanding some school concepts better, and I use Blogger to upload blogposts. I try reducing usage of devices as much as possible. 

Now it's time for you to find out your own relaxation and mental health strategies! 😇😇😇