Mental health is something that is not spoken about widely enough, and is often regarded as a bit of a ‘taboo’ subject. This is an issue we definitely need to tackle in order to encourage people to speak out about their emotions and thoughts more, so that they can feel more comfortable in themselves. When thinking about mental health, it is really important to consider your family and friends and try and check up on them on a regular basis to make sure they are okay.
Something that is spoken about even less, however, is the importance of checking up on yourself too and making sure that you are feeling good. There are many ways you can do this, including monitoring your lifestyle and choices to ensure that they are helping your mental state. Here is how you can maintain your mental health during difficult times.
Keep Yourself Busy
One great way to keep your mental health intact during difficult times is through keeping yourself busy, which is great for keeping you distracted. If you spend too much time alone thinking about your thoughts, this can often end badly. Usually you’ll end up pushing yourself into a negative headspace which will not be good in the long run.
Keeping yourself busy can be achieved by doing literally anything – whether that be getting a pet that you can invest a lot of your time into, beginning a new hobby such as crocheting, or just reading a book. The more time you aren’t thinking about your emotions, the more you will become comfortable spending time alone without feeling trapped.
Have Regular Facetime Calls
It is so important that you keep up your communication with your friends and family to check in on each other and to give each other comfort when needed, especially during a global pandemic. It can even be something as small as calling them for about 20 minutes, just to ask them how their day has been and what they have been eating that day. Sometimes, it can be really comforting to speak about things that feel quite mundane and unexciting, as it feels good to know somebody is interested in even the small parts of your life.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is an essential step to bettering your mental health. Your body recovers best when you are sleeping, so not only will this improve your physical ability, it will also boost your mood and increase your energy levels. Finding a regular sleep pattern that works for you is the easiest way to stick to this – so you need to think about your own personal schedule and what will be easiest to fit in with your other activities. It is recommended to not go to sleep later than midnight on a regular basis as this can affect your body clock and your ability to function to the best of your ability. Having said this, it is completely dependent on your lifestyle, in terms of your living situation, job and hobbies. These will all affect when and for how long you sleep.
Exercise Regularly
Regular exercise is proven to help you improve your mental wellbeing significantly, so you should definitely start incorporating exercise into your daily or weekly routine if you do not already do so. Exercise comes in so many forms, whether it be yoga, cycling or boxing, so you do not have to engage in anything that you don’t feel uncomfortable with. If you try out a few different activities, you will be sure to find one that you like and can see yourself sticking with. Depending on what kind of exercise you are doing, you could potentially make it into a social activity too, which will help you get two benefits in one.
Take Out Mental Health Life Insurance
In these uncertain times, you may be preoccupied with thoughts of your overall health and what would happen in a worst-case scenario. If you already suffer from issues with mental health, this can only make these thoughts worse. To put your mind at ease and take at least one worry off your plate, a sensible thing to do is to look into taking out mental health life insurance. Comparison sites like I’m Insured let you search many different providers that cover a range of different mental health conditions in their insurance policies. If you take out mental health life insurance through I’m Insured, you’ll have instant access to over 200 such insurance providers, and their service is both fast and free.
Mental health is nothing to be ashamed of. It is completely normal and will prove that you are a strong person if you are able to openly discuss it. As we engage in more and more conversations about mental health, it will become more normalised and people won’t feel the need to shy away from it anymore. Remember, if you are ever feeling down, seek help and don’t feel ashamed in doing so.
