A Healthier You: Prioritising Mental Health

Mental health is just as important as physical health and should always be prioritised. It encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being.If your mental health is not at its fullest potential, it can impair your ability to cope with the stresses of life.

Here are a few tips to ensure that a healthy and positive state of mind is maintained:

Get in physical activity?- Keeping physically active is one of the easiest ways to maintain your mental health. It can be as simple as walking for 20 minutes or as intense as doing a High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), it all depends on what is best for you. Regardless of your choice of activity,?being active releases chemicals in your brain ?that contributes to feeling good, boosting of self-esteem, increasing concentration and aids with a good night’s rest.

Organise your space?- Clutter makes it difficult to stay focused, which can decrease productivity, add to daily stress and contribute to anxiety.?By decluttering your physical space, you are also decluttering your mind.? Having a well-organised environment helps you to gain a sense control, focus, reduce anxiety, and boost your mood. This simple step also adds a sense of calmness to your daily tasks.?

Plan ahead?- Making a list of tasks to get done or precisely planning your week on a Sunday night, or your next day the night before, greatly helps with ensuring you prioritise your most important tasks for the week or day ahead. This will assist with keeping you on schedule and alleviating the stress and frustrations that may come with tasks. Planning ahead also helps with time management and meeting deadlines and obligations within the required timeframe.

Make sleep a top priority?- Sleep is an essential function. Similar to the need to be physically active, there is also the need to ensure that your body gets sufficient rest daily.?It is said that the average adult should get between seven (7) and nine (9) hours sleep nightly . Healthy sleep allows your mind to recharge allowing you to be refreshed and alert for the day ahead. Lack of sleep can cause your brain to not function at its fullest and cause you to lose focus, not think clearly and your memory to be foggy. This can in turn contribute to frustration and stress.

Today, Mental Health is a global conversation, with many organisations and NGOs investing in initiatives to highlight the effects of poor mental health, the importance of looking after it and make it a priority.

Thank you for joining us this week and we do hope that our tips on Mental Health resonate with you. We wish you a Happy Easter and look forward to seeing you again next week.