How To Improve Your Mental Health In 2022?
In the past two years, in 2020 and a certain part of 2021, people have suffered much. Coronavirus pandemic has created an uproar in the lives of all – rich and poor alike. The prolonged closure of schools laid a serious impact on the mental health of school kids. People have lost jobs, businesses have gone south and death in families and friends created a heavy toll in the minds.
There is a silver lining in midst of chaos. Most of the people are now inoculated, and they have begun talking more openly and publicly about the importance of mental health. Let’s talk about how to improve your mental health in 2022 and get you assembled in the near future.
Exogenous Depression – Make A Schedule
Depression caused by an external force is termed exogenous and produces changes in behaviour. You find it difficult to concentrate or receive pleasure from anything you do. If you think there is no escape, you will gradually succumb to chronic depression. As the ability to concentrate seems to disappear, the memory becomes impaired, and the downward spiral of depression continues. Having lost in your faith and ability to surmount problems, you lose the will to even try; you just stop fighting.
- Do not try to solve all your problems at once. This approach is doomed to failure and will maintain the depression. Instead, consider your problems one at a time.
- Change your pattern of living. Take up a hobby or take regular exercise which is an antidote to depression.
- Eat regularly. Depression tends to reduce the appetite. If you are to increase your level of activity, you need adequate energy supplies.
- Create a schedule, and try to hold that schedule in your religiously. It is important to include at least 30 minutes of strenuous exercise regime in that schedule, no matter how tough it would be. Also, make a schedule that you want to do, rather you need to do. That is the difference between the success and failure of a schedule.
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Find Meaning in Small Works
You don’t need to do a big thing to be happy. You can recharge your emotional battery and spark a sense of fulfilment if you focus on small things in everyday’s activities. During the lockdown, people were busy doing things that they ignored years after years. When you start doing things with a sense of purpose without aiming for a long-term tangible goal, you can boost your emotional fitness. Something as simple as cleaning your room, organizing your bookshelf, doing yard work, making fun projects for your kid or even washing your clothes.
Write Down Things That You Find Depressing
Create a habit of writing something before bed. It is already studied that bad sleep can lead to lots of physiological and psychological troubles. It can impair your memory and attention and increase the likelihood of anxiety. During the pandemic, one of the effective treatments in dealing with stress was cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT. One of the best CBT techniques is to write your thoughts before bed, especially those that bother you. You write those thoughts, read it once crumple up and throw it away.
Give Back to Someone
At home or at work, look out for someone who shows a change in behaviour. When dealing with them, remember:
a) Emotional pain is as bad as physical pain.
b) Do not tell someone to “pull themselves together” or to “snap out of it.”
c) Do not report to a person all the features of his or her life that need improvement.
d) Giving back to someone will improve your mental health and ease feelings of loneliness.
e) Start setting a volunteering goal, once a week and then building from there.
Stress and anxiety will eventually lead to depression. It is not harmful to your psychological health but also impacts your physical health. If you are under constant stress, you may suffer from frequent indigestion and heartburn, constipation or diarrhea, insomnia, a tendency to sweat for no apparent reason, headaches, backache, nausea and breathlessness.
