Improve Your Mental Health and Sharpness Each Day
Mental health is essential to our daily lives. Still, though, it can take a lot of work to set aside time and improve our mental health and sharpness.
3 Simple & Quick Ways
Thankfully, there are several ways that we can quickly and simply work on our mental health and improve the overall quality of our lives through small actions. In this article, we will discuss 3 simple and fun ways to improve our mental health.
Exercise Outside
For most of us, the majority of the day is spent busy either at home or at work. Either way, the stresses of life have a way of keeping us sedentary and inside. Exercising is a great way to break out of that rut by getting our bodies and our minds moving. We can multiply the value of our workout by taking it outside to give us fresh air and scenery.
Exercise isn’t just good for our muscles. By getting our heart rate up, we can stimulate blood flow, giving needed nutrients to all our organs. This has been proven to aid in processes like digestion, healing, and even mental activity.
Exercise forces us to breathe deeply, getting plenty of oxygen into the blood and distributing it throughout the body. Exercise also releases a number of chemical endorphins that can help improve mental health and sharpness.
It’s no wonder, then, that so many people have an exercise regimen as part of their regular routine.
By going outside, we can add a number of mental health-boosting factors to our activity, making it even more helpful. For example, by running on a trail instead of on a treadmill we can experience a change in scenery.
By having different sights and smells go by, we can stimulate different parts of our brains and help reset some of our mental fatigue. Studies have also shown that the fresh air and sunlight that we absorb by being outside can help us both physically and mentally.
Meditate
Meditation can be a daunting thing to consider, but it has been proven to have a vast array of mental health benefits. Depending on our personal belief system, our individual forms of mediation may look different.
However, there are a couple of ways that meditation can serve to benefit our mental health regardless of how we do it.
Meditation has been shown to help reduce stress by putting things in a different perspective. No matter how you choose to meditate, one key component is eliminating the distractions that are all around us.
After a long day at work, a busy day with the kids, or even a calm day of self-care, meditation can help you to appropriately sort your thoughts and reflect on the day’s successes. By setting aside time specifically for reflection, we can also better manage our stress, seeing the stressors in our lives for what they really are.
Most forms of meditation also include an aspect of mindful breathing. By focusing on our breath and controlling our actions, we can be more grounded in the world while at the same time becoming sharper and more aware of our own place in the world.
Focused breathing also has a beneficial effect on the entire cardiovascular system, helping to regulate her heartbeat, blood pressure, and several other related health systems. Several types of meditation also include a physical portion, such as yoga or Tai Chi.
During these activities, we can reap the profound mental health benefits that can be reached through meditation alongside the benefits that come with exercise and movement.
Play Solitaire
It might not be the first thing we think of when considering ways to improve our mental health, but solitaire is a great activity that can help us relax and sharpen our thinking.
Because of the multi-faceted nature of solitaire and the complexities of the game, solitaire can help us with whatever aspects of mental health we find ourselves lacking.
Our brains crave order in this chaotic world. By taking the time to sit down and organize a deck of cards through a game of Solitaire, we can reduce our stress by organizing the world around us, even if it is as simple as just a game of cards.
As we get into the game, we might find ourselves “zoning out”- forgetting the challenges and stresses of our daily life and focusing solely on the game.
Like many games, Solitaire is relatively simple to learn but has a lot of complexity and strategy that can be used to win. If we practice playing, we can learn these strategies and see how they can be applied in the game.
Since each game of Solitaire is a little bit different, the variety of choices and challenges presented to us accurately reflect the variety of choices and challenges presented to us in life. By sharpening our skills in the game, we can sharpen our skills that can be applied in a variety of real-world situations.
Sometimes, we struggle with our ability to make decisions. Solitaire can help us become more confident in our decision-making by giving us the ability to make a series of decisions without any major consequences.
After taking risks and seeing the rewards in a simple game of Solitaire, we can build the confidence needed to make bigger decisions in our lives and trust that we will be able to make the right choices.
Many people will agree that one of the most damaging things for mental health is the constant onslaught of ads we are bombarded with. Many Solitaire websites and apps seem to be covered in advertisements.
At www.play-solitaire.com, though, you can simply relax and enjoy the game without worrying about ads jumping across your screen and distracting you. Instead, you can simply focus on the joy of the game, the mental health benefits that come from playing solitaire, and the mental acuity that you are building with each move.
Photo by Riccardo
Photo by Elina Fairytale
