Summary: If you’re concerned about your mental health, then there are basic steps you can take every day – call them daily mental health habits – that can increase your chances of maintaining positive mental health.
Key Points:
- Positive mental health means more than a day with no symptoms or a day that wasn’t bad.
- Positive mental health includes mental and emotional health
- Implementing intentional daily steps that promote positive mental health can support an existing treatment plan.
Daily Habits: What We Do Matters
Positive mental health, or good mental health, is synonymous with thriving. Or, as the World Health Organization (WHO) defines it:
“Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. It has intrinsic and instrumental value and is integral to our well-being.”
That’s a good way to think about mental health. When we’re mentally and emotionally healthy, it means our symptoms don’t get in the way of our daily responsibilities or passions, and we’re able to engage successfully across all phases of life, from family, peer, and romantic relationships to our work, academic, and social lives.
Here are five daily habits we adapted from Mental Health America Mental Health Awareness Month resource page. Try them to boost your recovery and improve overall quality of life.
Five Daily Habits That Improve Mental Health
1. Help Others.
Take some time every day to help other people. You can do this formally, through volunteering, or you can do it informally: when you see someone who needs help, lend a hand.
2. Practice Mindfulness.
Do a simple mindful breathing exercise, like this: inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds. Repeat at least 4 times as many times as you like during the day.
3. Do Something New.
Try one new thing every day, however small it may be – like taking a new way home from work or school, or going to a different grocery store.
4. Spend Time With a Furry Friend.
Pets, especially dogs, are an easy way to decrease stress and improve your mood. Studies show pets can reduce cortisol, the stress hormone. Consider volunteering at an animal shelter or visiting a friend with pets, if you don’t have one of your own.
5. Practice Affirmations.
Here’s one we love, from the people at Mental Health America: “We’re all first-time humans. Give yourself grace as you keep learning and changing.” If you’ve never tried affirmations, we encourage you to. If that one doesn’t resonate with you, have a look at this list for more ideas.
Make Them Your Own
If you don’t do these things already, we encourage you to add them to your daily routine. These habits can help augment or support a mental health treatment plan. They’re meant to support treatment, rather than stand in for or work instead of treatment.
Creating Agency in Recovery
You’ve probably heard of the “Yes, and…” concept in business and in leadership. What it means is that when someone offers an idea, your first response is always – within reason – “Yes, and…” When you do this, you validate the idea offered by the other person and add your idea after the “and…” part of your reply.
As an interesting side note, this idea has its origin in improv comedy, as a way to keep an improvised scene moving forward. In business, they use it to create a sense of teamwork and collaboration. In mental health, you can use it to keep your progress moving forward.
Here’s what we mean. You say “Yes” to treatment, and the five tips we add above are what follow the “and…” Therefore, what you end up with is this:
I say yes…to treatment, and…
I’ll also start these daily habits to increase my chance of success.
Gianna Melendez
Jodie Dahl, CpHT