Mental Health: Why the Inside is Just As Important as the Outside

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Too many people are focused on the health they can see. If you are overweight, you may diet and exercise. If you don’t like your appearance, you may put on some makeup.  These can inadvertently help with your mental health; exercise helps improve your overall mood, for instance. But few people are focused on improving their mental health and seeking help if they need it. Here are a few reasons why you should improve your mental health.

Keep You Sharp As You Age

As you age, you may be more mindful of your appearance. You may shed some pounds, try to rid yourself of wrinkles, and do other rituals. However, you’re going to age regardless. What you should do more so is to keep your mental health up. As you get older, you may develop dementia, be more forgetful, or lose motivation. Keeping your mental help up ensures that you stay sharp even as you grow older. With age comes wisdom, and mental health allows you to express that wisdom in a way that your kids and the younger generation can understand.

Improves Your Illnesses

Improving your mental health helps with the symptoms of your depression, anxiety, or any other illness you may have. If you have severe depression or anything else that’s severe, you do need to seek professional help. But an occasional bout of depression can be stopped by being more mindful of your mental health.

Because Too Many People Aren’t Aware of Mental Health

We’ve made some good steps in spreading mental health awareness. It’s been easier to diagnose and treat people. More people are realizing that just because someone good on the outside it doesn’t mean they are well on the inside. However, there is still plenty of work to do. Plenty of people can’t afford to seek help or don’t know that they should.

By spreading awareness of mental health and making strides to improve your own mental health, you’re helping out plenty of people besides yourself. People can become inspired and try to improve themselves. Or they may learn more about mental health awareness and spread the word as well.

A Few Simple Ways to Improve Your Overall Mental Health

While you should seek help if you’re dealing with a mental health problem that’s more severe, you can improve your overall mental health in a few different lifestyle changes, including:

• Get more sleep. It’s cool to pull an all nighter, but it’s not good for your mental health. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Not only does that give you enough energy, but it can help improve your depression and anxiety.
• Eat better and exercise. Exercise releases endorphins, which are feel good chemicals that can improve your mood. Eating better can help benefit your overall brain health too. Look for foods that stimulate your brain and eat fewer foods that are junk.
• Find a hobby that allows you to be creative. You don’t have to be an artist or anything, but what you can do is put together a puzzle, play a complex video game, or do something else that stimulates your mind.

Seek Help

If you or someone you know is dealing with severe mental issues, there’s no shame in looking for help. A counselor or a therapist can help you find the cause and look for the best treatment that is right for you. Best of all, you can find therapy online that is quite impactful.

So make some changes to your mental lifestyle, and you can see the difference.