Your Mental Health is Important
By Edgar Louis de Gracia
HAPI Scholar
Before we get started on the importance of mental health, we first need to understand what mental health is and how it affects us. Mental health encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being; it significantly affects how we react to things such as traumas, stress, and happiness, and how we make choices in life.
As time goes on, your experiences will gradually affect your mental health. Many factors need to be considered when mental health is in the discussion, like traumas, biological problems, or family history. These things radically affect your behavior, mood, and thinking in ways you might underestimate. Sometimes, people disregard a person’s mental health based on their biases and expectations. Unfortunately, such people sometimes include family members and friends, exacerbating mental health problems from severe anxiety and depression to some form of addiction.
Here are some tips to help you deal with mental health problems (they may not work for everybody, but they are a good starting point):
- Getting closer to nature – try engaging in activities that involve nature, like planting
- Understand your feelings – instead of trying to ignore something that bothers you, try confronting it and understanding where it stems from. From there, you can properly unpack and deal with them.
- Say something positive about yourself every day – this can be as simple as saying “you’re cute” to your own reflection! Affirmations can be healing.
- Find someone you can trust to help you – two heads are better than one, and a companion may very well help you in the most difficult of times. A trained psychologist can put you on the right path and a trusted friend can be your aide along the way.
- Enjoy your hobbies – enjoying yourself and living life to its fullest should be a major goal of yours.
Mental health is not a very easy topic to discuss, as it has too many factors and variables to consider. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try helping each other out when we are on the deep end. A lot of people reduce mental health problems as a “play for attention” but the reality is that it is a serious problem that significantly impacts many people’s lives. When people who struggle with mental health are taking their own lives, that is the point when the world should realize it is a genuine issue.
“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them, every day begin the task anew.” – Francis de Sales
Sources : https://doctorondemand.com/blog/mental-health/why-its-important-to-care-for-your-mental-health/
https://medlineplus.gov/mentalhealth.html
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/building-better-mental-health.htm
