Managing your mental well-being — Ten helpful actions for managing your mental wellbeing
This is the final article of three articles I’ve been writing on managing your mental well-being.
In the first article, I wrote about the mental continuum and asked you a key question, where are you on the continuum?
The mental health continuum as defined by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) has four quadrants or situations which describe what the state of our mental health can be at any point in time.
These four situations are:
- Good well-being and no diagnosed mental health illness.
- Poor well-being and no diagnosed mental health illness.
- Poor well-being and a diagnosed mental health illness.
- Good well-being and a diagnosed mental health illness.
Again, I ask you the question, where are you on the continuum? Which quadrant best describes the state of your well-being and mental health?
The second article looked at the concept of a stress bucket. A stress bucket is a metaphor that represents your stress capacity and how you deal with the factors that bring stress into your life.
If you keep pouring water into a bucket without an outlet, the bucket will become full and overflow. Similarly, if you keep exposing yourself to stressful factors without having an adequate outlet to deal with the stress, you will become stressed to the point of being burnt out and even becoming unwell.
All of us need a valve on our stress bucket that we can open to let the stress out.
In this article, I will introduce you to ten actions that can act as your stress bucket valve. Ten actions you can take to manage stress. All of us know about these ten actions so they are a reminder of manageable things we can do to take care of our mental health and well-being.
Talk about your feelings: Talking about your feelings can help you maintain your mental health and deal with times when you feel troubled. Talking about your feelings isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s part of taking charge of your well-being and doing what you can to stay healthy.
Keep active: Regular exercise can boost your self-esteem and can help you concentrate, sleep, look and feel better. Exercising doesn’t just mean doing sport or going to the gym. Experts say that most people should do about 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week. Try to make a physical activity that you enjoy part of your day.
Eat well: What we eat can affect how we feel both immediately and in the longer term. A diet that is good for your physical health is also good for your mental health. Try and plan for mealtimes at work — bringing food from home or choosing healthy options when buying lunch.
Drink sensibly: We often drink alcohol to change our mood. Some people drink to deal with fear or loneliness, but the effect is only temporary. Be careful with work functions that include drinking. It can be tempting to have a drink to get ‘Dutch courage’, but if you feel anxious you may drink too much and end up behaving in a way you’d rather not. This will increase feelings of anxiety in the medium to long term.
Keep in touch: Relationships are key to our mental health. Working in a supportive team is hugely important for our mental health at work. Try and make sure you maintain your friendships and family relationships even when work is intense — work-life balance is important, and experts now believe that loneliness may be as bad for our health as smoking or obesity.
Ask for help: None of us are superhuman. We all get tired sometimes or overwhelmed by how we feel or when things don’t go to plan. If you are struggling or feel you are not in a good place, don’t hide it or keep things to yourself. Ask for help. Whether you ask someone close to you for help or you go to a medical practitioner, do make sure you ask for help when you need it.
Take a break and sleep well: A change of scene or a change of pace is good for your mental health. It could be a five-minute pause from what you are doing, reading a book or listening to a podcast during your commute, a half-hour lunch break at work, or a weekend exploring somewhere new. This also includes sleeping well. Give yourself some ‘me time’.
Do something you are good at: What do you love doing? What activities can you lose yourself in? What did you love doing in the past? Enjoying yourself can help beat stress. Doing an activity, you enjoy probably means you’re good at it, and achieving something boosts your self-esteem. Concentrating on a hobby, like gardening or doing crosswords, can help you forget your worries for a while and can change your mood.
Accept who you are: We’re all different. It’s much healthier to accept that you’re unique than to wish you were more like someone else. Feeling good about yourself boosts your confidence to learn new skills, visit new places and make new friends. Good self-esteem helps you cope when life takes a difficult turn.
Care for others: Caring for others is often an important part of keeping up relationships with people close to you. Working life can provide opportunities to care for others — contributing through vocational jobs like nursing or care work can be hugely significant for mental health. In most jobs, you can choose to be there for colleagues as a teammate.
