Improving Mental Health Through Behaviors
Identifying positive behaviors is a key to good mental health. Here, it is crucial to understand what mental health is. Mental health not only includes our well-being at all levels but also determines how we think, feel and act towards a situation.
It is also true that we all had to deal with depression, anxiety, or trauma at some stage of life. At such a time, it is helpful to utilize some mental health defense mechanisms for improving behavior.
I did extensive research on the topic and identified seven priorities for survival to nurture the quality of life. To simply put, everybody can benefit from these best ways to improve mental health.
- Engage in Different Activities
In present times; we need to be active to survive. Both physical movement and mental engagement are essential to maintain our overall health. If we tend to be mentally and physically inactive, we are more prone to mental health illnesses.
Typical symptoms of mental illness include social isolation, withdrawal, and reduced activity. Physical and mental activities (like exercise, exploring nature, socializing with others, or motivational interviewing) can alleviate these symptoms.
In this way, activities help us escape from the clutches of mental illness.
2. Prompt A Defense Mechanism
Human beings are resilient by nature, and our brain is a complex structure. As our brain develops, our instincts also tend to be stronger, for better or for worse. Our dilemma is that we focus more on negative things than optimistic scenarios.
At this point, I will enlist seven defense mechanisms that help us channel and constructively release our negativity. Defense mechanisms are a set of behavioral patterns and actions that people use for mental improvement. These are psychological strategies to distance ourselves from unwanted feelings, such as guilt, sadness, or fear.
These include projection, denial, rejection, sublimation, conversion, displacement, and passive aggression. In the domain of psychology, these are also called schizophrenia defense mechanisms. Such mechanisms positively spin on events, sift out our pessimism and help us build healthful behaviors for mental health.
3. Establish Social Connections
It is a truth evident that man is a social animal and cannot live alone. Social contact is necessary to sustain our mental health. Likewise, loneliness is detrimental to our mental well-being.
All forms of connection help us to develop positive emotions. People who feel more connected to others exhibit optimistic mental health behaviors. Here, the term “social connection” entails every supportive interaction. Negative interactions (like maltreatment, harassment, and bullying) debase our mental conditions. To avoid such experiences, we must establish connections with the people appropriate for us.
4. Accept Yourself
Accepting oneself is the mainstay for improving mental health. Self-acceptance is all about evaluative and perspective components.
Self-esteem refers to the overall evaluation of positive and negative aspects of your personality. It embraces how you feel about your knacks and restraints. On the other hand, self-concept is the total of your beliefs regarding your behavior, aptitude, and unique characteristics. Self-acceptance emerges when you have both self-esteem and self-concept in fine fettle.
If these are negative, mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, and mood disorders, are more likely to develop. Engaging in strategies, such as identifying your strengths, setting goals, and jotting down your positive behaviors can inspire self-acceptance.
5. Regulate Your Emotions
Emotion regulation is the ability to exercise control over one’s own emotions. It is crucial for maintaining healthful behaviors. Many mental illnesses, including depression, psychosis, and panic attacks, are the outcomes of compromised regulation over emotions.
Strong emotion regulation helps us discard negative emotions and dispose of mental illness facial expressions. Yet, it is equally important to align our thought processes with reality.
Being aware of your emotions is an essential first step towards our mental improvement.
6. Practice Social Cognition
Social cognition is a powerful tool to improve mental health. It consists of our executive functions, memory, attention, and psychomotor speed. It includes our response to emotion-laden stimuli and recognition of others’ emotions and biases. It also affects our ability to understand the intent of others and identify our role in societal life.
While discussing mental health, we frequently ignore social cognition. However, individuals on the autism or ADHD spectrum often exhibit difficulty with this type of cognition. It is also evident in patients with intellectual disabilities, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Practicing our executive functions and emotional cognition can help improve our overall health.
7. Adapt Accordingly
Life conditions keep on changing. And our capacity to modify behavior to align with change is fundamental to ensure our mental prosperity. Stated otherwise, we need to be flexible in life. A lack of flexibility often gives birth to unfavorable conditions, pushing us into mental illness.
Repetitive unhealthy behaviors (such as never being ready to walk at the pace) contribute to persistent and long-term mental health problems. Conversely, the underlying symptoms of mental illness limit our ability to adapt to the environment or present circumstances. It often accompanies a lack of motivation and social avoidance.
Breaking this cycle of unhealthy behaviors is necessary to lead a life full of colors. You can try many strategies to replace unhealthy behaviors with adaptable ones, like discussing your issue with peers, understanding the emotions of others, and learning the modern ways of life.
Final Thoughts
As hard as it is, sometimes the only way to cope with mental illness is to engross these positive behaviors. When we use these healthful behaviors, we invest our time to protect and uphold our mental health.
Despite your efforts, if you fail to counter the symptoms of mental health problems, it might be time to seek an expert’s advice. You may enter CBT therapy online, psychotherapy, play therapy, or online behavioral treatment.
Entering these therapies does not mean that you are anomalous. You need to understand that everyone has to deal with some barriers in life, and these help us get back on track.
I hope this blog post will help you improve mental health and build positive behaviors.
Goodbye for the time being!
