To face the challenges of everyday life, you need to be physically fit but also need to take care of your mental health. Emotional well-being, stress relief, positivity, self-esteem and gratitude working on these 5 key elements will help you take care of your mental health in the same way as you take care of your physical health, using exercises that are easy to implement. Your special mental health training plan is on it’s way!
Emotional stability: eliminating negative emotions through Sophrology
To avoid feeling overwhelmed by emotional outbursts that cannot be expressed, adopt a Sophrology exercise that will quickly restore your calm and serenity:
● Breathe in through your nose, hold your breath and blow out through your mouth 3 times, imagining that you are expelling your negative energy.
● The third time, after holding your breath, place your head back and turn it to the side as if you were saying no to the negative feeling.
● Exhale the air strongly through your mouth, leaving the last remnants of anger behind to leave you feeling calm.
● Breathe in deeply through your nose again, hold your breath and this time nod gently.
● Breathe out through your mouth slowly until you are at peace.
Letting go: exercising and getting out of the house
Some things are under your control and others are not. Learning to let go of what you cannot control is one of the keys to your psychological balance. This allows you to use your energy more efficiently, reduce stress and avoid guilt. If a situation seems to be getting out of hand, vent your emotions to remain in control. Frustration comes from feeling powerless, but there is always something you can do:
● Exercise to focus on the effort, let off steam and temporarily forget about the problem. Your body will generate hormones that will promote your well-being, you will feel healthy fatigue and have the satisfaction of having done something good for yourself.
● Put words to what is bothering you, either in writing or verbally. Even if this does not always lead to a solution, you will have relieved some of the stress caused by the situation. Once you have put the words down, move on: you have done what you can do,
what happens next is not up to you.
Positivity: an exercise to develop positive thinking
How do you talk about yourself, others and the events of your daily life? Words work as suggestions and create a positive or negative environment around us. Challenge yourself to become more optimistic and formulate your words more positively.
Wear a bracelet on your right wrist. Every time you say a negative sentence, move it to the left: your main objective is to say something positive and get it back on the right wrist. Over time, you’ll shift your thoughts to the positive without noticing. Think of it as a game; every time the bracelet goes to the left, you are presented with a challenge! You are perfectly capable of rising to it, all it takes is one sentence to get you back in the right direction.
Self-esteem: adopting high-power poses to bring about change
Your level of self-esteem directly determines your ability to excel and overcome obstacles. We can start by rebuilding our self-respect through simple means of self-actualization. To achieve this, imagine a confident, self-assured version of yourself, then observe your posture. Chin up, eyes straight, walking confidently with your shoulders back. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy defines these as high-power postures. She explains that adopting certain postures found in dominant people throughout the animal kingdom could have a physical impact by stimulating the production of positive hormones. According to the latest neuroscience research, the brain makes little difference between an
imagined situation and an experienced situation. Use the power of visualization to project yourself
into a situation of mastery and adopt high-power postures as soon as you think of them to bring
about change in your body as well as in your mind:
● Raise your arms in victory
● Put your fists on your hips
● Open your shoulders
● Look up
● Additional powerful postures
Play the role of the one you want to be and fiction will quickly become reality!
Gratitude: improve your mood and be grateful
Gratitude helps you to be more satisfied with your life, more optimistic with positive thoughts and confidence. Less temptation to compare yourself to others and guides us toward more success in our everyday life. To adopt this way of thinking, set up a gratitude jar in your home. Every day, put little words in it with 3 positive things that happened during the day. On days when your spirits are low, the level of your jar will help you realize that you have more to be happy and grateful for in your life than you think at the time. Rereading these little notes will instantly brighten your day!
You now have a whole range of exercises at your disposal to keep your body and mind healthy.
What tips should I follow to improve my mental health and better manage my emotions?
As important as physical fitness, mental health can be maintained through exercises from different practices. Managing negative emotions, self-esteem, letting go, gratitude, positivity: there are many avenues to explore. Yoga or meditation are often invaluable for taking a break from the daily grind. The power of positive thinking can greatly benefit us as we take on life’s great challenges and be the best we can be!
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