Mental health is the part of general health that we sometimes don't pay the necessary attention to. We tend to pay more attention to physical health and as a consequence some problems may appear.

But how do you have good mental health? I start from the idea that general health encompasses physical, mental or psychological health and the social network that we have. The three go hand in hand, they are related to each other and their healthy level provides us with personal well-being and therefore quality of life.

If we maintain healthy lifestyle habits because they improve our physical state, we must know that they also improve mental health. Therefore, these habits are positive for our general, physical, mental and social health. In this way, we can prevent problems such as anxiety and depression from appearing.

How to have good mental health?

As I explained at the beginning, most of us are attentive to our physical health, to our state of health. However, we are not aware that mental health is as important as physical health and that if psychologically we are not well, this will affect our body.

So it is essential to also be attentive to our mental health and try to maintain a balance in our general health, asking for help if necessary.

Here are 10 tips that answer the question How to have good mental health?, some recommendations that you can adapt to your interests, tastes and leisure activities:

1. Stay active

Exercise has multiple benefits for our general state of health and therefore also for our mental health

If you do physical exercise on a daily basis, you secrete dopamine, in addition to keeping you in shape, reducing the level of physiological activity that is associated with stress, anxiety or anger and therefore increases your personal well-being.

2. Rest

Resting between 7 and 8 hours a day, depending on the person (some of us need more sleep than others), allows you to take care of your health because it improves physical and intellectual performance and reduces the probability of physical and psychological problems.

3. Eat well

Maintaining a healthy diet keeps your body healthy, makes you feel good and therefore increases your overall well-being.

If you choose the foods in your diet well, limit fats, sugars, alcohol, increase the consumption of fresh products, such as vegetables and fruits, legumes, oily fish ... you protect the health of your brain and therefore your overall health mental.

4. Make a social life

Caring for and maintaining relationships with others or starting new relationships are helpful for certain problems such as anxiety and stress, avoiding isolation keeps our brain more active.

Social support, healthy contact with people who enrich, and share not only improves our overall well-being but also delays the deterioration of cognitive abilities such as memory.

5. Have fun

Taking time to do some pleasant activity, alone or in the company of others, allows you to improve your mood. If you are happy you will know how to manage daily responsibilities such as work or family in a better way.

Enjoy the activity that relaxes you, encourages you, helps you disconnect or take perspective from problem situations.

6. Manage your thoughts

Properly managing excessive and continuous worries and negative thoughts can help you maintain good mental health.

These types of thoughts make you act in a certain way, they can make you act desperate for no reason or encourage you to abandon a task. Being aware of them, what activates them or what is true in that thought that does not let us sleep are some of the guidelines to put into practice. Without a doubt, a health professional such as a psychologist will be able to guide you to carry it out.

7. Communicate

On too many occasions you can find problems communicating with others, giving a message without the other person understanding your perspective. You can verbally convey an emotion and the other person may not understand it, simply because they have another conception of it. All of this can make you feel bad, misunderstood and reduce your personal well-being. People normally understand from our point of view, our experience. Asking instead of guessing is paramount in this case.

Maintaining effective, comprehensive communication, simply and clearly, directly, actively listening undoubtedly improves the relationship with the other and therefore well-being.

8. Relax

When you enjoy calm moments and breathe properly, your mind relaxes. Then the tensions that you may be experiencing and the stress decrease and therefore increase your well-being and take care of your mental health.

Enjoying a bubble bath, a walk on the beach or the music you like, always according to your tastes, can help you reduce your stress level. In addition, you can ask about a relaxation technique that will help you in specific stressful moments and can help you stay relaxed on a more continuous basis.

9. Set goals

To maintain good mental health it is important that you set goals in your day to day life. It is important to have achievable short-term goals at the beginning, for example drinking a glass of water every day when you wake up.

In this way you commit and acquire a habit, and little by little you add challenges and new goals to your day to day activity. Small victories will bring you great satisfaction. Don't set yourself too big or unreachable goals at first. Do a task, make an effort, commit to developing it and little by little set more ambitious goals, you will surely achieve it!

10. Seek help

Sometimes these tips are difficult to put into practice. Situations, surroundings, or personal abilities can make it difficult for you to attain mental health.

If you find yourself in these circumstances, seek help, discuss it with your friends, with trusted people and professionals to get the appropriate mental health treatment. And if you don't know where or who to turn to, you can ask us for help. We will guide you to achieve your goals.