Mental Health: How to Take Care of Your Mind and Memory

Do you know that your mental health is as important as your physical health? In my opinion, your mental health is your most prized possession.

Most of us agreed that our mind and memory are most crucial to our purpose of living and we cannot afford to lose them.

Without them, life becomes meaningless and we become helpless.

You are what you are today because of your mind and memory. So, it becomes essential to take good care of them, which means to possess good health mentally.

You may not be able to control any unforeseen incidents, circumstances, biological problems, hereditary traits, or diseases from damaging your brain and memory or losing your mind.

However, you can always take precautions and live life in a way that helps prevent memory loss and keep a sound mind.

Let us understand mental health and why you need to create mental health awareness.

Mental Health and it’s Awareness

Generally, mental health is defined as a person’s condition with regard to their emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

Mental health is also an individual’s ability to enjoy life or the capacity to live a full and creative life.

You cannot possibly achieve this state unless you are in a state of sound mind. You will not have a sense of wellbeing, confidence, and self-esteem if you do not remember who you are.

Therefore, mental health is not only the absence of a mental disorder, but also the presence of a sound mind and a substantial memory.

The first step in creating mental health awareness would be to know how you could lose your mind and memory.

Factors that Disturb Mental Health

In order to have good mental health, you should know the reasons for loss of memory or mind. Some of them are:

– Stress or anxiety
– Emotional trauma
– Lack of brain activity
– Negative thoughts
– Low self-esteem
– Family problems
– Social isolation
– Financial problems
– Burdened mind
– Poor food and rest
– Lack of self-control
– Substance abuse
– Accidents or neurological damage

There may be many more reasons that can be added to this list. You can do that in your comment below.

Nevertheless, to be mentally healthy and to bring happiness into your life, here are the ways you need to follow.

20 Ways to Take Care of Your Mind and Memory

It’s sometimes surprising to know that the solutions to complex problems are mostly simple and something that you already know.

What goes wrong is that we sometimes ignore these solutions or do not give them much attention.

To prevent your lackluster attitude from damaging yourself, you frequently need reminders to put into practice and make them a part of your lifestyle.

Here are certain things you need to do to take care of your mind and memory in order to have good mental health.

I have divided the mental health activities into 4 sections that specifically deal with the mental, emotional, social, psychological, and physical well being of an individual.

Mental Well-being:

1) Practice Meditation

This is the most effective technique to take care of your mind.

Meditation helps to reduce anxiety and depression, improves cognitive function, and helps you to be at peace with yourself.

Start by devoting 10 minutes daily for meditation. Now, is that too much to ask for?

I make it a point to meditate for short time periods, just after I wake up and just before going to sleep. You can also try doing that.

2) Develop a Habit to Read

Reading not only enhances your knowledge, improves your language, enhances your writing skills, but also helps keep your brain active.

A habit to read books before going to bed might help lower your stress levels and help you sleep better.

*YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 10 Scientifically Proven Health Benefits of Meditation

Occasionally, also read self-help and inspirational books to develop your personality and improve your life.

3) Quiz Your Brain

Your brain is your body’s engine or the core processor – don’t let it rust!

If you keep yourself dependent on the gizmos, digital or electronic equipment’s for things that you could do with your brain, you may cause the latter to rust and become vulnerable to damage.

So, exercise your brain and use tricks and techniques to enhance your memory. You could try to engage yourself in puzzles and brainteasers.

As a writer and blogger, I need to exercise my brain throughout the day. I’m glad I’m in a profession that keeps my brain active!

Okay, here is some food for your brain.

4) Mind Control Techniques

A popular Indian proverb says that your mind is like a naughty monkey. If you don’t control your mind, it can create havoc and disturb your life.

Thus, you need to learn mind control techniques like neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), Silva mind control method, self-hypnosis, or any other way to harness your mind.

To achieve good mental health, you need to be in control of your mind rather than let your mind control you.

Read more about mind control here.

5) Learn New Skills

Teach yourself some new skills irrespective of your age. You thus create new neural pathways or network and keep your brain and mind active.

Do you know a little daydreaming is also good for you?

Indulging in creative thinking and visualization not only relieves stress, but also helps you trigger your intuition, insights, and the stored memory.

Also, the creative process is mostly interesting and challenging, and it’s good to challenge yourself and keep your brain active.

If you are aging, then it becomes all the more important to learn new skills. This article says it all.

Social and Emotional Well-being:

6) Let Go and Express Emotions

You may consider this absurd, but it makes perfect sense if you want to keep yourself mentally healthy.

“Whatever has happened, happened because it had to happen. It happened for the good in ways that you may realize later, and probably has a lesson for you.”

So, its better you get over the past. More so, you cannot do anything about it, nor can it be undone.

Therefore, let go of it, and move on. Such an attitude may ward off unnecessary anxiety, stress, and depression.

In addition, express your emotions in positive and constructive ways so that they are not repressed.

7) Be Positive and Happy

Being positive and happy is one way to deal with your negative emotions and thoughts.

Positive attitude is the sign of good mental health.

It helps you release the positive hormones and store positive memories in the brain.

When you are happy and positive, you like yourself and your life. This helps keep stress at bay.

I try to keep myself positive all the time. Moreover, I have personally experienced that being positive makes me less stressed and happier.

8) Manage Stress

Life is full of changes and challenges. You often need to make compromises besides facing challenges.

You have to accept and adjust to what your life offers you, cope with the circumstances, and move on.

There are many ways to manage stress for a mentally healthy life. I am sure you will find many posts on this blog to help you know them.

I cope with my work stress by changing my work strategy. I embrace change and continuously look for opportunities for better prospects.

9) Participate in Community and Social Activities

I remember reading this back in school – Man is a social animal.

Yes, we are social creatures and socialization does us good. Contrastingly, isolation for long periods can make us mentally ill.

Besides taking part in social activities, contributing to the community for good causes makes you feel happy internally.

Here’s all about volunteering and how it helps your mind be healthy and happy.

10) Develop and Maintain Relationships

It may be an easy task to develop relationships. However, for some, it becomes difficult to maintain the relationships if they do not feel good about themselves.

Your stable relationships act as a channel and support to release your thought and feelings, and seek help in times of distress.

Maintaining good relationships could be an indication of your better state of mental health.

Psychological Well-being:

11) Balance & Organize Your Life

To have peace of mind you need to balance the various aspects of your life, like work, family, and other relationships.

Keep yourself organized by creating good habits and divide time slots for work in your daily schedule so that everything gets time and attention.

You’d probably be more in control of your life if you’re organized.

Some good habits may include timely eating, sleeping, and work habits etc., which help maintain sound mental health.

12) Make Life Meaningful

You are happier if you have a meaning in life.

Besides, you’ll be in a better mental state if you love yourself and your life, which will help you lead a good life.

If you want to start, then start by seeking answers to these questions – who are you, what do you want to do, how it will help you, and why do you want to do it.

For me, spreading awareness and happiness, and helping others makes our lives more meaningful, and we certainly feel good about it. 

13) Follow a Good Routine and Rituals

Your routine is a set of daily activities organized in a particular way.

So first, follow positive and useful habits. They may relate to your autonomous or active body functions like breathing or thinking.

Rituals help automate the good habits without making much effort or giving much thought. Routine and rituals help you make your life easy and healthy.

I usually stick to the Ayurvedic lifestyle routine. It helps me reduce stress and anxiety largely.

14) Take Frequent Breaks and Recharge

You may not realize it, but you put your mind and memory through constant work and pressure all the time.

As with your body, your mind and memory also suffer from weariness.

Therefore, before you completely exhaust your essential resources like your brain and mind, take a break and give it some rest.

With the kind of overly digital-dependent life that you lead, especially bloggers, it becomes necessary to stay away from the Internet to recharge yourself.

You know that we took a summer break recently, and that is why we understand the importance of taking breaks to keep us mentally healthy.

15) Prayers and Self-talk

We all need inspiration and motivation to move on. You can be your own source of inspiration to develop good mental health.

Prayers help you connect with your deep inner self. Autosuggestions help you program your mind at the deep subconscious level.

Positive self-talks keep your mind positive and in control to lead a mentally healthy life. I always resort to this technique whenever I feel like I might lose my mind or temper.

Read this article to learn how to deal with your negative self-talk.

Physical Well-being:

16) Sleep Well

You can practically experience what happens to your mind when you do not fulfill your quota of daily sleep.

You become slow to react, it affects your thought processes, and you are not at your best.

You need a good night’s sleep to increase your chances of a healthy mind when you wake up, and thus increase your chances of being happy.

If you don’t trust me, read this Harvard medical report.

17) Eat Well

There is a saying that you become what you eat. You will probably be healthy if you eat healthy food.

Since your mental health is related to and affected by your physical health, you need to eat good food to have a sound mind.

It is also important to have a balanced and nutritious diet that comprises of all essential minerals and vitamins for healthy and complete development.

18) Drink Enough Water

Water is more essential for your physical well-being than you think.

 Drinking enough water also helps to detoxify your body, which positively affects your mind.

I drink up to three bottles of water per day, and I personally feel that it helps keep my stress levels down.

19) Exercise

Exercise includes walking, jogging, running, swimming, hiking, gyming, or even yoga, tai chi, and others.

These help you to be physically fit and healthy. It’s difficult to be mentally healthy if you are physically unhealthy.

So, incorporate exercises in your daily routine and lead your way to a healthy body and sound mind.

Here is what the psychologists say about exercise and mental health.

20) Protect Your Head

The least you can do is to protect your head.

By doing so, you protect your brain from getting hurt. Preventing your brain from being damaged increases your chances of having a sound mind and good memory.

Do not forget to wear a helmet while driving a two-wheeler, fasten your seat belts while driving, use floor mats and skid free tiles in the bathroom, and use other safety measures.

Isn’t this also the recipe for a happy life?

Why not!

If you achieve a sound mind and good memory, and the skills set to ward off stress and lead a better life, you hit the jackpot!!

If you make efforts to be mentally healthy, you eventually become healthy in all aspects of life and thus bring happiness into your life.

In addition, people with good mental health keep substance abuse at bay.

You thus have fewer conflicts and chances of suffering from diseases like heart disease, cancer, and chronic pain are reduced.

A mentally healthy person will work to realize his or her full potential and be more productive in all aspects of life including work.

It is now clear that if you are mentally healthy then you make the most of your potential, cope with life, and live a balanced life.

A person having good mental health will be free to express emotions, maintain good relationships, and adjust to the change and uncertainty in life.

I hope you will now take care of your mind and memory more than ever. Know that these are the most prized possessions you have in life, and you cannot afford to lose them.

Share Your Thoughts –

What is your concept of mental health? How do you take care of your mind and memory?

Join the discussions on this topic in the forum below, or create a new topic in the health & wellness forum to share your thoughts and experiences. Or, contribute your awesome comments as you do normally in the comment box at the end of the post.

Either way, I’d love to hear from you.

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