5 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health at Home

Mental health is a major concern to everyone. While there is nothing wrong with seeking professional help, in fact, it's strongly recommended to everyone. But everyone doesn't have access to a therapist and some people cannot afford to pay for a session. And even if you have good mental health, it never hurts to seek professional care.

But here are the 5 ways to improve your mental health at home.

Meditation
A direct way to heal and sooth your mind is meditation. Meditation is more than just sitting down and thinking. It's more like sitting down,(or lying down) and not thinking. Instead, you're seeing where your mind takes you. True, you can focus on certain things while meditating, but for most people, it's better if you try to clear your mind and see what happens.

Start with 5-10 minutes per day, if you aren't accustomed to it and work your way up. Meditating before or after sleep is optimal. But it doesn't matter when you do it. Do it when you feel the need to do so. There are a lot of guided meditation videos, audio tracks and websites out there. As with anything you find online, research and double-check what you learn.

Exercise
All forms of exercise can improve your mental health. Getting a gym membership or hiring a personal trainer can be stressful enough. But doing body-weight exercises three times per week might be all you need. While exercise is not guaranteed to turn your frown upside down, and too much will drain you, exercise definitely has the potential to boost your self-esteem. Typically, looking better causes you to feel better. You should exercise because you love your body and yourself, not because you hate it. Proper consistent exercise will lead to a positive self-image. Just going for a short walk might boost your self-esteem. Especially if you walk around with your head held high.

Out With The Bad, In With The Good
No one is perfect, but quickly aim to identify the things that are not improving your life and spend more of your time doing something you love, you slowly and steadily will run out of time for the bad things. If you smoke tobacco or vape, find something else to do that take 3-7 minutes that you enjoy doing.

Keep a Journal
Keeping a journal is another helpful method.If you document what's on your mind, you might start noticing what is bothering you. Especially if you read it later. And you don't have to wait until you aren't feeling happy to do this. While this isn't guaranteed to solve your problems, you might learn something new about yourself. So whether you type, writing, create an audio recording or speak into your camera, take note of your life.

Relax
Whether you do yoga, listen to music, watch movies, take a hot bubble bath or read a book, do the most relaxing thing you can think of that you love doing. If you choose a movie, music or forms of media, choose positive ones. Just avoid things you suspect will negatively affect your mood. If you choose video games, choose something that won't frustrate you, or play on the easiest difficulty if you want to enjoy the story of the game.