5 ways to improve your mental health

When you’re struggling with your mental health getting too much advice at once can be daunting – especially if your mental health is causing you to feel unmotivated and lacking in energy. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do all of these at the same time; instead, try picking one of them (the one that sounds the most doable right now) and focus on doing that until you find you have more energy to try something else.

1. Set some small tasks and goals.

   Completing small tasks will help improve your mental health. The sense of satisfaction you can get from accomplishing even the smallest of tasks will not only give your mood a boost, but it will help grow your motivation, develop confidence, and enable you to take on bigger goals in the future. For example, if you can start with a task like making your bed or taking a shower then you can also push yourself to get dressed. If you can get dressed then maybe you can go downstairs and spend some time with your family, which could then lead to you going for a walk or meeting up with a friend. Before you know it, you’ve managed to accomplish daily tasks that at the start of the day you didn’t feel you had the energy to do. If something feels too big today, then try again tomorrow – see if you can break it down into some either smaller tasks if it helps.

2. Connect with others.

   It’s so important to have people in your life you can lean on for love and support. Not just for when you are feeling low, stressed or worried but all the time! In life we need people around us, whether that’s a small or large group made up of both friends and family. By making plans with them and allowing them to support you in the highs and lows of life you’ll find it will build up your sense of self-worth, boost your self-esteem and in general make you feel more loved and valued.

3. Stay active.

   You may hear this a lot when it comes to improving mental health, but that’s only because it really can help! We benefit both physically and mentally from being active. Exercise can boost your energy levels, improve sleep, reduce the risk of getting major illnesses, increase self-esteem, reduce the risk of stress & depression, and can give you a massive confidence boost. What’s not to like about that?! Now what being active looks like will be different to each person. Perhaps you want to take up something like running, biking, swimming, or kickboxing. Or maybe you’re more into taking long walks where you can take photos or paint pictures of the scenery around you. For others you might want to try an activity that can help release any tension you’re feeling like yoga or Pilates. There are so many options for staying active so don’t feel like you must do the “usual” activities if you find them boring – go and investigate some fun ways to be active!

4. Have some “you time”.

   Ok so it’s good to connect with others, but equally having some you time is important too. We need to find a healthy balance where we spend time with people but also spend some time by ourselves to rest, relax and recharge our social batteries. You can use your me time as a chance to de-stress from a tough day or just use it as a time to treat yourself and do some self-care. For some of you reading this the idea of being alone probably seems quite scary because you know that that’s often the time you overthink or have negative thoughts. If this is you, really try and use this time to do some relaxing activities that you will enjoy, whether that’s taking a bath, watching a film, eating your favourite foods, taking a walk or listening to some music.

5. Do something fun!

   This is an obvious one but never underestimate the power of simply doing something fun. Write a massive list of all the things you find fun to do. Start with the super small things that are mostly free (like watching your favourite TV show, having a movie night with friends, playing football in the park). Then slowly work your way through fun things you might only be allowed to do around once a month (like a family takeaway night, shopping, cinema) and go right through to things that you might only be able to do a once or twice a year (theme park, holiday, activity day out). Make this list as comprehensive and diverse as possible because when you’ve had a rough day or in general when you are feeling a bit bored you can go to this list and pick out a few of those fun activities. They might be ones that you can enjoy in the moment or ones that you’ll need to plan ahead so that you have something to look forward to in the future.

You can find more videos from Eliza on the MPFT YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCluwSjHa4J5AC8B8eUAQSPg

If you are worried about your mental health please contact your school nursing team.