Blog #4: Mental Wellness

Today I want to talk about mental health and the importance of emotional wellness. Last week, Quinnipiac hosted a mental health day with fun and relaxing activities for students to take part in. These activities ranged from making snow cones to writing down on a white board what you are thankful for in life, I found the topic relevant and informative to readers!

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood,”. Therefore, mental health serves as a sort of baseline for overall wellness and extends much farther beyond the mental aspect of a person’s life. Mental heath includes emotional, psychological and social well being, that is how well someone is interacting within his or her environment. If just one of these aspects is thrown off, this can negatively impact the way a person interacts with others, interacts with him or herself and cognitively makes decisions. 

Ultimately, mental health is an ever evolving concept that never stops developing or transforming. Here are some tips to better your mental health and cope with daily stressors that can off balance your overall happiness:

1.)  Make time for things you enjoy

• According to FamilyDoctor, “People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They feel good about themselves and have good relationships. They can keep problems in perspective,”. These people also MAKE time for the things they like to do, whether its running, yoga, meditating, drinking coffee or going for a long car ride. Your brain needs to decompress just like your muscles do after a long work out, give it the rest it needs!

2.) It’s OK to have an off day

• Sometimes, days just do not go as planned and leave you feeling down in the dumps. It’s a terrible coach, a boss or co-worker, friend, partner and even teachers. It’s all it takes for one of these stressors to overload your brain and suddenly you are wishing you are anywhere but the place you’re in. That is OK. However, it is not OK to let these stressors take influence over your life. Take the time to be mad or upset over something that happened, then move on. Let it go. Life is never perfect and in order to preserve mental health, you must keep evolving alongside with it. Do something to make your day better like the coffee you always wanted to try or the pair of shoes you never bought yourself. Even the worst day have 24 hours, never start with the broken pieces of yesterday. 

3.)  Aromatherapy

• Aromatherapy is the practice of using the natural oils extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, roots or other parts of a plant to enhance psychological and physical well-being. The inhaled aroma from these "essential" oils is widely believed to stimulate brain function and overall feelings of happiness. I can personally atest that taking a bit of aromatherapy oils and rubbing the tiniest bit over my temples relieves my stress and calms me down after a long, hard day. 

4.) Meditation

• Many people are picturing bald men in robes saying “Mmmmmmm,” really loud right now. Meditation is not contorting your body and seeing how long you can hum a word for. Actually, meditation can be simply controlled breathing for 10 to 15 minutes! I have included a breathing exercise for you to try at home to quiet the mind and get in touch with your mental wellness below from How to Mediate:
• “The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practicing a simple breathing meditation. We choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. We can sit in the traditional cross-legged posture or in any other position that is comfortable. If we wish, we can sit in a chair. The most important thing is to keep our back straight to prevent our mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.
• We sit with our eyes partially closed and turn our attention to our breathing. We breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control our breath, and we try to become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is our object of meditation. “

5.) Yoga

• Yoga is a discipline that uses breath control, simple meditation and specific bodily postures to better physical and emotional health and relaxation. Yoga is a great way to clear your mind and get your body long and lean. 
• I have included the link to some helpful morning yoga exercises that will get your day off to an amazing and well balanced start!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8tMCpv4F8

http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mentalhealth.html

http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/prevention-wellness/emotional-wellbeing/mental-health/nutrition-and-mental-health.html