Here are a couple of things that may come to your mind when you hear mental wellness or mental health.
You may cringe at the thought of being mentally ill. Some people, they’re just not interested because they feel they’ve got life under their fingers.
Truth is, many people do not think that the topic of mental wellness is a worthy topic for conversation.
People may be aware of such labels as clinical depression, anxiety disorder, autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, or any such illness but may not exactly be aware of what it means to experience these mental health issues or what they are exactly.
So, why worry about mental wellness?
However, Mental health and wellness go beyond typical mental illnesses and disorders. It touches and affects major aspects of your life.
Mental wellness means that your mind is functioning in your best interest. Your actions, thoughts, and feelings are coordinated enough to create a positive impact on your physical and social well-being.
Good for you, but what about others?
The topic of mental wellness is a widely neglected issue. The major reason is that people are yet to understand that their mental health and wellness are connected to their general well-being.
It is only wise that we give our mental wellness the same attention and label of ‘IMPORTANCE!’ placed on physical health, finance, and career. Mental wellness is so important that an imbalance in that area can create instability in other areas of life.
In this article, we’ll show you 7 ways mental wellness impacts your life. By the time you read the last point, you’ll see the need to pay attention to, work on and protect your mental wellness.
We’ll also consider the following points:
- What mental wellness means.
- Ways your mental wellness impacts your life.
- Simple habits that can improve your overall mental wellness.
Ready? Let’s jump right to it.
What mental wellness means.
Simply put, mental wellness is the wholesomeness of the mind. A state where you can communicate effectively, contribute efficiently and live productively.
The above definition by the world health organization truly encompasses the basic foundation of mental wellness
Let’s consider a few more points:
- Emotional well-being – Being able to understand and control your feelings or emotions and not letting them cloud your judgment.
- Self-awareness and self-discovery – Knowing yourself, your abilities, potential, strengths, weaknesses, purpose, and interests.
- Ability to cope with daily living – Being able to live efficiently, managing your time and resources the right way.
- Freedom from anxiety and disabling symptoms- Not being trapped by fear, worry, anxiety, and other habits that question your strengths.
- Productivity and fruitfulness– Having positive results to show and something good to contribute to society building.
- Ability to adjust behavior – Knowing when a behavior you have needs to be trashed and replaced with something better.
- Building good relationships- The ability to connect with people, make friends and maintain positive relationships.
We see from this that mental wellness is holistic. It touches on the major pillars our lives are built upon. Physical, spiritual, social, emotional, and cognitive aspects are connected to mental wellness.
Source: Giphy
7 Ways mental wellness impacts your life.
Mental wellness plays a vital role in determining how other aspects of our lives turn out. Let’s take a look at the several ways it impacts your life.
#1-Mental wellness impacts your physical health.
The body and the mind are strongly connected. The state of the mind has direct effects on the state of the body.
Issues like sadness, anger, anxiety, worry, and depression can give rise to headaches, muscle tension, tiredness, insomnia, and digestive and excretory problems.
They also trigger and increase the risks of chronic illnesses like cancer, stroke, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity as a result of an increase in the level of inflammatory proteins in the bloodstream.
Generally, it is difficult to manage or treat a physical health problem if the mental health is not in order.
Source: Giphy
#2-Mental wellness impacts your social life.
You can’t live without relationships, either through family, friendship, business, or work. One way or the other, you have to associate with people.
When your mental wellness isn’t stable, it affects how you relate to people. Some people find it hard to socialize with others. Many always try to keep to themselves and take each chance available to be alone.
It’s not about being an introvert. The problem sometimes is how the person feels about others and what they believe or think of themselves.
Also, you can’t get people to stay close if you are always sad, bickering, complaining, talking down on people, anxious for unnecessary reasons, and unproductive.
Source: Giphy
#3- Mental wellness impacts your productivity.
Productivity is a state of the mind. Being productive is not only about working or activities. Is about being able to produce results.
Remember that your mind and body are connected. How do you feel when you have to go to a job you hate? Or when you have to do something you don’t enjoy? You might end up doing it because you have no choice but that doesn’t mean you are productive.
Mental imbalance can cause you to lose motivation to do things that used to catch your interest. You lose motivation because of a drop in dopamine level, you can’t multitask, you can’t do your normal duties, and you also lose concentration. It’s called ‘body present, absent-minded’.
#4- Mental wellness impacts your emotions.
Emotions are strong feelings of anger, sadness, hate, love, joy, excitement, happiness, anxiety, fear, etc.
Your emotions are part of your mental health and wellness, since it affects how you think, feel, and act in a given situation.
You won’t react the same way to a boy who spilled paint when you are angry and when you are happy or in a better mood. The reaction in these two scenarios differs because of emotions.
Constant feelings of sadness, anger, fear, anxiety, pessimism, or other negative emotions are pointers that your mental wellness is not balanced.
You must learn to monitor your emotions, and know when and how to react to negative and positive emotions.
#5- Mental wellness impacts your behavior and choice patterns.
This is about the way you act in private and in public. It is also about the choices you make. Your decisions and life choices say a lot about your mental wellness.
When you choose to behave or react in a certain way towards a particular issue, it opens up what is going on in your mind.
When you gaslight people, talk bad about people, and engage in things like verbal abuse or physical fights, it shows that your mental wellness needs work.
The way you do things, handle situations and have relationships with people are vital in showing how mentally healthy you are.
This can also apply to finances and careers. You make choices to spend time and money on things or people based on what you think of them and how much you believe will benefit you.
Poor choices are a result of poor mental wellness.
#6- Mental wellness impacts your self-esteem and confidence
What do you think of yourself when you look in the mirror?
How do you feel about your body stature, complexion, height, talents, gifts, and other embodiments of your being?
These things are what make you who you are. When you are mentally unstable, you begin to do unhealthy comparisons that usually lead to unnecessary pressure and increased chances of depression.
Knowing yourself, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and learning to accept who you are and work on what needs work, is a great skills. It boosts your self-confidence when your mind believes that you are good enough, beautiful enough, smart enough, and deserving of love.
Imbalanced mental health can make you second guess and doubt your self-worth. This is because you can’t go or grow more than your mind has grown.
“You can’t grow more than your mind”
#7- Mental wellness impacts your quality of life.
The totality of your life has to do with your mental wellness too. The quality of your life sums up everything that concerns you, some of which have been listed above.
Quality of life touches on health, happiness, career, relationships, and productivity.
With poor mental health, you can’t be genuinely happy. It is worse if you derive happiness, validation, and satisfaction from external and temporary factors. You can’t be as productive as you should be. You will find it hard to relate to people.
Your mental wellness affects how you take care of yourself. Good hygiene and proper health care are signs of balanced mental health.
Simple habits that can improve your overall mental wellness.
- Eat right and exercise.
- Connect with people physically.
- Do things you enjoy.
- Practice meditation and self-evaluation.
- Love and take care of yourself.
- Make decisions without emotions attached.
- Live every moment.
You have the ball in your court now. Get it rolling. You can be a better person if you decide to and put your mind to it. This is a helping hand reached out to you. Grab it!
Cheers! To your mental wellness!
