Our society is overworked, overstressed, and too focused on things that don't support good psychological well-being. So, it's no surprise if your current lifestyle may not be conducive to maintaining your mental health. "Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices (MentalHealth.gov)."
A key component of mental health is emotional intelligence (EQ). The higher it is, the greater the knowledge and understanding of your emotional self, interpersonal relationships, and boundaries. Being proactive and doing things that foster good mental health and high EQ can be a powerful way to enrich the quality of your day-to-day life both personally and professionally.
Apply these tips daily to improve your mental health and EQ
- No one is an island. Having positive and healthy relationships with others plays an important part in psychological health. Engage with your personal and professional circles for fun, growth, and support. Don't have any circles? Get some. Work on your social skills if necessary. Trouble or resistance in this area may point to other problems.
- Keep your body healthy. Poor physical health can result in difficulties with mental health. The better you feel physically, the better you'll feel psychologically, too. Eat well and stay active.
- Challenge yourself regularly. While having too much stress in your life is negative, having too little can be just as bad. We all need a certain amount of challenge to thrive, stay sharp, and build confidence. To create a healthy challenge, develop a goal and strive to meet it. Even something as simple as playing puzzle games can help in this area.
- Learn to deal with stress effectively. Most of us have self-soothing habits that fail to address the cause of stress. We might feel better momentarily yet make the situation worse. The ability to recognize and heal these patterns are two huge benefits of improving your emotional intelligence and mental health. Dealing with stress ineffectively often results in burnout, panic, and related side effects. Activities such as exercising, spending time with a friend, taking a timeout, or reading a book can be healthy options to lower your stress levels and prevent you from spiraling. Effective stress helps you rise to the occasion, keep it together, and then return to equilibrium when the crisis is over.
- Spend time each day doing an enjoyable activity. Personal enjoyment is severely underrated. Whatever you enjoy doing, be it playing the piano or walking your dog, create space for it daily. Besides breaking up monotony, it's psychologically energizing.
- Practice forgiveness (including for yourself). Anger, grudges, and guilt accomplish little. They put you in a vicious mental cycle that degrades your sense of well-being. Forgiveness is ultimately about healing and moving forward. A lack of forgiveness keeps you stuck in the past and focused on your pain. Practicing empathy, not taking things personally, prioritizing a more important value, understanding why you're really hurt, or letting karma handle it, are a few techniques to help you get on the road to forgiveness.
- Give your time to others. Helping someone in need is a great way to boost how you feel about yourself. It's also a great way to meet others who are caring and giving. Consider a group of people you'd like to help and volunteer for an organization that services them.
- Learn to quiet your mind. Your mind rarely gets a rest. It's almost always processing information, even while you're sleeping. Yet, the near-constant thinking that your mind does can get distorted and out of control. There are many ways to rest your mind. Coloring, humming, or tracing labyrinths are a few easy techniques. Practicing meditation and mindfulness are also recommended. If quieting your mind is a struggle, there's a good chance you're holding too much physical tension so, relax your body first.
- Ask for help. If you break your arm, you seek medical assistance. If you're having a psychological issue, there's no reason not to do the same. No matter what your challenge may be, there's someone available with the expertise to help. The more difficulty you have asking for help, the more important it is to do it and explore the source of the difficulty.
- Keep a journal. Recording your thoughts after a long, hard day is therapeutic. It releases tension, provides a means of catharsis, and can give you a different perspective. To do this in an emotionally intelligent way that leads to healing, growth, and transformation, don't just use your journal to vent and fantasize. Follow up. Use your journal to hold yourself accountable and actively document changes you say you want to make.
Emotional and mental health are both critical to your overall well-being. When any component of your health is suffering, it becomes much more challenging to be an effective parent, lover, friend, employee, or leader. All aspects of your life can suffer as a result, including your physical and financial health. Use these tips to address your psychological health. If you're not doing better, then it's time to seek help or learn to improve your emotional intelligence.
