Introduction
Mental wellness implies a sense of equilibrium. The individual realizes capability and can cope with stress in day-to-day activities. Mental wellness enables a person to work productively and contribute to society. Striking a balance between the emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental self is the mantra. The concept of mental wellness does not imply being happy or free from depression, anxiety, or other mental illness. Instead, it refers to overall well-being and managing sound and bad times. Friends and family play an essential role in a person's mental wellness.
Why Is Mental Wellness Important?
A healthy life is an outcome of body and soul wellness. Maintaining a healthy state of mind allows one to cope with the different challenges of life. Mental wellness involves emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects what one thinks, relates to others, copes with stress, and makes choices. It is essential in every phase of life. Various biological factors, life experiences, and family history influence mental wellness.
How to Achieve Mental Wellness?
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Being Oneself - Learn to be at peace with oneself, acknowledge what one can do, and identify one's ability and weakness, which can make a person happy. Appreciating and accepting what one is can make people do their best for themselves.
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Needs - Understand one's needs and feelings and work towards achieving them. Pay attention to one's own needs and express them through writing blogs or journals.
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Achieve Goals - Aim and work towards achieving one's goals. Set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Achieving goals gives inner satisfaction and builds self-confidence.
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Healthy Lifestyle - Maintain a healthy lifestyle by taking healthy and balanced meals, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol consumption, and avoiding harmful substances such as cigarettes.
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Build Relationships - Build strong relationships and take time for family and friends. Sharing joy and sorrow with family helps to create a healthy environment of love and compassion. Family provides security and comfort and helps one handle life's curve tails better.
What Activities Help Improve Mental Wellness at Home?
The key to mental wellness is to focus on different areas of life. It also means letting go of past and future worries and focusing on the present. Doing activities that make life more meaningful results in an increase in one's mental wellness. Some of the ways a family can contribute to improving mental wellness include
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Contact Comfort - Holding on to one physically, emotionally, and spiritually gives a sense of belonging. Physical contact with loved ones increases brain hormones such as Oxytocin and Dopamine, which have a feel-good impact on a person and strengthens bones within the family. It enhances relaxation and trust and promotes psychological stability. Holding hands with a loved one, hugs, or other persistent physical contact makes one emotionally and psychologically strong.
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Communicate More - Lack of communication is the biggest woe in most families. Expressing needs wants, and concern for one another helps create an atmosphere of love and compassion. Family members have open and honest communication that clears differences, develops trust, and makes each person feel important. Family members should feel free to share their sorrows, problems, and apprehensions. It may not solve the problem, but it ensures a balance of self-care and helping each other.
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Routine - Following a set routine at home engages the entire family in doing things without speaking. The predictability of the routine helps ease the anxiety of everyone in the family and gives the confidence to tackle tasks within a set boundary. As a result, children develop a sense of stability, learn healthy habits, and learn time management. It also sets a healthy sleep routine among children that benefits the mental health of every member family.
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Doing Activities Together - Planning indoor and outdoor activities together allows essential time for creativity and self-exposure. For example, playing board games helps children to learn life skills and helps them in problem-solving and coping with losing and winning. It creates a healthy platform for creative thinking and forms childhood memories that will last a lifetime. A movie watched together is an excellent option to reconnect inside the house for the night. Going out for small picnics helps to spend quality time with loved ones and makes life enjoyable and worthwhile.
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Eating Together - Preparing or eating meals together strengthens bonds among family members. Taking a break from work and connecting over meals improves family wellness. Eating food, such as dinners, should be set as a priority every night by every member of the family.
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Exercise Together - Creating a fitness plan together can help improve family wellness. Finding ways to exercise together to achieve one's individual health goals, such as engaging in morning or evening walks, and involving in outdoor activities such as tennis, fishing, hiking, biking, gardening, or even walking the dog, is a great way to get active and connect with family members.
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Celebrating Small Wins - Celebrating small wins such as scoring well in class, achieving set objectives in office, having the first win in a competition, or accepting one's mistake motivates and boosts confidence. In addition, it shows that close people are proud of one's achievement and call for celebration together.
Setting Boundaries With Family Members:
Setting boundaries is an effective way to maintain a healthy balance in relationships. It is important to let the family members regard the boundaries for their actions and words. It may be physical, emotional, time, sexual, intellectual, or material boundaries. Some of the strategies to make it easier may include adopting following
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Valuing one's needs and priortizing them.
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Being firm yet kind.
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Being consistent with the boundaries.
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Being direct, clear, and simple.
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Practicing self-awareness.
Conclusion:
Mental wellness connects every component of health, including emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Family is a critical resource in the care and support of every individual. There are endless ways to achieve mental wellness by relieving stress and spending quality time with those one loves.
Support from family provides a network of practical and emotional support to help one take care of oneself. It provides a safe environment to express and deal with emotions and makes one feel valued and recognized. The experiences one gets in a family give one an insight into other members' experiences, opinions, and mental health. These experiences are enough to teach one how to navigate between people and differences to connect with them.
