How to Keep Your Mind Healthy

by Raymund Tamayo

Our physical bodies are not the only ones we need to take care for holistic wellness and happiness. 

Our minds should also be kept healthy as everything we do, say, and experience begins with what and how we think.

Power of Thoughts

An unhealthy mind instigates loneliness, anxiety, depression, and paranoia, which soon causes cardiovascular-related diseases.

When a person thinks he is a winner, then he is a winner. When he thinks he is successful, then he is successful. When he thinks he is happy, then, indeed, he is happy. 

That’s how powerful one’s thoughts are.

The mind is like the locomotive that pulls all the cars of a train. 

The engine is your thought and the cars are your beliefs, feelings, decisions, habits, behaviors, actions, and lifestyle. 

The mind influences who you are, you are what you think, so it is necessary to take care of your mind.

How to Keep Your Mind Healthy

Here are some tips on how to find the right mental balance:

1. Have enough sleep and rest. Probably one of the most vital aspects of keeping mental health is having enough sleep and rest.

Stress and fatigue does a lot to deteriorate our mind, which also affect our physical bodies. Sleep repairs the mind and body, countering the effects of stress.

To maximize sleep, build a bedtime routine and establish good sleeping habits. 

You can also take 10 to 15-minute power naps all throughout the day as your schedule allows. 

Create spaces between your activities where you do something relaxing or refreshing. You can actually do nothing with those spaces as well.

2. Filter media consumption. What one fills his mind affects it in the long run. 

Fill your mind with scary movies, scary games, scary novels, and scary people, and it’s no wonder that you will be living in fear. 

Fill you mind with beautiful, honorable, noble, useful, loving, and happy things, and you will experience those same things.

3. Keep yourself open to new ideas. Stay curious and cultivate your desire to learn. 

By being teachable, you let your brain stay stimulated and alert to avoid cell degeneration.

4. Engage in a creative hobby. Writing, painting, sculpting, or even collecting something allows an intellectual outlet that will help develop the mind and keep it active. 

For example, if you decide to start a coin collection, you will have to research on how to start, what are the rarest coins, how to expand it, and how to join trading clubs. 

The brain is like a muscle. The more you use it, the better and the stronger it becomes. 

5. Live in the moment. Notice and appreciate where you are and what you are doing. 

Feel your breath going in and out of your body. Notice the sun and the trees while you are going for a walk. Savor the taste and aroma of your coffee. 

Don’t just let these moments pass you by without feeling grateful. 

Developing this habit brings a lot of happiness.

6. Single-task. Or do things one at a time. 

When multi-tasking, the brain goes into overdrive which is actually counterproductive and harmful. 

A “to-do” list helps to work on things one at a time. It makes sure that one will not miss out on any important work. 

Truly focus and complete one task in the to-do list before moving on to the next task.

7. Sometimes, challenge your brain. Since the brain is like a muscle, it should also be worked out regularly. 

Play mentally stimulating games such as puzzles or crosswords. 

Try to learn a new skill like cooking, swimming, playing the piano or the guitar, or even dancing.

8. Meditate. Having some quiet time alone to reflect and meditate does a lot of good things for the mind. 

Meditating can be in a form of thinking, praying, or writing a list of things that you are grateful of. 

You can also choose to clear your mind and simply sit still and focus on breathing.

Having a healthy and maturing mind helps cater things that are pure, good, and true. This kind of thinking greatly shapes a happy and healthy life.