5 Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Mental Health

As a modern woman, you have a lot to keep track of. Maybe you are maintaining and running a home, taking care of the kids, or working a busy job day-to-day. Maybe it's all three. Life comes at you fast, and it can catch up to you quickly. When the tasks, the drama, and the stress mount up, it can take a toll on your mental health. Mental health, especially for women and moms, isn’t talked about enough. Like our physical well being, its important to safeguard our mental health. We should always be taking steps to safeguard and improve our mental state from the invisible wounds that daily life inflicts on us. We are going to talk about 5 ways to improve, safeguard, and repair your mental health. Let's get healthy!

Spend Time In Nature

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"Breakthrough" print from Optimism Collection.Tap to Shop 

This one is simple, fun, and good for both your mental and physical health. Try spending time in green spaces. Go on a hike into the wilderness, or go camping in a remote place. Get away from your everyday routine, and spend time disconnected from the internet, and connected to simple, beautiful, natural reality. Spending time in nature improves mood, relieves anxiety, improves self-esteem, and can help you be more active. You don’t have to go into remote wilderness to feel positive effects–spending time in nature can be as simple as gardening, a walk in the park, or being around animals. Spending time in God’s beautiful, natural creation does wonders for our mental wellbeing.

Work Out

This is one you’ve probably heard before, but it’s an important one. Each time you exercise, your brain releases the ‘feel good’ chemicals associated with positivity and a good mood, like serotonin and dopamine, and endorphins. The release of these chemicals in your brain instantly improves your mood. Regular exercise helps you control your weight, prevents risk of heart disease, and helps you manage blood sugar and insulin levels. There are instant and long term mental and physical health benefits for those who chose to exercise on the regular, so get out there and get moving!

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

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"Progress" print from Optimism Collection. Tap to Shop

Comparing yourself to others is a mental health killer. The stresses of social comparison can weigh on us heavily–because it makes us feel deficient. As humans, we compare what we have to what others have constantly. When you’re a child, you might compare your toy to your friend’s better toy. In high-school, you might compare your clothes to your classmates' branded clothing. As an adult, you might compare job status, salary, and family.

These comparisons are damaging to our personal health. If you spend your time focusing on what others have, it causes your self-esteem, and happiness to suffer. We are not in the same boat as everyone, and we have to remember that. You are on your own path, and on your own timeline. Superficial material goods like toys, brands, and salary don’t make you who you are supposed to be. Your highest values are your attributes. Your kindness, your mercy, and your ability to do good. Allah provides, and he will give you all that you are supposed to have.

Meet Your Own Expectations, Not The Expectations of Others:

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"Relief" print from Optimism Collection. Tap to Shop 

What are you passionate about? What are your goals? Your dreams? What kind of life do you want to build for yourself? These are important questions that are central to our lives and happiness. Often, important people in our lives like spouses and authority figures have expectations of who we should be. Often, they have these expectations because they want the best for us. But only you know what will give your life true meaning. Only you know what path will lead you to true happiness. Regardless, it’s important to have standards for yourself. A goal gives us a marker to strive towards–a target. Without them, we will be lost in the woods.

Get Enough Sleep

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This one can be hard to do. You are probably busy with kids, your career, and your home life. Getting enough sleep is important to mental and physical health. Did you know that we spend around a third of our lives asleep? Sleep affects mood, energy, and our ability to focus. Getting quality sleep also improves mood, drastically.  If you’re not getting good, quality sleep. There are ways to improve. Firstly, ditch the TV and phone in bed. Screen time right before going to sleep is poor sleep. Before bed, try winding down with a book. The environment you sleep in is important too. Make sure it’s a cool, comfortable temperature that is quiet. 


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