At Nuvo Iron, we understand the importance of mental health and happiness and how necessary it is to consistently keep it in check. Maintaining good mental health is the key to living a happy life, and with some helpful tips in mind, it can be more obtainable than people make it out to be. Today is National Happiness Happens day, a day where you should make note to focus on day-to-day happiness in your life, and often mental health plays a large role in this. So we’ve compiled a quick and easy list to get you started on your journey to great mental health and happiness! – and we know some of these seem so simple, but sometimes being reminded of how much of an impact those simple tasks can be, can be quite helpful.
Get Out and Get Movin’
Exercise Regularly
Exercising once a day is a great way to keep your mental health and happiness in check while also improving your physical health! Even a half hour a day will make a significant difference in your mental and physical health. Your mind will be clearer, and you’ll have added energy to conquer the rest of your day. Exercising releases dopamine in the brain, which in turn activates the brain’s pleasure circuit. It also partially blocks the brain’s response to emotional and physical stress. The best part about it is, you get to choose what type of exercise you enjoy the most! From basketball to lifting iron, get out and get moving!
Hone your Hobby
Spend Time Practicing Your Favourite Hobby
Everybody has a passion. Whether it be cooking, playing guitar, colouring (yes, there are some awesome colouring pages for adults!), or tending carefully to a well-manicured tomato garden – we all have something we love to do. Carving out even a small chunk of your day to cultivate and develop your hobby does wonders for your mental health. You’ll find yourself significantly happier and much less stressed. It also, as a result of sheer time invested, allows you to simultaneously improve at whatever hobby you’re into. Which allows you to feel more accomplished in another area of your life. Talk about a win-win!
And, if you’re looking into taking up a new hobby, check out this link – to 45 hobbies that are not only fun, but FREE too! There are a lot of unique ideas on this list.
Choose to Chit Chat
Spend Time Having Good Conversation
Humans, by nature, are social creatures. We all need social interaction to thrive and excel in life. Building, developing and maintaining meaningful relationships with family and friends is arguably the most effective way to keep your mental health and happiness in check. There’s nothing like driving down a country road with your friends listening to your favourite song. It instantly boosts your spirits and makes you feel like you’re on top of the world. Or maybe for you it’s sipping tea and playing a board game with your family.
Whatever it is, spend time with those you love as often as you can and always make time for good conversation. Life is busy, but you can always carve out time for those who you care about. You just need to prioritize and set some time aside weekly or bi-weekly to make that happen.
Sometimes pre-planning this can help too! It not only gives you something to look forward to, but also helps you and those you want to spend time with keep your schedules clear.
What’s Next?
The Dangers of Materialism
Living in such a materialistic society, we tend to gravitate toward the next big thing. What will I buy next? The excitement of an initial purchase fades quickly and one is left longing for the next purchase in no time. I think there’s something to be said for the small things in life, the little things that inspire true and genuine happiness. Maybe for you that’s stopping at your local coffee shop once a week for an hour in the morning, to relax and sip on your favourite drink from them. Maybe it’s sitting at your favourite park, overlooking nature and examining the clouds. It sounds cheesy, we know, but it can bring you such a clear and happy mindset. Make a point to spend more time focusing on these simple pleasures rather than spending money on expensive material objects, and see for yourself.
Focus on You
Work on Yourself First
Social media, admittedly, is wonderful. It allows us to easily keep in touch with family, friends, and that one grandma who’s trying to be more modern. However, it simultaneously doubles as a dangerously easy way to compare yourself to others. It’s easy to wonder why you aren’t travelling to Greece every other week, why you aren’t driving that fancy car. It’s all too easy to forget that social media is only a microscopic snippet of what truly occurs in people’s lives. Not many people post their troubles or worries online. Think about social media like mini curated art shows. Understanding this is imperative to keeping your mental health and happiness in check as you never truly know what’s going on in somebody’s life. Keeping your focus on yourself and keep developing as a person, it’s one of the best ways to be happy.
Tip: On a weekly or daily basis you can set a reminder in your phone for something you want to work on for yourself. Whether it’s complimenting yourself more often, embodying more personality traits you have that you love, or working on some you might not like as much too.
https://letstalk.bell.ca/en/get-help
**We, of course, understand the realness and severity of mental health issues and how they cannot be alleviated as easily as made out in this blog. We want to provide a link here to some services that can help you get your mental state in a happier and healthier place.
QUICK LINKS
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Check out the Bell Let’s Talk website for great tips for mental health.
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Click this link to find out some great and inexpensive hobbies.
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Read more about Happiness Happens day here.
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Click here for some great FREE colouring pages
