Do you consider yourself healthy?
What do you do to stay fit? Maybe you exercise daily, go on long walks,
and eat a healthy balanced diet. Of course, these are excellent choices to stay physically fit.
But what about your mental health? A healthy body can be home to an unhealthy mind. And
this requires the same attention, care, and treatment as if you were physically sick.
So, how do you know if you are mentally healthy?
In today’s video, we’re going to discuss signs of a healthy mind. Should you maintain
healthy boundaries? What about staying calm? We’ll talk about all of these AND more…
The biggest sign of a healthy mind is your ability to learn new things
Imagine you have a top-class luxury car. But instead of driving it, you have kept it locked
up in your garage for years. There would come a time when the car would start giving you issues
if you only drive it on the occasional Sunday. The same is true with your brain. You have to
keep sharpening your skills to stay on top of it. The day you stop learning,
you are heading toward stagnation. Most likely, you’ll see a decline in your cognitive skills.
If you leave anything unused for a good amount of time, it can fall into disrepair. It’s the
same with your mind. As you grow older, your brain would start to weaken and could end up
with problems like forgetfulness and brain fog. You must try and learn new things on a regular
basis to keep your mind healthy. It would be like exercise for your brain, which makes sure
its functioning does not decline as you grow older. In short, give a good workout to your
brain just as you would do with your body. While exercising your brain is wonderful,
there’s another sign that depicts your emotional health, here we go…
You’re emotionally healthy if you’re comfortable with saying no
A healthy mind knows boundaries are your friend. If you are emotionally healthy,
you will be able to stand up for yourself and maintain these boundaries. It can seem
difficult at first but without them, you’re giving an open invitation to problems.
One of the hardest things is saying no, especially to people you really love and
care about. Friends and acquaintances may want your assistance on things going on in
their lives. While it’s good to help people, you also need to be able to maintain your emotional
boundaries and say no when it gets too much for you. You cannot keep lighting yourself on fire
so your loved ones can keep themselves warm. A healthy mind would also be able to recognize
bad behavior and put a stop to it. If somebody is being unjust or aggressive towards you, then you
should be able to say no and stand your ground. This means you’ll be ready to cut off from your
life when things get too much for you to handle. A healthy mind is inherently self-preserving.
When we talk about emotional health and boundaries, another topic rears
its head. How you handle a conflict says a lot about your emotional and mental state.
Are you able to maintain calm? The way you handle stress and
conflict gives a clear picture of your mind. Every day, we go through situations that can
cause stress. That creates a hormone overload in your brain. When this happens regularly,
it chips away at your mental health. But people who remain calm, even during
stressful situations, will maintain a strong and healthy mind. You can do things like meditation
to help you keep calm in tough scenarios. Maintaining healthy relationships with
your near and dear ones can also keep you stress-free for the majority of the time.
Having somebody to fall back on and to go back home to would help reduce any long-term stress.
Remember a calm mind can solve problems much better than an agitated brain.
People pleasers seldom have a healthy mind Being a people pleaser can seem like something
that would make your life easy. But this is not necessarily the case. The stress involved
in trying to do all the things people want you to can cause mental health issues in the long term.
When you’re a people pleaser, you might get upset when you find out
somebody doesn’t like you. It can be because of any number of reasons,
considering that not everyone can like you. In fact, certain people might dislike you for
reasons out of your control. Now, what are you going to do? Stay upset about it? NO!
Don’t stress yourself by thinking about ways to win over everyone. Because you can’t!
Moving on, it’s time to discuss your sleep schedule
One of the most important things to have a healthy mind is to get a good amount of
sleep. If you’re sleeping between six to eight hours, you’ll likely have a healthy
mind. People who are stressed or don’t have a calm mind will find it harder to sleep.
When you get regular sleep, your memory improves and reduces your stress levels. It also gives your
mind some much-needed rest from all the work it does throughout the day. If you don’t feel tired
mentally, it shows that your mind is healthy. Next on our list is the sense of belonging
People with healthy minds also tend to have a sense of belonging to the people around them
and the community. You would be a contributing member of society and also be at peace within.
A person with a healthy mind is happy to meet with people in their life,
whether it is friends or extended family. You’re very likely to attend special occasions and would
be aware of what’s happening in their lives. A healthy mind would also look to provide advice
or be a shoulder of strength for people close to you, based on the circumstances.
A healthy mind never forgets to stay true to itself
When you have a healthy and strong mind, you also have a strong sense of values that you
live by. No matter what comes along, you stand by these values. You stay true to
yourself no matter how much you’re tempted to change your ways by people around you.
The strength to stick by your values also makes it easy for you to make decisions. You wouldn’t
find it all that difficult to make a moral choice as you know exactly how you feel about
any given situation. This ability to stay true to yourself is a sign of a healthy and strong mind.
A healthy mind believes in staying young Age is just a number, and that’s irrefutably
true for people who have healthy minds. When your mind is at its best,
you don’t feel your age. You could be well past your 50s but still feel as young as a 30-year-old.
When you combine physical exercise with your mental strength, you can sail through your
old age without much worry. Keeping your mind healthy would also help you remain physically
healthy as well. An aging body would thank you for keeping mentally and physically healthy.
Do you work on your weaknesses? Many people find it hard to face
their weaknesses. They tend to brush them under the rug and not acknowledge them. But
that’s not a healthy thing to do for your mind. People with healthy minds would be open to working
on their vulnerabilities and improving whatever shortcomings they have. You see adversity as an
opportunity for growth so that you can be better prepared for the future. A healthy mind would not
grow bitter and would rather work on making itself better by dealing with the exposed weaknesses.
A healthy mind has a good friend circle The sign of a healthy mind is your ability
to maintain a good friend circle. When your mind is not in good health, you tend to avoid opening
up. But a healthy mind would find it easier to make friends and maintain relationships.
When you hang around people you love, your mind also gets some great benefits.
It releases important hormones such as oxytocin and reduces your stress levels. Your mood would
get a good boost and help keep your mind calmer and healthier for a longer time.
Self-confidence and self-assurance are the biggest signs of a balanced mind
If you’re a person who doesn’t need other people to tell you how good you are,
then you certainly have a healthy mind. People tend to have good self-confidence and are assured
of their abilities when they’re mentally sound. They’re not desperate for external validation.
A healthy mind would also not worry about how others view your success or failures.
You would not think about trying to impress others, rather focus on your strengths and move
from one goal to the next without worrying about how others feel about your path.
A healthy mind doesn’t mean
you feel good all the time Having a healthy mind does
not automatically mean you feel pleasant all the time. Just like everyone else,
you’ll feel all the varied emotions that people go through daily. But the important thing is to
be able to bounce back and not wallow in misery. Feeling depressed or sad is normal and it is
impossible for people to go through their entire lives without those emotions. But a
healthy mind would stay strong and resilient. You would understand that such sad feelings
are only just a wave that you need to ride out so that you can get back to the good times.
Mental health is an important part of well-being. You’ll be surprised to know
what you eat impacts your brain health as well. Let’s keep the conversation going with a couple
more brain health-related videos. Shall we? Watch Doctors Reveal The 11 Worst Foods For
Your Brain. You can also try our video on Top 10 Superfoods For Your Brain.
Go ahead, click one. Or better yet, watch both, and learn more about keeping your brain
healthy. Do you think you have a healthy mind? Let us know in the comments below!