Have you ever come to question why life starts to degrade all of a sudden? You are doing exceptionally well one day, and then all of a sudden, your performance just plummets down. The countless hours of work you put into certain projects, doesn’t pay off. Or maybe you studied hard for a unit and the result was not what you might have expected? Let’s just say, there may be many causes to a sudden change in your performance either in your relationships, career, or academics, but there is a common link to all these that you may have considered but did not pay attention to, in the past— that is, your mental health.
What does taking care of your mental health mean?
First of all, taking care of your mental health does not mean staying positive 24/7! The meaning of positivity is often misunderstood into being happy all the time, or “looking at the bright side of situations” all the time. Taking care of your mental health, can mean a million things and nothing at all. It depends on how much importance you give yourself, as well as your mental health. Taking care of your mental health is being self-aware of your thoughts. As Lao Tzu said, “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Ultimately, taking care of your mental health is fueling healthier thoughts into your mind. Rephrasing certain
thoughts, that you might have noticed are a toxic pattern, can lead you to discovering a lot about yourself and nourishing a healthier mental state.
How to nourish a healthier mental state?
Gratitude. When was the last time you were thankful for something you have in life without having a good reason to do so? I may not be a professor at Harvard Health. However, I have undoubtedly experienced the power of gratitude. I started writing a gratitude journal every morning for around a year now. Without trying, I started going for regular walks, noticed a significant increase in my productivity and felt rejuvenating motivation. Humans are plants and gratitude is like the water that the plants need in order to grow. In other words, gratitude has been proven to have promising impacts on our thoughts, our psychological condition, and our social life .
The Gratitude Circuit
Gratitude is a magnet for happiness. As studies show, the more you focus on things you love, the more things you will find to love. For instance, a study was conducted on two groups of students by Harvard Health. One group wrote about things they were thankful for each day and another about their daily irritations. After ten weeks, as you can guess, the group that expressed gratitude were more optimistic about their life than ever before. Surprisingly, these students also got regular exercise compared to the group that wrote about their daily irritations. Clearly, you wouldn’t wish to be a part of a group that focuses on their daily irritations, worsening their mental health. Most definitely, you do not want to live your life trapped in a downward spiral of your own negativity. Being thankful, is not always being positive, but being thankful for whatever little you have been given will help rewire your brain into rephrasing your thoughts as they are. Instead of saying, “I can’t do it anymore.” Or “I hate this, I hate myself, I hate life…” You can try seeing, that you have been even the littlest of ability to get up and fight the daily battles of life. Gratitude will be the weapon, that will undoubtedly help you combat any worsening problem in life. Just try it.
Without the essence of gratitude, we wouldn't have the chance to get a healthier mind, and certainly wouldn’t have the chance to strengthen relationships. Whenever, we are in a better mood, we attract better things in life. There is more prosperity and little more joy, inside us.
Sometimes, though, some relationships, no matter how much we try might become a burden to our mental health. Don’t hesitate from taking a break from them, practice gratitude in your own time, in your own space. It will further help you improve your attitude towards that particular relationship, just a little gratitude for the good things in those relationships can help us try to fix them. And if that doesn’t work, we should not let anyone be the judge for our mental health and learn to let go. That takes me to my last point, gratitude is an effective remedy when you take at time out of your day, just two or 5 minutes to journal down things you were grateful for today. Written By - Heta Patel
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