JUMPSTART YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

By Irina Fiksman, MD

Heed the obvious but, oh, so frequently ignored truths:

• Get sufficient sleep. Healthy adults require between 6 and 10 hours of sleep per 24-hour period, with most people needing approximately 8 hours of sleep per day.
• Feed your brain well. Sleep deprived or malnourished people are seldom happy.
  
• Increase your level of physical activity. You will improve both your physical and emotional health.

Invest time and effort in getting to know yourself better.

• What makes you happy?
• What are your sources of stress?
• What are your soft spots?
• How do you sabotage yourself?
• What changes would you like to see in yourself and your life?

Set challenging yet realistic goals for yourself. In setting these goals, focus on what you want and can do - rather than someone else - to change your life for the better.

Reassess your priorities and work on changing your thinking and behaviors:

• Make time for and nurture your relationships with family and friends. For instance, make a habit of gathering your family around the dinner table; converse with them without the annoyance of a running TV set or the constantly ringing phone.
• Be generous with praise and compliments: they are the easiest and quickest ways of building good will and a cooperative spirit between you and others.
  
• Surround yourself with warm caring people. Stay away from those who leave you feeling drained and depressed.
  
• Express your needs and wishes in an open, direct and polite manner. Learn to say no.
  
• Accept your limitations. Don’t try to be everything to everybody
  
• Be more forgiving with yourself and others. Mistakes and failures are inevitable. The best way to deal with them is to turn them into learning experiences.
  
• Pick your fights carefully, and accept that you cannot win them all.
  
• Reward yourself with little things that make you feel good; expand the scope of these things beyond eating and shopping.
  
• Find a hobby; invest your energy, time and money in leisure and entertainment.
  
• Attend to your spiritual needs.
  
• Get a pet. Pets are among the best anti-depressant and stress-relieving tools known to modern Medicine.
  
• If you try to lose weight, be realistic and patient. You are more likely to succeed if you proceed with a weight loss of 0.5-1 lb/week.
  
• Live within your financial means. Spending money that you don’t have to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like is not conducive to good mental health.
  
• Know when to seek mental health treatment.