6 Activities That Help Boost Mental Health

Keeping positive and maintaining your mental health is of paramount importance. Managing yourself day-to-day to prevent sinking into a low mood prevents everything from suddenly becoming too much to handle. Here are 6 activities that help boost mental health. 

1. Get Outside for a Hike

While walking around the neighbourhood is okay, it’s difficult to clear your mind and feel a weight lifted when doing so. However, that does come with traveling to a place where it’s hilly enough to do some hiking. Feeling the wind in your hair and putting some physical effort into getting up undulating hills is exhilarating. Away go the troubles of a difficult homelife or worries about the future. It clears your mind and lets you imagine a better one. Also, when you are clear-minded again, planning positive changes becomes easier. 

When you’re out hiking, always protect your feet. Waterproof boots will avoid your feet getting sore, wet, or developing blisters. This will allow you to go hiking for several days in a row or take day trips to maintain a positive outlook. 

2. Eat Well and Drink Sensibly

Eating food that provides poor nutritional value doesn’t support your body’s needs. It won’t deliver the fuel that’s required. Get the food balance right and don’t overeat. 

With liquids, stick to still water as much as possible. Vitamin water and other infused drinks are fine, but do watch the sugar intake with them. Purified water from Waterdrop filters can help you stay healthy.

Also, cut out other bad habits like smoking, vaping, or drinking. While they may seem like an effective coping mechanism, they’re only holding you back. 

3. Treat Yourself Well

When we suffer from mental health issues, there’s a tendency to look down on ourselves, our results in life, and be highly self-critical. This doesn’t help you at all. While being realistic is beneficial, it’s also necessary to make allowances for what you’re dealing with. Therefore, treat yourself well. Avoid being overly critical of yourself (or others). Invest time into favourite projects or hobbies, rather than neglecting them. 

4. Meditate to Avoid Getting Anxious

Use meditation apps to find your centre. Let them transport you to another place and enhance your mental state. Calm and Headspace are two of the most popular meditation apps. Most apps are available for either iOS or Android (or both) and typically provide several modules for free with some premium ones available too. Calm has Sleep Stories with actors like Matthew McConaughey reading to you. This can help with getting to sleep. 

5. Solve Puzzles

Whether it’s a physical puzzle or an app on a smartphone, tablet, or PC, a puzzle can test your cognitive abilities in a variety of ways. Also, doing puzzles can provide a small sense of accomplishment that can be currently lacking elsewhere. 

If you’re good at math, then try Sudoku to challenge your brain. Board games are also popular with both physical and electronic versions of many games available. Crossword puzzles are also fun if you have a larger vocabulary, and like getting clues and putting in the work to solve them. 

6. Take Cycling Trips

Cycling trips are effective in providing a way to exercise, attempt different established cycling routes, and improve completion times. While no one may ever be as successful as the national cycling team, it’s all about the open road, seeing the sights, and enjoying the journey. Cycling can become addictive in a positive way, making life-long friendships, and seeing out-of-the-way places that you’d never have gotten to otherwise. 

Discover what activities work best for you to keep positive and moving forward. While we all have good and bad days, knowing yourself is a critical part of good self-care.