Improve Your Mindset. Improve Your Career.

In today’s society, mental health is becoming a much more prevalent topic of conversation, which is a good thing because it is extremely important to discuss. Mental health can and does affect all aspects of one’s life, with the career aspect being a dominant area. When it comes to your career, mental health has a strong impact on your abilities. Having poor mental health can lead to being disengaged, distant, and unable to carry out peak performance. Strong mental health, on the other hand, can improve communication with coworkers, job productivity, and overall capabilities. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the well-being of your headspace and there are several things that you can do to improve this!

1. Listen to a podcast.

I have recently started listening to a few different podcasts, and I can already see how this platform could benefit individuals, especially with motivating them. Podcasts can be inspiring. Oftentimes, creators provide stories of hardships that they overcame or challenges they tackled, which can create motivation in yourself to face problems with the same enthusiasm and determination. Podcasts can also be relaxing. Whether you’re driving or simply resting while listening, podcasts allow your brain to slow down and just be. Finally, podcasts can be educational. If you can learn something new while simultaneously taking time to reset yourself, you’re getting the best of both worlds, and podcasts make this possible.

2. Exercise.

Regular physical activity has several benefits that have been found to help improve mental health. Firstly, it can lead to a higher sense of selfworth and higher self-esteem. When exercise becomes a habit, it is easy to view yourself as strong and powerful. When you view yourself in a positive light, you have a better sense of achievement after each productivity session. Next, exercise gives you more energy to face each day. Exercise can also improve your memory and cognition. It actually stimulates both the production of endorphins and brain plasticity. While exercise has numerous physical benefits, there are tremendous amounts of unseen benefits that lie within the mind.

3. Read.

There are several benefits of reading that can positively influence your mental health. One of the biggest benefits is that reading reduces stress. It can be found to reduce blood pressure, lower heart rate, and relieve feelings of distress. Studies have also shown that reading can help alleviate symptoms of depression. Fiction allows the reader to temporarily escape their physical environment, while self-care nonfiction books can teach a reader about how to manage mental health issues and teach coping skills. Reading can improve both the strength of your brain and your memory. Research has shown that mental decline is reduced by 32% in individuals who read a few pages every day. Who wouldn’t want that?

4. Eat better.

Fueling your body with the right foods is not only important for your physical health, but it actually helps improve your mental health as well. Eating healthy has been linked to reduced anxiety and stress, as well as an improved mood. In fact, being deficient in certain nutrients can contribute to certain mental illnesses. Much like physical activity, eating healthy can also increase both your energy levels and self esteem. Research has shown that eating healthy can reduce symptoms of depression, a major disorder in mental health today. In other words, eat better to (hopefully) start feeling better. 

5. Decompress.

Whenever you are faced with a challenging day at work, it is important to come home and find a healthy way to alleviate that stress that you faced throughout the day. There are several different ways to decompress, so it is important to find the method that works best for you. A few methods that have had good results include meditating, performing breathing techniques, doing yoga, following a skincare routine, taking a bath, or journaling; the list goes on. The important thing to takeaway from this, is to find what works best for you and practice doing it everyday.