Mental health issues are rising fast these days. The internet makes news and images readily available to hear and see. In addition, people are working longer and more, becoming unhappy and losing zest for life. As a result, it is belaboring and anchoring down the mind in a sea of negativity, making it challenging to keep the head up and breathe. Well, have no fear; help is here. Let me throw you a buoy and show you five simple things to significantly improve your mental health.

How Negativity Functions

It is easy to be negative and harder to be positive. Negativity affects your mind quickly and attaches itself to your emotions. Attaching your emotions and feelings makes it much harder to delete from your mind. The negativity lingers and manifests itself in all aspects of your mind, life, and health. Hence, issues begin to disrupt you mentally and physically.

Five Ways to Positive Mental Health

Firstly, you need to know what the kryptonite is to negativity. The answer is simple positivity. Being positive will shield your mind and weaken negativity, producing the mental strength for your mind to feel harmonious, balanced, and well.

1. Breathe

Breathing is a portal that allows you to see inside your mind. How you breathe is associated with different parts of your brain and emotions. For example, a study confirmed that your breathing is slow and steady when you feel joy and happiness. In contrast, your breathing becomes shallow and quick when you feel tension, stress, or anxiety.

Breathing exercises can be performed at any time. You are already breathing, so you just need to change and slow down how you breathe. Practicing breathing exercises lead to better mental health. And in turn, they will produce a positive self-image and emotions, alleviating mental stress and depression. In addition, breathing exercises help you to focus, think clearly, and reduce anxiety.

For example, inhale slowly for 8-12 seconds and then exhale slowly for 12-20 seconds. When you inhale and exhale, control your breath. Don’t just mindlessly breathe in and out.

To improve and extend your inhalation time, focus on slowing down and pausing after the exhalation. Most people are not mindful of pauses between their breaths. Therefore, after you exhale, wait to take the next breath. Don’t automatically breathe unless you need to. It should only be a few seconds. However, if you are athletic, the pause after the exhalation can be up to 10 seconds due to training responses.

You can create your own times for your breathing exercises. Just work at trying to extend them. Your breathing will adapt instantly.

Controlling your breath helps to gain perspective and composure in your life. In contrast, stress increases the breathing rate by taking too many inhales and very short exhales. Therefore, you lose control of your emotions and nervous system. The breathing exercise will help slow down your respiration and restore your mind’s balance. And when you are in balance, you think and feel better and clearer. Because under stress, you don’t think and do the same

2. Be Social

Being social has a very positive effect on mental health. It is good for your brain and emotions. It promotes an underlying sense of security, self-esteem, and confidence. It increases your well-being and happiness as well as cognitive skills. Being social creates excitement and enthusiasm that releases endorphins.

3. Stay positive

Staying positive does not mean you will avoid negativity. At this time in life, negativity is downloaded into your head. And that exposure can turn your smile into a frown and disrupt your mind. Try to limit exposure to the news. Try not to react to negative information and look for a positive light and spin to the negativity. Some things you cannot spin, but for the most part, you must be positive.

And finally, be cautious of negative people and friends. They can bring you down into their world quickly. Instead, be positive to inspire, motivate, and promote good mental health. You must protect your mind. So, filter positive from negative people, thoughts, experiences, and emotions, so your mind does not become contaminated and disrupted.

4. Exercise

Exercise is the number one thing that instantly reverses antisocial behavior, negativity, anxiety, depression, and mood. Exercise releases endorphins that positively change how you feel immediately. Also, it warms up your mind and body. The results improve self-esteem, confidence, happiness, focus, concentration, health, and well-being. It produces a positive self-image and makes you more social.

5. Surround Yourself In Nature

If you don’t have a forest or trail around you, just go to the park. Being around trees and the grass is just as good. When you are outside, you think differently. You feel calm, peaceful, and joyful. And those feelings help clean your mind, making you feel good and positive. And if you walk around, you will be exercising too! So, being in nature allows you to practice more of these aspects simultaneously.

Some of these things you may already do, like breathing. You just need to be mindful and fine-tune some of the experiences. However, understand how people and situations make you feel. You cannot avoid negativity altogether. But if you have some ways to compete against and counteract it, it cannot defeat you.