How to Improve Your Mental Health for Happier Living

Life’s challenges can sometimes be testing – especially if sometimes you just want a break out of all the frustrations that can happen at work, at school, or even at home. However, just because these frustrations seem to come one after the other doesn’t mean life is just full of sadness and despair. In fact, there are actually ways for you to see life from a much brighter and better point of view. All it takes is proper conditioning, goal and expectations management, and a bit of guidance to steer you towards the right direction.

It may help to get a bit of insight towards how people view happiness in general. When multiple surveys were done across 2016, most of the countries surveyed were along the 50-percent range in terms of self-rated happiness – with some, especially in some developing countries with lack of access to basic necessities, rating themselves very low. A lot of people also seem to have misperceptions about the happiness of others, with some people from some countries often underestimating self-perceived happiness ratings of their fellow countrymen. Inequality in rich countries also appear more evident, especially when specific demographics are taken into account – especially with regards to cultural and social differences.

The surveys also indicated that higher national income often results in the increase of average life satisfaction, and self-reported life satisfaction. When it comes to mental health and happiness, it’s also important to look at things from both micro-level and macro-level perspectives, taking into account national issues on mental health and how they’re tackled, as well as how these issues are tackled on a personal level.

As such, gauging the happiness of a person can be quite the tricky thing, but it’s not impossible for anyone to improve their take on their mentalities to achieve better and happier living.

Mental Health For Happier Living: How To Achieve This

With the above in mind, it’s important to consider that the way you project and pursue happiness can become an integral part of your life. As such, it’s important to always check up on your mental health and find ways to improve your perspective on various things in life. Challenges and conflicts can often make it difficult for anyone to do so, but this is very much achievable. If things get overwhelming, institutions such as Psychologist Southern Sydney can be of assistance. Here’s how you can improve your mental health for happier living:

• Recognize the kind of things you can offer to yourself and the people around you: One of the most important aspects of improving your mental health – and especially for happiness – is to first recognize what you already have. A lot of people tend to look at the world and feel sad because of what they don’t have. However, not a lot of them tend to see what they already possess. Regardless if you acknowledge that these things are “yours” or not, do try to make a note (better if you do it with an actual note) of things you possess and you can offer to yourself and people around you. Do you have skills you’ve acquired through the years? Do you have qualities you like and you think people appreciate? Try to review and even create a resume with a section containing your perks, quirks, and things you think make you “you.”
• Acknowledge that you can be good at things you’ve spent time doing: A lot of people tend to feel dissatisfied with themselves because they often think that the things they like doing are pointless because, well, other people are already better than them. Before this happens, take a look at your list of qualities and honestly tick the ones you actively spend time pursuing, no matter how positive or negative the thing is. It doesn’t matter what your skill level on these things are – but when you know you actively pursue these things, you can start thinking that you actually love doing these things, and you can be good with them.
• Take a careful look at things that make you feel malcontent, upset, or frustrated: Given your list of things you have and things you love doing, now look at your “list” and check if you can list things you’re upset with. These can be people you’re upset with, dreams you’ve yet to achieve, goals you can’t seem to meet, and things you want to do but can’t. Try as much as possible to also explain to yourself why these things frustrate you. The more concise and specific the reason, the better. The point of this step is to help you slowly acknowledge that there really are things in life that can make you upset – and this is natural.
• See if there are things you’re upset with that you can’t control: We get upset with a lot of things in life, especially if these are things we like that don’t normally go our way. With your list of things you’re upset with, can you determine which of these you can actively change or not? For instance, if you’re upset that your body isn’t the way it is, you can actively try to change by being fit, taking medicine, eating, or not eating. However, if you’re upset that you didn’t win a particular contest despite your best effort, it’s not something you can control because you can’t exactly tell judges to make you win. Knowing the difference between these two things can greatly help you deal with problems in life that constantly upset you.
• Set goals you want to achieve in the long run: Another important aspect of being happy with one’s life is properly setting goals for yourself, as an integral part of one’s self-identity is to have goals to work towards. However, one of the reasons why people get upset and overwhelmed with aspects of their life is because the goals they often set for themselves are either too broad, too specific, or goals that overestimate their skill and resources. When you set goals you want to achieve in the long run, make sure they’re goals that you can achieve in a certain timeframe and goals you can actually enumerate “steps” to undertake to achieve success. Make sure your success can be gauged and measured by yourself, and that you can develop the resources to meet them. Most importantly, when you decide to pursue goals, make sure these are goals that develop you as a person.
• Look for opportunities where you can enact some form of change in your life: The true first step to happiness comes with yourself, especially if you know you have the capacity to achieve happiness. Of the things you’re upset with, and of the things you want, do you see things that you can actively start or change? Sometimes, one of the most difficult things to do for a person to be happy is to start actively pursuing their goals, because more often than not they get overwhelmed by the number of things they have to do. So instead, why not start slow with little steps?

The Bottomline: Happier Living With Mental Health Is Yours To Acquire

Happier living is something a lot of – if not all – people want to achieve. After all, it can be an entrance to such a good time to be able to look at life and not be worried much about the challenges it offers. Instead, you can have a look at those problems, look at the good things that are happening in your life, and make a compromise that would help you make the most out of the hand you’re dealt with. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done – but not entirely impossible. Remember, sometimes you just need a bit of time and adjustment in order to be able to meet your life’s various needs. But being happy is a very much realistic prospect to aspire for – you may just need proper goal setting and expectations management. Hopefully with the above tips, you can encounter much better ways on how to improve your mental health for happier living.

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Marla

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Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog! I believe in living green, organically, and natural in every aspect of our lives. My mission is to help educate you on how to live green, help save our environment and to help you and your family live a happier, healthier life!