How To Boost Your Mental Health With Mindfulness and Self care
This article explores how mindfulness and self-care can significantly improve mental health. It highlights everyday challenges such as grief, financial stress, social media pressure, and emotional exhaustion, while offering practical tools like mindful breathing, journaling, exercise, and healthy boundaries to support emotional and psychological well-being.
Popoola Mary 
This denotes that our mental status affect literary everything that has to do with us, the channel through which our body system functions is our brain, once the channel through which other systems of our body functions is affected , it will affect our behaviour and not only our behaviour but also the way we perceive things going on around us and the way we relate with other people in the society.
Not only do bad incidents affect our mental health, financial laxity can also affect our mental health. Being financially down and having lots of bills to handle can be mentally draining. A lot of people deal with this issue and it is laced with negative impacts.
Our mental health is made up many aspects of us including:
● Emotional aspect, which oversees our feelings and moods,
● Psychological aspect, which determines how we think, reason, and process information,
● Social aspect, which oversees our daily interaction with people and how we navigate social situatiins.
What we experience in life, both good and bad, has powerful impact on our mental health because our minds are deeply connected to our emotions, our bodies, and our environment. Poor management of our mental health could result in depression.
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment, including your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, without judgment. It involves observing what is happening in and around you with a sense of curiosity and acceptance, rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Mindfulness can be practiced through formal meditation or by incorporating it into daily activities.
During the covid outbreak in 2020, many cases of depression were accounted for due to loneliness. People could not go to their places of work, schools were not opened, lots of locations were shut down, people could not travel because there were restrictions in movement. Due to these factors lots of people were depressed because they no longer do what they did before. Someone very close to me travelled outside Nigeria, she could not return to Nigeria before intra and inter city transportation were restricted. Although she had a friend over there, she was still depressed because her family was not there with her. It’s no wonder people say “there’s no place like home.”
As we all know, the world is digitalized, and lots of people post contents social media. It is not surprising that many of these posts are unreal and often posted out of creativity. Many people look past the real world and get deeply immersed in the facade of social media. They see contents about their mates eating at fancy resturants or buying from expensive brands, and start thinking about how unaccomplised they are and subsequently develop depression.
Self care
Self-care is intentionally taking actions to support your own physical, mental, and emotional health, like getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, and relaxing, and it's crucial because it helps manage stress, prevents burnout, boosts mood and energy, improves relationships, and enhances overall quality of life, allowing you to better care for yourself and others. It's a necessity for well-being, not a selfish luxury, preventing depletion and fostering resilience against daily pressures.
How to boost your mental health with mindfulness and self care.
Your mind is your home, keep it clean, calm, and cared for. I have heard people say: “My mental health is important,” “My mental health is deteriorating,” or “I don’t want anything to affect my mental health.” These statements show that people are becoming more aware of their inner world but awareness alone is not enough.We need practical tools to maintain a healthy mind.
Towards maintaining a great mental health therefore, here are three practical tips:
Mindful Breathing
Taking deep, slow breaths throughout the day can help to reduce stress and help to stay present. At times it is not always easy to control our thoughts. When a negative thoughts start creeping in, it is advisable to acknowledge it and not fight it. Exercise the act of taking slow and deep breaths in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 1–2 seconds.Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6 seconds.
That moment marked the beginning of our journey into mindfulness and self-care because When painful memories accumulate they can affect:our mood,our behavior,our decision-making,our confidence and our relationships. Taking some practical excersice teaches us to observe what is happening instead of getting trapped in past memories or future worries. We could
Journaling
Consistent journalling is also a practice that aids mindfulness. By writing down how you are feeling daily, you get to follow your emotions, the things that raise your moods and the things that drained you emotionally. This would help you to tailor how you would like to experience life moving forward and you would try to avoid the things that could bring your mood down. It could be certain avoiding people, discussions, or activities. Awareness of the present is very essential in building great mental health.
Exercising
One of the popular practical advice a therapist gives is to exercise. It does not require medications. Exercise is often highly recommended because it has a proven impact on the emotional and mental well-being. It reduces some chemicals responsible for weariness. This chemical balance helps fight mental exhaustion and also reduces the signals that triggers tiredness.
Saying ‘NO’
Many people struggle to say ‘No’ because they don’t want to disappoint people. Sometimes people agree easily to offers, invitations and requests because they are indebted to other people, it is quite understandable.
However, you cannot give what you do not have. Answering requests, being present for activities, and the likes, requires being in a good state of mind. How can you provide services when you are not in the right frame of mind?
Hence, it is advisable to make your peace a priority without feeling guilt. Refusing when it's necessary is an act of self-care, not selfishness.
Conclusion
Taking care of your mental health requires both awareness and intentional action. Negative thoughts and overwhelming emotions are a normal part of life, but when left unchecked, they can increase stress, anxiety, and even physical symptoms like palpitations. Mindfulness and self-care provide practical tools to manage these challenges. By pausing to acknowledge your thoughts without judgment, practicing slow, deep breathing, and grounding yourself in the present moment, you can calm your mind and regulate your body’s stress response. Coupled with regular self-care habits such as adequate sleep, exercise, healthy nutrition, meaningful social connections, and engaging in activities that bring over time, these practices help you respond to stress thoughtfully rather than react impulsively, reduce the intensity of negative thoughts, and foster a sense of inner peace. Ultimately, mindfulness and self-care empower you to reclaim control over your mental state, enhance your overall well-being, and live a more balanced life.
