Written by Brenda Onyango, edited by Erick Ojwang.

Mental health is the state of well-being in which an individual leverages his or her abilities, copes with the normal stresses of life, works productively, and promotes a positive contribution to his or her community (WHO, 2018). Consequently, the significance of the appropriate mental health state cannot be overstated.

Mental healthiness allows an individual to properly think, feel and behave in a way that will fittingly sustain one’s everyday life activities. Therefore, every individual must take responsibility for ensuring they are mentally healthy as just like any fine-tuned unit, the system operating it needs to be just as effective as the structural framework. On that account, mental health is totally as important as physical health. Anytime your mental health is compromised, all other areas of your life are subsequently negatively affected.

Nonetheless, how would you know if your mental health has been compromised? There are some telltale red flags and signs that you need to look out for to confirm that. These red flags are; changes in your eating and sleeping patterns, unexplainable tiredness, anger outburst/heightened irritability, lack of motivation, self-isolation, neglecting personal hygiene, uncharacteristic or uncommon behaviors/mistakes, poor timekeeping, and the absence of an effectively synched work-life balance.

Taking care of your mental health basically involves activities such as managing your stress effectively, taking care of your physical health (eating healthy, drinking well, sleeping adequately, and exercising regularly), maintaining healthy relationships, obtaining spiritual nourishment, managing your finances effectively, ensuring that what you watch, read and hear is nourishing your mind while avoiding polluting it with negative thoughts and irrational beliefs. Additionally, it comprises of taking time to relax or do things that you enjoy doing, managing your career/vocational activities by efficiently setting career goals, exploring different opportunities coupled with working with career coaches and mentors. Finally, taking care of your mental health also involves seeking psychological help when you are not okay. Click here to find a highly understanding and competent professional counselor.

Mental wellness is a continuous and lifelong skill as well as exercise that requires persistent repetition of suggested actions to appropriately profit from career benefits as well as life. It cannot be stressed enough how this is a lifetime commitment that you must practice regularly. We all deserve and should aspire to have a happy, productive, and significantly satisfactory life, therefore, taking care of your mental health should be a crucial priority in anybody’s life on this beautiful planet we call home.

Reference:

WHO. Mental Health: Strengthening Our Response. (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response