Ten Tips for a Happier - Healthier Mind


by Courtenay Cameron - Date: 2006-12-12 - Word Count: 711 Share This!

Number ONE: Accept Yourself
Learn to love yourself. Sever dislike of yourself can lead to guilt, shame and depression. Believe in your own abilities and value your own uniqueness. Do this by: writing a list of your strengths working towards your aspirations writing poetry or songs dedicated to yourself pampering yourself having treats from time to time setting weekly or monthly achievable goals

Number TWO: Learn to Overcome and to Let Go
Everyone faces challenges and adversity. Being able to effectively cope with these challenges is crucial and each of us have our own techniques on how we do this. The best general advice for coping: Cope actively with situations that you have some degree of control over, and cope passively with situations that you dont have control over. Active coping means taking actions to improve the situation. Passive coping means to accept the situation and move on, making the best with what you've got.

Number THREE: Stay Connected and Nurture Relationships
Make time for social contacts. Feeling emotionally connected and supported is hugely important. We need relationships that we can count oh when the hard times come. We need people to trust and value us just as we trust and value them. Some hints to maintain good relationships include: Be forgiving, be tolerant, communicate honestly, express yourself, balance independence with dependence, act responsibly and nurture their values, desires and feelings and they are more likely to reciprocate. Talking to these people will help you to vent out and understand yourself and your difficulties better and this is crucial.

Number FOUR: Take Control
When we feel like the captain of our own ship, we're more interested in life and more confident. Make steps to become more independent and organised in your own life, from balancing your current account, to keeping records on calendars, to not relying on others to do your own washing.

Number FIVE: Find your Purpose and Work Towards It
Feeling like life is meaningless is a hallmark of depression. Its crucial to have goals both short term ones and long term ones. Make daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and 10 yearly goals that aren't too lofty. You'd be surprised how much effect this can have on your life!

Number SIX: Find Hope and Maintain Faith
You don't have to be religious for this. When things seem dark, it really helps to have a sense of hope and optimism about the future and a belief that your goals will eventually be achieved. Being more positive thinking helps to override fear and keep us motivated.

Number SEVEN: Help Others
When we reach out to others in need we often can feel self satisfied and proud of ourselves. Helping others can also be useful experience in helping yourself if you ever came into the same predicament as the person you were helping.

Number EIGHT: Find Flow
Professional athletes are very big into this. Flow is the experience of feeling totally involved, engrossed and focused in an activity or experience. I once heard a piece of Buddhist wisdom: "If you are thinking about resting while sweeping the floor, you are not truly experiencing life as it exists. When you sweep, sweep. When you rest, rest".

Number NINE: Enjoy the Beautiful Things in Life
The ability to appreciate beauty is aesthetics. There is a lot of negativity and ugliness in the world with wars, disease etc. Being able to appreciate beauty when you see it is a saving grace and is very uplifting. Im lucky I live in the middle of the country side and I also find it uplifting. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it can be in reading poetry, a plastic bag caught in a breeze (like in American Beauty), photography, heroes, music, in the solitude and quietness of darkness, the moon or sun, walking in woodlands, children or even a well-executed football game.

Number TEN: Embrace Change and be Flexible
Sun Tzu (a famous Judo Master and strategist) once said that when we are rigid and inflexible we are more likely to experience resistance and strain ourselves in trying to maintain our posture; but when we are flexible and willing to change something that is not working for us we are more adaptable and better adjusted. Change takes courage but its vital for your well-being.

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Related Tags: depression, mental health, happiness, therapy

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