Be Active For Your Mental Health
Act-Belong-Commit
If you regularly participate in an activity or do exercise of some kind, give
yourself two pats on the back – you're improving your physical and mental health
at the same time.
Good mental health enables us to more fully enjoy and appreciate our environment and the people around us. We can often better resist stress and tackle our challenges with a positive frame of mind. It allows us to be creative, to use our mental abilities to the fullest extent and make the most of opportunities.
To build and maintain your mental health there are three things you can do:
Act – Strive to keep yourself as active as possible, physically, socially and mentally — walk, swim, read…
Belong – Connect to your community — join a group, chat to a neighbour, meet a friend…
Commit – Look to the future and have a go — take a challenge, get involved, volunteer…
Activity and exercise has many psychological benefits:
- It can reduce anxiety – many studies have come to this conclusion. People who
- exercise report feeling less stressed or nervous. Even five minutes of aerobic exercise (exercise which requires oxygen, such as a step class, swimming, walking) can stimulate anti-anxiety effects.
- Physical exercise helps to counteract the withdrawal, inactivity and feelings of hopelessness that characterise depression. Studies show that both aerobic
- and anaerobic exercise (exercise which does not require oxygen, such
- as weightlifting) have anti-depressive effects.
- Moods such as tension, fatigue and anger are all positively affected by exercise.
- Exercising can improve the way you perceive your physical condition, athletic abilities and body image. Enhanced self-esteem is also a benefit.
- Exercise brings you into contact with other people in a non-clinical, positive environment. While you're walking, working out or at the gym you're engaging with people who share your interest in that activity.
About Endorphins:
- You may have heard about “runner's high” – this is the euphoria that runners feel after pushing themselves physically.
- Endorphins are chemicals produced in the brain and they provide relief from stress and pain.
- Exercise stimulates the production of endorphins, which is why we feel good afterwards.
- Endorphin release varies from person to person; some people will feel an endorphin rush, or second wind, after jogging for 10 minutes, others will jog for half an hour before their second wind kicks in.
- You don't have to exercise vigorously to stimulate endorphin release: meditation, acupuncture, massage therapy, even eating spicy food or breathing deeply – these all cause your body to produce endorphins naturally.
Keeping Your Mind Fit
Mental fitness helps us to achieve and sustain a mentally healthy state, just as physical fitness helps us to achieve and sustain a state of good physical health.
People's responses to stress, and difficult events, are as individual as the people experiencing them. So everyone will assess and measure their mental fitness in different ways. But there are common factors which facilitate good mental health. By considering some of these factors, it is possible to identify how we can improve our mental fitness.
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Realistic attitude - When we are able to feel and draw on optimism, a sense of perspective and flexibility, we gain the resilience needed to endure shock, hardship or change, and to carry on with our lives.
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Self-esteem and confidence - Instead of focusing on what we are lacking, we need to focus on the qualities we do have that make us a good friend, a valued colleague, a loving parent or family member.
- Emotional support - Close ties with family and friends build support networks through which we receive help and, in turn, help others.
- Mental agility - Giving our minds and bodies a workout by engaging in a variety of mental activities – such as reading a book, solving crosswords or playing a musical instrument – enhances mental agility and promotes overall wellness.
Mental Fitness Tips
Step 1: Think about your emotional well-being. Assess your emotional health regularly. Consider the particular demands or stresses you are facing and how they are affecting you.
Step 2: Give yourself permission to take a break from your worries and concerns. Recognise that dedicating even a short time every day to your mental fitness will reap significant benefits in terms of feeling rejuvenated and more confident.
Here are some simple ways to practice mental fitness:
Exercise – Regular physical activity improves psychological well-being and can reduce depression and anxiety. Joining an exercise group or a gym can also reduce loneliness, since it connects you with a new set of people sharing a common goal.
Daydream – Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a dream location. Breathe slowly and deeply. Whether it's a beach, a mountaintop, a hushed forest or a favourite room from your past, let the comforting environment wrap you in a sensation of peace and tranquillity.
Enjoy hobbies – Taking up a hobby brings balance to your life by allowing you to do something you enjoy because you want to do it, free of the pressure of everyday tasks. It also keeps your brain active.
“Collect” positive emotional moments – Make it a point to recall times when you have experienced pleasure, comfort, tenderness, confidence, or other positive emotions.
Learn ways to cope with negative thoughts – Negative thoughts can be insistent and loud. Learn to interrupt them. Don't try to block them (that never works), but don't let them take over. Try distracting yourself or comforting yourself, if you can't solve the problem right away.
Do one thing at a time – For example, when you are out for a walk or spending time with friends, turn off your mobile phone and stop making that mental “to do” list. Take in all the sights, sounds and smells you encounter.
Set personal goals – Goals don't have to be ambitious. You might decide to finish that book you started three years ago; to take a walk around the block every day; to learn to knit or play bridge; to call your friends instead of waiting for the phone to ring. Whatever goal you set, reaching it will build confidence and a sense of satisfaction.
Keep a journal – Expressing yourself after a stressful day can help you gain perspective, release tension and even boost your body's resistance to illness.
Share a laugh – Life often gets too serious, so when you hear or see something that makes you smile or laugh share it with someone you know. A little humour can go a long way to keeping us mentally fit!
Volunteer – Volunteering is called the “win-win” activity because helping others makes us feel good about ourselves. At the same time, it widens our social network, provides us with new learning experiences and can bring balance to our lives.
Treat yourself well – Cook yourself a good meal. Have a bubble bath. See a movie. Call a friend or relative you haven't talked to in ages. Sit on a park bench and breathe in the fragrance of flowers and grass. Whatever it is, do it just for you.
Thanks to the Canadian Mental Health Association's for allowing MHCA to adapt material from their Mind+Body Fitness campaign. See www.cmha.ca
Why Act- Belong - Commit?
In 2002, Healthway contracted Professor Rob Donovan (Curtin University) and others to ask community members in Western Australia: ‘what can you do to remain or become more mentally healthy? Respondents said that you need to: keep an active mind, be physically active, take time out for yourself, be socially active, and have good friends to talk to. Research in the fields of positive psychology, happiness, social capital, mental health and neurobiology supports these perceptions.
There are things we all can do to enhance our mental wellbeing. We sum it up as: Act-Belong-Commit.
Lawrence Katz, a neurobiologist at Duke University says that better brain function causes more active lives and richer social networks, and people with active lives and rich social networks maintain better brain function.
The mental health benefits resulting from physiological changes occurring during physical activity are well documented and include improvement in mood and control of anxiety and depression.
Social interactions also benefit the brain and mental states. So the basis of the Mentally Healthy OZ program is Be Active: physically, mentally and socially.
A 2002 study conducted by Martin Seligman and Edward Diener showed that the most salient characteristics of participants with the highest levels of happiness and fewest signs of depression were strong ties to friends and family. Friends, social networks and connections are important. So we say: Belonging is good for your mental health.
When Seligman talks about ‘Authentic Happiness’ he says that the two most important attributes are: engagement (with family, friends, job, hobbies) and meaning (using personal strengths to serve a larger end). Making personal and civic Commitments can enhance your mental health.
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