It’s been a busy week and work, and you have deadlines looming over you. Looks like another weekend in the office, right? Or maybe you’re a student, and finals are approaching, and it feels like the only thing you have to look forward to right now is six hours a day in the library studying. Whether it’s kids, family, relationships, work, school, or anything else in your life, when stress piles on, one of the first things to go is your mental health.
Your mental health matters, though. When that begins to slip, you can end up feeling worse and potentially impact your physical health as well. Life can get busy and hard, but prioritizing your mental health is crucial. That’s why we’ve compiled this guide of 22 mental health activities for adults that can help you re-center yourself, relax, and focus on what matters. Most of these are good habits or simple activities that you can fit into a busy schedule to help support your mental health.
Why Are Mental Health Activities Helpful?
If you’ve ever been on a meditation retreat, you’ve probably experienced the peace and relaxation that comes with focusing on your mental health. It feels amazing, but that feeling will disappear as you go back to your day-to-day life, and stress builds up again. That’s why it’s important to find simple mental health activities that you can fit into your daily life and that you can turn to when life gets tough.
Mental health activities are a way for you to navigate stress, connect with yourself and others, improve your mood, create a healthy routine, and boost your resilience. They also help you prioritize your mental health every day, which can help you avoid high levels of stress and help you bounce back from hard times and setbacks when they arise.
9 Essential Mental Health Habits
Focusing on your mental health starts by laying a strong foundation of good habits. These are 9 habits to start incorporating into your daily routine to help support your mental health from day-to-day.
Get Regular Exercise
When you’re busy or stressed, it’s easy to put exercise on the back burner and let habits slip. However, getting enough exercise regularly releases endorphins, reduces stress, and relieves some feelings of anxiety and depression. One run around the block might not turn your mental health around, but focusing on consistency can help you maximize the benefits of exercise.
The good news is that exercise can come in so many forms, and you can focus on what you enjoy most. Consider walking, running, playing sports, doing yoga, lifting weights, taking a spin class, and stretching.
Eat Mindfully
How you’re fueling your body affects how you feel day-to-day. Prioritizing proper nutrition helps you support your physical and mental health. Focus on getting good nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, magnesium, and zinc that could potentially help your mood. Also focus on getting enough of the key food groups, including protein, carbohydrates, dairy, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.
When life gets stressful, it might feel overwhelming to try and cook a nutritious meal. Consider meal planning in advance, so you’re able to grab something quickly and still have a healthy and delicious meal.
Drink Enough Water
Most of your body is made of water, so a crucial habit is to make sure you’re hydrating enough. Getting enough water can help support your brain function, stabilize your mood, and reduce feelings of anxiety. Consider getting a water bottle to carry water on the go.
Maintain a Healthy Sleep Schedule
Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your brain and mental health. During the night, your brain processes your day, forms new pathways for learning and memory, and restores everything. That’s why you feel so good after a quality night of sleep! Prioritizing getting 7–9 hours of sleep every night is an important habit to develop.
Consider setting up a good nighttime routine where you disconnect from the world and relax to help you fall asleep quickly. Create a good sleep environment that’s dark, quiet, and cool to help you sleep well.
Priorize a Thriving Social Life
Connecting with friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances is an important part of supporting your mental health. Even when life gets busy or you’re feeling down, make an effort to maintain those relationships and to connect with the people around you regularly. If you are geographically far from your social circle, try calling, texting, and video chatting with the people you love.
If you don’t have people you feel comfortable spending time with, consider widening your circle. Take a class, join a club, or even talk to the people in the grocery store line with you to begin meeting more people.
Pursue Your Hobbies
Whether you love crafts, reading, woodworking, fixing cars, or jigsaw puzzles, make time to focus on your hobbies. These activities are a way for you to take a break from the stresses of life and do something you love. Hobbies that are mentally stimulating are particularly good for your mental health because it gives your brain something to work on.
Learn a New Skill
Another good habit is to regularly learn new skills. Doing this keeps your brain engaged and can give you something to look forward to. Pick something small that you’ve always been interested in learning — like cooking a new dish — and get started.
Go Outside
Natural is one of the simplest ways to calm your mind and re-center yourself on what matters. Even if it’s just for a walk around the block, it’s important to get outside every day. Get some sunlight, breathe the fresh air, and enjoy the natural beauty around you as often as you can.
Utilize Professional Help
When needed, regularly visit a therapist or counselor to get the support you need and to learn new strategies that can provide you with a good foundation for your mental health.
13 Mental Health Exercises
In addition to creating good habits, these are 13 mental health exercises that can help you when you’re feeling particularly low, stressed, or anxious.
Practice Gratitude
Thinking about what you’re grateful for reorients your thinking toward the positive. When you’re feeling stressed, jot down five things that you’re grateful for each day to help you appreciate what’s good in your life.
Journal
Writing down your thoughts helps you sift through your emotions, identify mood patterns, and think through strategies to help. It’s particularly helpful when you’re not sure what you’re feeling because putting it in words can help you pinpoint what’s wrong.
Meditate
Deep breathing and meditation helps you slow down your heart rate and stabilize your mood. When you’re feeling stressed, take 15 minutes to stop and meditate. You might try using an app or YouTube video for guided meditation if you’re unsure where to start.
Use Guided Imagery
Visualization can help you reduce stress and relax. Try picturing a peaceful, calm place and mentally returning to it when you’re feeling anxious. For example, you might use a guided meditation app or video to help you imagine yourself on the beach or walking through a beautiful forest.
Try Mood Tracking
Keeping track of how you feel throughout the day and the month can help you identify patterns and triggers that are making your mental health worse. You could write down your moods, use an app to track it, or if you’re really crafty, consider crocheting or knitting a mood blanket for the year.
Craft Affirmations
Craft a few positive affirmations about yourself to save for a rainy day. For example, you might write something about how you are resilient and capable of weathering any storm that comes your way. Then when you’re feeling stressed or sad, you can repeat these affirmations to yourself to help foster a positive attitude.
Use Mindful Breathing Techniques
When you’re feeling anxious and on edge, try doing mindful breathing techniques to calm down. Focus on the rise and fall of your chest, breathe in deeply, hold your breath for a few seconds, and then release slowly through your mouth.
Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation
One powerful technique to relax is to use progressive muscle relaxation. This involves tensing certain muscle groups and then relaxing them, one at a time. You might start with your head or with your toes and work up or down.
Try Cognitive Restructuring
When you catch yourself thinking something negative, stop and restructure it. Challenge your negative thoughts and then replace them with something positive instead. This can help you change the way you’re thinking and create a positive mindset.
Take a Meditative Walk
Combine your daily exercise with meditation by taking a meditative walk. As you walk, focus on the feel of your footsteps, the rise and fall of your steps, and the sensation of walking. Pay attention to your surroundings and how you feel as you re-center yourself.
Incorporate Yoga
Another meditation and exercise combination is doing regular yoga. The stretching, breathing, and balance exercises can help you slow down, focus, and build muscle.
Practice Self-Compassion
When things go wrong or you slip up, it’s all too easy to mentally beat yourself up — which only lowers your self-esteem. Instead, practice self-compassion techniques. Recognize that failures and shortcomings are a universal human experience, and moving forward is what matters at this point.
Use Reframe
Reframe is an app designed to help change the way you think. If you’re looking for a way to shift your mindset and focus on your mental health, Reframe can help you get started.
When to Use Mental Health Tools
Mental health habits are perfect for everyday routines, but when do you turn to mental health activities? These are some of the times when doubling down on your mental health is important:
- During times of high stress
- When you need a mental health break from work
- When you’re experiencing symptoms of a mental health disorder
- During recovery
- Or every so often for regular maintenance
Reframe the Way You Think
There are many ways to support your mental health, and Reframe is a way to do several from one centralized app. With Reframe, you can shape how you think and approach stress and hardship to help you build long-term resilience. Download Reframe today to get started!
