Everyday actions to maintain good mental health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Northern Light Acadia Hospital is pleased to offer everyday tips you can use to improve your mental health.

BANGOR – It’s a fact of life: everyone experiences disappointment, loss, and change at some point in our lives. While it is a normal part of life, these emotions and experiences still cause sadness, anxiety, and stress.

This May, during Mental Health Awareness Month, Northern Light Acadia Hospital reminds everyone that mental resilience and wellness can be developed with certain actions and tools.

“Just as maintaining good physical health can help us recover quickly from physical injury or illness, maintaining mental wellness can help us recover from unexpected adversity, trauma, and stress,“ says Charmaine Patel, MD, medical director, Adult Inpatient, Northern Light Acadia Hospital. “It’s important to have good practices in place to build resilience for the times when we really need it.“

Here are seven steps to consider to better ensure a positive mental outlook:

1. Practice self-care and make yourself a priority – Eat a healthy diet, exercise, maintain good boundaries, try to get some sunshine, and get plenty of sleep.
2. Disconnect from electronics and social media and instead build real connections with real people – Consider adding an electronics-free time period to your day. Social media can stir up feelings of inadequacy. Connecting with others is linked to happiness.
3. Engage in activities that provide meaning – Take part in activities that make you feel happy, productive, and challenge your creativity such as drawing, going out to dinner with friends, or caring for a pet.
4. Volunteer and practice universal kindness – Helping others can enrich and expand your life—and make you happier! Being kind to others also increases the chance that you will be kind to yourself.
5. Engage in meditation and/or mindfulness – Relaxation exercises have been scientifically proven to improve mental and physical wellness!
6. Avoid substance use – Try to keep alcohol use to a minimum and avoid other drugs. Many people use alcohol and other drugs to “self-medicate” but in reality, substance use may get in the way of your ability to function at work or school, maintain a stable home life, handle life’s difficulties, and relate to others.
7. Get help from a licensed mental health professional when and if you need it –Knowing when to ask for help is important. Just as it requires effort to build and maintain physical health, so it is with mental health.

These are just a few suggestions of small but impactful ways to improve your mental health every day. Most of all, remember that people who seek and receive appropriate care can and do recover from mental illness and lead full, productive, and rewarding lives!

For more information on mental/behavioral health services offered by Northern Light Acadia Hospital, visit northernlighthealth.org/acadia .