A New Year, A New You: Part Two

This week in, "A New Year, A New You," we will explore mental health as an aspect that every person can focus on for the basis of self improvement.

Everyone can improve their mental health, whether you have a mental disorder or not. And remember--this is past the 1990s, mental disorder is not a scary word anymore.

Since mental health is so indicative of physical well-being, it is important to treat your psyche just as you would your body...with loving, preventative measures.

Assuming you do not have a mental disorder, here are a few questions you can focus on to either add to your goals or include as a part of your health regimen, which should be part of everyone's goals when looking to improve themselves.

Ponder these when it comes to developing a mental health goal or physical health regimen:

-Do you have depression or anxiety tendencies? Do they interfere with the daily workings of your life at times?

-Do you find yourself getting stressed out a lot? Which activities in your life bring you stress? Since stress is a part of everyday life, and can be good for you, it's important to note where you can cut out or reduce stress-producers in your life.

-Are you in relationships that bring you stress? Do you associate with negative people that may bring you down, and you are not aware of it?

-Are meditation and journal writing part of your life? Do you think they need to be? Do you think they would help you come to terms with many of your feelings?

-Do you have odd eating or sleeping patterns?

-Have you experienced past abuse or trauma?

-Are you indecisive? Do you cry a lot?

All of these questions and their answers can lead to important realizations about your life that lead to knowledge of areas that you can improve upon, or seek counseling for.

Look at the questions again, have you answered them as truthfully as possible.

Once you have answered them (it's okay if it takes a while to do some soul-searching on them) look for any problems that you may be experiencing. Again, develop a goal or two out of these, and some action steps to help you achieve a better state of mental health.

Even if you do not arrive at a goal out of this exercise, you can assess where you are in your life, and see what improvements you can make by creating little steps to follow.

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