Five ways to care for your mental health

Mental health and wellbeing dey important to everybody, whether you get mental health condition or not.

World Health Organisation (WHO) define mental health as a state of well-being wia every individual go realize im own potential, to cope wit di normal stress of life, work productively and fruitfully, and also contribute to im community."

Wen we dey mentally healthy, we fit form positive relationships, cope wit day to day challenges, and use our abilities to reach our potential.

Di evidence dey clear and consistent for dis area – di better your mental wellbeing, di better your health and di better your performance for work.

Checkout dis tips on how to maintain and improve your mental wellbeing.

Identify, try remove / reduce tins wey dey stress you

For work and house. E no always dey possible, sometimes tins dey happun or go happun wey you no fit change, e get tins you fit do to remove or at least reduce di cause of di stress – weda na work or non-work related – so di more we fit understand those stressors, di easier e be to do something about dem.

E dey important to acknowledge you fit influence as well, e mean wetin you actually get power to change.

Most times we dey waste time, energy and worry on tins we simply no fit change but we must learn to cope wit am in a healthy way.

Build psychological resilience - psychological resilience get to do wit adapting and maintaining emotional strength in di face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or sources of stress.

To build resilience go help us manage difficult experiences and maintain positive emotions.

Resilience partly dey determined by personality, but some aspects of am you fit learn and develop am.

Pipo dey very capable of learning di skills wey dem need to become more resilient. E get some key things wey resilient pipo tend to do more of, wey pesin fit develop ova time.

Healthy lifestyle

Exercise, diet and sleep na di pillar of resilience – to stay fit and healthy na key factor to fight stress and to stay well.

For most pipo, na di last tin dem dey focus on wen dem dey under pressure, but e dey so important to torchlight dis area wen you dey under pressure.

Regular physical activity wey last for 45 minutes, three to five times a week fit reduce poor mental health.

All types of exercises fit improve mental health no mata di pipo age or gender.

Social Support

Dis na key factor to promote mental wellbeing, so seek support from whoever you feel dey appropriate during difficult times, e dey really important.

Your support fit come from family/friends, colleagues, health professionals or support groups.

Develop strong thinking style

Try to calm down and consider how you dey interpret di situations wey dey stress you, becos na how you reason and analyse di mata dey determine how you feel about am, rather dan di situation itself.

Sometimes, we fit develop ‘thinking errors’, especially wen we dey under pressure, wia negative thinking fit go out of control and we no dey actually see di facts and evidence of di situation, but allowing our unhelpful thoughts to drive emotional stress response.

If dis one happun, den to break down and re-evaluate di mata based on di actual evidence and facts fit help to minimise stress and improve how we feel about wetin dey go on.

Dis technique na di basis for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), many pipo dey find dis technique useful to manage mental health problems.

Develop an internal ‘Locus of Control’

Locus of control mean di extent wey pipo feel say dem get control ova di events wey dey influence dia lives.

Wen you dey deal wit challenge for life, if you feel say you get control ova di outcome den e mean say you get internal locus of control.

But if pesin feel say dem dey at di hands of external forces, dat na wetin sabi pipo dey call external locus of control.

Locus of control na continuous tin. People wey get more of internal locus of control tend to take control of situations, solve problems more effectively and get higher levels of confidence and self-esteem wey all dey drive resilience and wellbeing.

Although personality and past experiences dey shape our locus of control, but if you work on yourself you fit move towards a more internal locus of control.