Signs of good mental health and how maintain it for life

What is good mental health?

Good mental health is the state of wellbeing that includes acting, thinking, and feeling the way you want to. It's the ability to live your life feeling generally positive about things and coping with negative emotions in a healthy way.

It's not just the absence of certain mental health issues or conditions (like depression or anxiety). It's the state of flourishing, with a positive internal condition above the baseline of just being "fine" or "okay". Some people might think that good mental health is defined as the absence of emotional stress, but that's not really the whole story.

It's close to happiness, but more on the 'wellbeing' side than the 'experiencing pleasure' side.

Good mental health is a state; it's a condition that changes and is impacted in our everyday life. It can be promoted with intentional actions and lifestyle choices. It can be helped holistically, with medical intervention (whether that's pharmaceutical or psychological) and can be coached if you're unsure where to start.

Below, we'll take a look at why good mental health is important, how to improve your mental health and maintain it over the long term, and some other useful mental health tips.

Why is good mental health important?

With a solid grasp of your mental health, you'll be more in control of your emotions, both positive and negative.

If you have a bad day, that's fine and normal - you can deal with whatever happens and be back to baseline soon enough. If you're having a great day, you won't embarrass yourself socially by getting too amped up, or make promises you can't keep when feeling unnaturally optimistic.

Without a balanced state of mental health, you're more prone to those emotions dragging you down into forms of sadness, low energy, or chaotic anxiety that can disrupt your ability to be in control of your life.

Your mental health doesn't just affect your day-to-day functioning. It can affect your relationships (at work and in your personal life) and your ability to make good decisions for your long-term future. It's amazing how your perception of circumstances can change not based on actual reality, but based on your limited viewpoint, brain chemicals, and hormonal balance within your body. If your mental health is good over the long term, life becomes more tolerable, enjoyable, and a time in which you can thrive.

Positive mental health is important in the context of society, too: if most people have good mental health, their productivity at work will be better, and the societal healthcare burden will be reduced. Good mental health points to good societal health.

How to develop good mental health

To achieve good mental health, it's essential to focus on various aspects of well-being, both short-term and long-term. The five fundamental pillars for mental well-being encompass eating nutritious food, staying physically active, prioritizing quality sleep, practicing mindful breathing, and nurturing the ability to focus. These practices contribute to emotional balance, stress reduction, and overall mental resilience, promoting a healthier and happier state of mind.

The five fundamentals of good mental health

the status of your mind in relation to your body.

In short: if you don't take care of these in the short-term, you probably won't be able to fix things in the long term.

One neat way to sum them up is from human optimization teacher Brian Johnson of Optimize: 'Eat, move, sleep, breathe, focus.' These are the five aspects, he says, of the daily areas you must address for good mental health.

1. Eat healthy food

Eating junk food - or processed food inaccurately marketed as 'natural' - is one of the easiest ways to feel worse than you should.

While there's a whole internet out there full of dietary advice, here we'll keep it simple, and borrow a phrase from food writer Michael Pollan: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Remember: what you want isn't always what you need when it comes to food. If you're craving something tasty, you might be crashing from a blood-sugar-disrupting snack earlier that makes you feel hungrier than you really are. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and sugar as much as you can. Craving sugar? Try fresh fruits and savor their flavor, while knowing it's less likely to have negative impacts on your daily mood and long-term wellbeing.

Or you can always follow the sage family wisdom of "if your grandmother wouldn't call it food, it's not food".

If you want to be super sure about what's best for your body and mind, it's worth talking to a qualified nutritionist and getting professional advice tailored to your needs.

2 . Move your body

If you've been sitting at a desk all day and feel kinda crummy, the two are probably linked. The solution - move, however you can.

This could involve going for a walk, dancing around in your room, taking the stairs instead of the lift, or having a session in the gym.

If you've got time and a day to spare, go on a hike. 'Forest bathing' or 'nature therapy' has been shown to have various measurable health benefits - immersing yourself in nature for a short time takes you back to your primal human state, from when we lived in tribes and roamed the land on foot. It's a superb way to 'get out of your head' in a healthy way.

Walking for at least 30 minutes a day is a practice that'll keep you sane and satisfied.

3 . Get quality sleep

Adequate sleep is pretty necessary for every living being in the animal kingdom; it's crucial for life. Do not underestimate the power of a good night's sleep to radically transform your daily life: the link between sleep and mental health is a strong one.

Sometimes, poor mental health can be either the cause or result of inadequate sleep, and it's not always easy to know which one. But if you never really think about your sleep habits and environment, you might be missing a crucial missing link in living up to your potential.

Sleeping well has become an area of intense interest recently, with sleep scientist Matthew Walker leading the crusade for us all to prioritize sleep as our #1 health concern. If you haven't already, check out his TED talk and find out what simple changes you can make that might have big results.

How many bad decisions were made throughout history by people running on too little sleep?

4 . Breathing exercise practices

It's something you've practiced more than anything else, but can you really say you're good at it? Breathing is so important for reducing stress and giving your brain the fuel it needs to function properly.

Whether it's a daily practice of meditation, or even just a minute or two of intentional slow breathing, you can easily fit this crucial practice into the quiet moments of your day.

It's worth checking your environmental carbon dioxide levels too - stuffy, badly-ventilated rooms can have seriously bad effects on your concentration and mood.

5 . Find your focus

One symptom of poor mental health is an inability to focus. Living a hectic life in a hectic world makes it difficult to slow down and direct your attention to one thing, even just for a short amount of time.

But a permanently restless mind is not a healthy one. You can't deal well with problems or reach a state of proper relaxation without being able to ignore the outside world for a while and give all your attention to one thing.

A focus practice is essential for calming your mind. This could involve meditation, which almost always has positive benefits.

But if that's not your bag, why not try reading a book, painting, or working on a craft project? Time away from distractions (especially of the digital kind) is one of the best ways to protect your attention. Remember, if it's not something you do often, it might take a while to get used to. Attention is like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

Prioritized social relationships

The above tips for improving your mental health focus on the fundamental self-care routines that will help you build a robust inner state. The next aspect of achieving good mental health involves looking outwards, towards other people.

Connection with other humans is a vital part of cultivating positive mental health, and it's one that's easily overlooked. If you've ever played the videogame 'The Sims', you'll know how this works.

It's a game where you oversee the lives of people going about their daily business in a sort of experimental sandbox. You quickly find out that leaving people to follow their every whim and desire doesn't lead to good long-term outcomes - they need direction. Your Sim has a range of needs, represented by bars showing different amounts. If their bladder bar is full, they need to go to the bathroom. If their hunger bar is empty, they need to eat. And if their 'social' bar is empty, they need connection.

In the videogame, it's easy to diagnose a lonely Sim - just look at their stats. But in real life, it's not always so obvious. Some people, especially the more introverted folks, can go quite a while without interacting with people. While we're more cognizant of this than ever before, mid-pandemic, the signs of a lack of connection just don't show up too well.

But lack of meaningful social connection is one of the prime indicators of poor mental health. Social connectedness has been found to have a strong link to psychological health in wider populations.

You can connect with people in lots of different ways:

• Phone a friend you haven't talked to in a while
• Make conversation with a stranger at a cafe
• Play online gaming with your buds
• Go to a sports or activity club
• Go to networking events or debate clubs
• Walk your dog and say hi to other dog walkers
• Volunteer at a local charity
• Say hi to your neighbors
• Make conversation with cashiers or other service workers

Sometimes, these surface-level connections are enough to satisfy that daily need for social interaction. At least one per day is something to aim for if you live alone, for example. For longer-term connection needs, we'll look at that below.

How to maintain good mental health

Maintaining good mental health involves cultivating healthy habits, regular social activities, setting goals, and looking at the big picture. Discuss your thoughts and feelings with friends and seek professional help when necessary. Remember, mental well-being is an ongoing journey, and continuous self-care is key to its maintenance.

Maintain healthy habits and routines

Those habits we explored above shouldn't be treated as the cure for poor mental health - they're the prevention. And they get more useful over time.

Think of it like a bank account with compound interest. Those little additions to your 'lifestyle bank' can have massively positive outcomes down the line. Discipline, routine and systematic thinking will take you far - Atomic Habits is a good place to start.

Saying 'hi' to people can give you a small lift, but talking to people regularly will build relationships and overall wellbeing. How else can your daily routine be translated into long-term outcomes?

Talk about things

Letting your problems stay hidden isn't always the best way to deal with them. If something's eating you up, one of the best ways to heal is to share your feelings with a trusted party - a friend, partner, family member, or mental health professional.

Talk therapy is good in certain circumstances. It won't work for everyone, and it's possible that you can use talking about an issue as a distraction from actually confronting it. But for longer-term issues that keep coming up, seeing a therapist or qualified professional is a healthy approach to have.

Talking is one of the best ways to understand a problem - when you have to put something into words, it can immediately help you see it in a different light.

Dream big

Without goals, you can coast through life and find yourself in a place of boredom or dissatisfaction.

Chris Guillebeau, author of 'The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding The Quest That Will Bring Purpose To Your Life', suggests we all find a 'quest' to bring fulfillment to life's journey:

"If you want to get the embers burning, you have to blend dissatisfaction with inspiration, and then you have to connect the dissatisfaction to a greater purpose."

Is there something you can aim for? A goal that'll push you through the difficult days and make you want to adopt good habits? Setting life goals has been shown to help improve mental health outcomes - check out our guide to setting life goals for more.

Focus on others

Some of these answers don't come easily. And the answer might not even come from an increased amount of self-reflection. Sometimes, the best way to improve your wellbeing is to forget about yourself and focus on others.

If you're trying to figure out potential big changes in your life, you might find that revelations don't come to you from ruminating - they instead come from getting out there into the world and helping other people.

Have you ever struggled with a puzzle or challenge that seemed impossible until you stepped away and forgot about it? The phrase 'sleep on it' is based on the fact that your subconscious mind is often better at figuring out problems than your conscious mind. Well, the same goes for life problems.

Sometimes, focusing on other people in social settings will have the same effect.

Remember: it's an ongoing journey. If you treat improving your mental wellbeing as a long-term goal, it's going to have to be specific. Because of the broad nature of this topic, there won't be a defined line you cross.

Think about the bigger picture

When your life satisfaction is low, your mental health tends to follow. Or you can be in perfect physical shape and have tons of friends but still be unsatisfied. Your inner state reflects your outer experience.

So if things aren't improving, it might be time to get out of your own way and look at the big picture to improve your quality of life.

Is it time to get out of that relationship that isn't going anywhere?

Are you following someone else's path or your own?

Are you actually in a career you're interested in, or just muddling along?

Can you change things you previously thought unchangeable?

These hard questions aren't easy to answer, but they might be some of the most important ones you'll ever ask.

If you're not sure how to look at the big picture, F4S can help. With more than 20 years of research, our self-development platform is designed to help you dream big and accomplish your goals.

To get started, take the free F4S assessment to find out your biggest motivational traits. You'll gain instant access to a free AI coaching program such as Vital Wellbeing or Big Picture Thinker.