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14 Tips for Better Mental Health

A few things that can help achieve a state of better mental health include self care, keeping the stress at bay, and improving your resilience.

Digging deeper into Mental Health Awareness Month, we want to make sure you have all the skills, strategies, and coping mechanisms you need to achieve a state of better mental health. Of course, finding ways to cope with stress and develop strategies for better mental health can often be easier said than done – but it is possible.

To help you out, we’ve created a comprehensive list of activities and strategies to help bolster your mental, physical, and emotional health, including:

 

  • Spending some time to focus on self care
  • Doing what you can to keep the stress from piling up
  • Improving your resilience to build better mental health responses
  • Using CBD to help you relax and decrease your stress levels

 

Self Care Is Self Love

First and foremost: there is absolutely nothing selfish about putting your own mental health first. You can’t properly look after others or form meaningful relationships if your mental health is suffering. So when it comes to improving your mental health, there are a few items at the top of our list that you should take some time to focus on before tackling some of the “bigger” strategies.

 

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  1. Your Mind Needs Sleep Too

Just like your body needs time to rest and recover from the day, so too does your mind. Maybe even more so, since sleep is the time in which your brain processes both your emotional and mental health.

In and of itself, sleep deprivation can affect your mental health, not to mention what it can do if you’re already dealing with poor mental health from the get-go. And without adequate sleep, especially REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, your mood can easily begin to plummet while your stress levels skyrocket.

  1. Remember: Have Fun

Taking its place at the top of the list is one of the most important rules to remember as you go through your better mental health care journey: always make sure to set aside some time for fun.

That could be going to see a comedy show, checking out a new movie, trying out a new hobby or activity, or just spending time with the people who make you laugh. Because you deserve to be happy no matter where you’re at in your mental health journey.

  1. Declutter Your Space

A cluttered and busy environment often leads to or exacerbates a frenzied state of mind. Which is why cleaning and organizing the space around you often leads to a calmer mental state.

Of course, knowing that cleaning the area around you can help and actually being able to do it can be two very different things. So if you’re struggling to declutter the space around you, don’t be afraid to ask friends or family for help. Or even bite the bullet and pay a professional to clean it for you.

Take a deep breath and do whatever it is you need to do to make your environment less chaotic so you can find a better mental health state of mind.

  1. Let Yourself Cry If You Need to Cry

As more research comes to light, we’re finding that by not allowing yourself to cry when you need to, you’re actually doing yourself much more harm than good. Studies have shown that although crying may lower your mood in the immediate moment, once you recover, you may find that your outlook is substantially less negative than it was before crying.

So in order to achieve better mental health, let yourself have a good cry when you need to before drying off your tears and picking yourself back up.

Try Not to Just Sit There at the Bottom of the Dog Pile

Sitting still and letting your feelings stew can quickly cause additional problems. So rather than let your problems evolve until they overpower you, you can use a variety of outlets to let your feelings out and work through them (and hopefully even let them go one day). That can look like taking time to work on something you love, or it can come in the form of talking with someone who can help you through your experiences.

Whatever you choose to do, remember that there’s no pressure, and you can always try something else if it doesn’t feel like one method or another really works for you.

  1. Writing Can Help You to Clear Your Mind

Honestly, any kind of creative outlet like writing, art, or various forms of crafting can be a great help in learning to take some time to clear your mind. Sometimes it can help you quiet racing thoughts or even focus on one particular problem at a time to achieve better mental health. Because it can be especially hard to work through even the simplest of things with so many other thoughts flitting through your mind.

But what writing can do that other forms of creativity can’t is allow you to physically transfer your thoughts to paper. A great exercise you can try is a Brain Dump, which consists of an unorganized list of thoughts or ideas. In this case, you can try writing down every single thought in your head until it feels like there’s nothing left. Every worry, idea, or concern – whatever things you can’t seem to get out of your head or keep on repeat so you don’t forget them.

You might be quite surprised at how quiet your mind can feel once you’ve emptied all of your thoughts from your scattered mind to a visual list. And with them all written down in front of you, you no longer have to hear them going on repeat in your mind so as not to lose track of them. From there, feel free to categorize them or leave them unorganized as you see fit.

  1. Talk to Someone About Your Feelings

Be it a friend, family member, or – even better – a licensed mental health professional, research shows that talking about your feelings and your personal experience can disrupt your negative stimulus response. Which is just a fancy way of saying that by putting your feelings into words, you can actually step back from the situation and view things in a more rational and calm manner.

If you do decide to talk to someone, try to aim for a face-to-face interaction, as it can be easier to be vulnerable and break down your walls when there are no barriers between you.

  1. Remember to Interview Your Therapist

That’s right. You are under no obligation to stick with the first, second, or even tenth therapist you find. Finding the right therapist is like finding your favorite restaurant – it might take you some trial and error to get the right fit – but not liking the first one you see is no reason to stop looking. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions to gauge their experience, behavior, and responses.

In fact, if a therapist isn't willing to answer any and all questions you may have, that should be seen as a major red flag.

  1. If Talking Doesn’t Help, Try Moving

As much as talking to someone can help, and it really can, that doesn’t mean that it’s always the right answer all of the time. Sometimes, you just have to move to bring out a better mental health outlook.

It’s true that practicing regular exercise can help lift your mood, but that’s not always possible for one reason or another. And if that’s the case, just doing a little can make a world of difference, especially if the alternative is doing nothing at all.

That may be working out, going for a walk, dancing around your kitchen to your favorite music, or whatever gets your blood pumping and lifts your mood. By doing whatever you can to move around and get yourself out of the physical or mental environment you’ve been sitting in, you might just find yourself feeling a little less stressed afterward.

Improving Your Resilience Can Build Better Mental Health

Resilience is your ability to adapt and bounce back from difficult situations or setbacks without dwelling too long on your problems or allowing yourself to fall back on unhealthy coping mechanisms. A healthy level of resilience helps give you the stability and confidence you need to face your problems head on so you can get back to enjoying life. And yes, there are steps you can take to help build up your resilience.

  1. Establish Strong Connections

It’s only human nature that we’re drawn to make connections with others. Yet the not-so-simple part is not just making connections, but making healthy connections. Ones that boost your physical, emotional, and especially mental health and provide you the support you’ll need when going through tough times.

  1. Allow Yourself to Learn from Your Past Experiences

We’re not saying it’s easy, because it’s not, but if you’ve been through a particular experience before then it’s important to try to take what you learned and apply it to your current situation. You’ve coped with things in the past, so there’s nothing to keep you from healthily coping with them now.

  1. Be Proactive About Your Mental Health

As much as it can suck to face mental health issues head on, ignoring them will only make the problems worse. If you need to, don’t be afraid to take a moment to step back, take a deeper look at your situation, and compare it to how you coped with your past experiences before taking action. Do what you need to do to care for yourself and find solutions that work. The most important step here is that you do take action as soon as you can.

CBD Can Help You Achieve Better Mental Health

 

Ashwagandha calming gummies raspberry and sleep aid cbd pm melatonin mint tincture containers next to a melatonin sleep aid gummies raspberry container - cbdMD

 

CBD is not a treatment for specific mental health issues, but CBD products are all but made to make sure you find the sense of calm and relaxation you need at any point during the day or night. Everyone expresses their stress in different ways, and because no two people are alike, neither are their stress relief needs.

Which is why we’ve developed a range of CBD products to help you whenever you need it the most – be that during the weekday, at night, or even on the weekend.

  1. CBD Calming Gummies Can Help Take the Edge Off

As one of our newest products, our CBD calming gummies are made with 300 mg of ashwagandha and 25 mg of CBD in every single serving. But why ashwagandha?

Ashwagandha has been widely recognized for its stress-relieving properties, in addition to a number of other benefits, including an increase in concentration and memory. When combined with CBD (which is also known to help reduce stress levels), the two work together to make sure that you experience the sense of calm and relaxation that you need throughout the day.

  1. Quality Sleep Is Important, and CBD Can Help

At cbdMD, we’ve recently expanded our selection of sleep-aid CBD PM products so that you can find exactly what you need. Our tried and true CBD PM for sleep tinctures make a great addition to any mental health and self-care regimen. And our new CBD Sleep Aid Gummies (also made with 100 mg of ashwagandha) pack 25 mg of CBD and delicious raspberry flavor in every serving.

All of our CBD PM for sleep products contain melatonin, valerian root, chamomile, and a range of other calming herbs to help you get the sleep you need every night.

  1. Federally Legal and Farm Bill Compliant Delta 9 Gummies

Joining the ranks of our other health and wellness products is our brand new line of Delta 9 THC gummies and capsules, all of which are derived from hemp and federally compliant. By combining CBD and THC, we’ve created a “high-potency full spectrum formula” that produces a “heightened effect.” Meaning it will provide greater benefits than either CBD or THC alone.

All of this is to say that providing you with a full hemp plant profile can elevate your relaxation, improve your quality of sleep, and give a more well-rounded feeling of calm while creating a full body balance.

Note: Despite the fact that our Delta 9 gummies are completely federally legal, many states and workplaces make their own rules concerning the use of Delta 9. Please make sure to check any rules and regulations that may apply to you before ordering and consuming Delta 9 THC products.

For more information on strategies for achieving better mental health during Mental Health Awareness Month, keep an eye on our frequently updated blog. Interested in staying up to date on the latest supplement news and cbdMD’s upcoming special offers? Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or chat with someone live today!