Usually, when we think about creating habits, we often think about creating positive physical health or nutritional health patterns. We start to consider exercising regularly so that our body becomes healthier. Or we want to change eating patterns so that our diet becomes more appropriate. Seldom do we consider habits to make our mind healthier and stronger!

A healthy mind is a crucial ingredient to living a healthy and happy life and a key to being productive at the workplace and finding success in personal relationships. It is also important to note that mind and body are intricately connected. Hence, mental well-being is fundamental to consider as it can impact physical health as well!

Here are some easy habits you can consider to make yourself mentally stronger!

1) Take charge of your emotions!
Emotions are central to our lives, and they impact us powerfully—especially the negative emotions. Perhaps you argued with your spouse or a conflict with your boss, or a misunderstanding with a friend. These can leave you emotionally charged and upset, annoyed, anxious or even filled with anger! This is okay as it is a normal reaction to such situations. These feelings don't make you weak!

However, if you let this affect your reactions to these situations, it will only create further problems, both for you and those involved. And these will make you weaker as you will have expelled a lot of your energy into something that only created further problems.

So rather than react to these situations from a place of emotional distress, step back for a moment, breathe deeply, take space from the situation by going for a walk. Reflect quietly and find a good way to respond to the situation in a more appropriate manner. Sometimes you may discover that there may not even be a need to respond. You recognize these negative emotions, choose to acknowledge them, and then just let them go!

When you take charge of your emotions and respond to situations calmly with a clear head, rather than react from a place of hurt, you will become stronger!

2) Question yourself!
You may wonder how questioning yourself makes you stronger! When you reflect critically about your beliefs and thoughts, you are challenging yourself. With so much information bombarded at you these days, it is challenging to stay connected with the truth and discern what is true and what is a lie. It is easier to accept and believe rumours and lies fed to us.

Mentally strong people have the habit of questioning everything and researching what is true and what isn't. They also ask themselves if their responses to such news are based on beliefs or hurt they carry within themselves or if the information is accurate.

Questioning yourself gives you a reason to dig deeper and learn more about different perspectives held by other people, cultures, and even different eras of history. The more you know, the less is your ignorance. And the less your ignorance, the more mentally strong you are, as this gives you control over how information fed to you affects you!

3) Learn from your mistakes!
No one in this world is perfect and free from making mistakes. We all have made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes. This is perfectly normal. What is important is that we don't repeat the same mistakes and learn from our mistakes and grow. Insanity is defined as repeating the same action expecting different consequences.

When we don't learn from our mistakes and keep repeating them, we are essentially not taking responsibility for them and blaming others for our failures. Eventually, we will isolate everyone, leading to depression, anxiety and/or a whole other range of mental issues.

Also, obsessing over our mistakes will also create unnecessary stress in your life. While learning from them and resolving not to repeat them will increase your awareness and make you mentally tougher as you will most probably not repeat these errors.

Reflect on what happened when you made a mistake and figure out why and how it happened. Make a plan to learn from it and develop strategies on how to improve on it the next time. This shows that you choose to grow, and this is definitely a way to make your mind stronger!

4) Create Healthy Boundaries!
Healthy boundaries are essential to our well-being. Do you feel like a doormat for people to walk all over you? Or do you feel like a garbage can where all members of your social circle choose to dump their emotional baggage? Do you drop everything to help others all the time? These are signs that you aren't putting up healthy boundaries, which can be detrimental to your mental health.

Creating healthy boundaries between you and the people you share life with is a critical habit for your mental strength. Boundaries are an essential measure of your self-worth. By creating healthy boundaries, you are letting others know how to treat you while allowing you to be the best version of yourself.

5) Take time for yourself!
Do you take time to be with yourself, do the things you enjoy doing or engage with some activities that nourish you? Or do you try to fill your day with work or activities to do something always for others? If you don't take time to recharge yourself, your mental health will suffer.

Remember, you can't uplift others if you cannot uplift yourself. Create a strategy to be with yourself daily. Go for a walk along the beach or the forest, or spend time in nature that is near you. Or take your bicycle and go for a ride. Or simply just relax on the couch and read a book. According to many studies, downtime allows the brain to restore attention and motivation. It also promotes creativity, strengthens memory and can make you more productive in the long run. So don't forget to include this in your daily life!

6) Limit your time on Social Media!
Have you ever wondered how many hours you spend on social media each day? Social media has forcefully become part of daily lives today. While it can be a helpful way to connect with friends and family who live away from you, it can also become so addictive that it consumes a large part of our time.

Another more dangerous part of apps like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and others is making you compare your life with others. If your perception is that you are not as cool as them or don't get as many likes as they do, it sets you off negatively. It is important to remember that what people post on social media is only what they want to project as their life, not necessarily the truth or their whole lives.

Many studies have shown that prolonged use of social media apps links to symptoms of mental health issues like depression and anxiety. When you expose yourself to many social media apps, you could start thinking that you are not good enough, that your life isn't fun enough or be jealous of what people seem to be doing online.

Limiting social media use can reduce your exposure to such feelings and make you more content and happy. So try to evolve a strategy of how much you use them and when you use them.

7) Meditate every day!
Meditation is the process of engaging with a chosen positive object of focus for a period of time. In a world where you are constantly distracted by so many things, be it messages on the telephone, notifications from social media, or the sheer number of distractions that are available through retail outlets, your mind can get overwhelmed and weakened over time.

All these distractions can drain you of energy and create confusion about your core values and priorities. And functioning with such a mind will only create more problems for you, as you won't necessarily be able to make the right choices nor sustain the choices you make.

To protect your mind from such disturbances, set some time aside for meditation each day. This will allow you to train your mind to become more focused and healthy. Many studies have revealed how even setting aside 15-20 minutes of meditation can be immensely useful to reduce stress and anxiety and contribute to alleviating depression.

So make sure you create a habit of setting aside some time to meditate each day. If you are unsure of how to meditate, find a mentor or teacher who can guide you through this process. You will not regret it!

Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to inculcate all these habits at once. Start with one that is most easy for you and sustain it for a while, until it becomes a regular pattern in your life. Then bring in a second one and do the same. Eventually try to incorporate as many of these habits as possible so that your mental wellbeing will be given the attention that it deserves.

Namaste!

Please note: This article is written for educational purposes only and is based on the personal opinion of the author. It is not a substitute for professional advice. Rather, it is meant for reflective self guidance purposes only. We strongly recommend that you always follow your intution in deciding what is best for you!

We are thrilled to announce a new course for June 2021 titled Master Your Mind! -The Power of meditation in refining your thoughts and gaining focus!

The purpose of this seminar is to assist you to master your mind through profound meditation practices from the Viniyoga tradition. The practices taught will incorporate some of its holistic range of tools including simple body movements (Āsana) conscious breath regulation (Prāṇāyāma) repetition of oral sounds (Mantra) visualizations (Bhāvanā) gestures (Nyāsa) and guided meditation (Dhyānam). For more information on the event or to sign up click the button below!

There are many ways you can seek help to deal with mental health issues. Psychotherapy, Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis are the more conventional approaches. However, there are other methods like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) that can also be an effective treatment. However, treatment of mental health needs a holistic approach and should include changes in nutrition, lifestyle etc.

Yoga Therapy has also come to be recognised as an effective complementary treatment to support those with mental health issues. Meditation is among one of the more effective tools of Yoga to strengthen the mind and help alleviate many of the symptoms of mental health issues.

Choose a method that is most suitable to you and that which is easily accessible. No matter which line of healing you choose to pursue, it is important that you don’t delay seeking treatment. Also please note that you are not alone in this journey and there is appropriate help available if you seek it!

Dr. Kausthub Desikachar also assists many clients in their healing journey that includes mental health issues. He offers insightful mentoring through private consultations, which can be taken either face-to-face or online . To book a session with him, kindly visit his private consultations page by clicking here>

Dr. Kausthub Desikachar is the successor and current lineage holder of the classical Yoga tradition of T Krishnamacharya & TKV Desikachar. He is an acclaimed yoga teacher, yoga therapist, healer and spiritual adviser. His objectives include the sharing of the authentic teachings of Yoga to the modern era, as well as building bridges between different healing modalities to promote physical, emotional social and spiritual health.

For more information on his work and teachings, kindly visit http://www.viniyoga.com.sg or http://www.khyf.net or http://www.kausthub.com

Apart from Yoga Teaching, Kausthub is also an avid photographer, inspirational writer and poet. To view, some of his inspirations, visit the website www.kausthubdesikachar.com

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