What is Mental Health: Ways to Check your Mental Health

What is Mental Health: Ways to Check your Mental Health
We all strive to keep our body healthy by eating the right food and doing exercises. More than that, we also strive to keep our spirits healthy by practicing our own idea of spirituality and reinforcing our spirits. However, have you given much though on mental health? Have you thought about how strong your mind is? What is mental health and are there exercises that we can do to make sure that we have a strong and healthy mind?
Mental health is not just about having a mind free of any mental illness just like your physical health is not just about a body that's free of any sickness. In order for you to be healthy, you must have a strong body that can handle work and all the other physical activities. This is the same with mental health. You must not only have a mind that's free of mental illness but is sound and strong for you to enjoy life. Here are a few characteristics of a healthy mind:
The ability to enjoy life
Just like having a healthy body to enjoy the physical aspects of life, having a healthy mind allows you to enjoy life like laugh, watch movies and television, enjoy stories and conversations. A healthy mind is one that takes in the daily experiences and then reflects and recognizes the part that these experiences play in shaping your personality. If you cannot enjoy life and the daily experiences that come along with it, then you are shying away from the experiences that are supposed to be there to enrich you and your mind.
The ability to bounce back
Life will always be full of adversities and the only thing that you can do is to bounce back from these adversities. A person with a healthy mind is able to put things into perspective and act accordingly. You realize that there is a time to mourn but you also realize that too much is not healthy for you or for the people around you. A person with a healthy and strong mind is able to accept and recognize the changes and adversities in life but at the same time, bounce back and return to his own way of life or change for the better.
The ability to realize your goals
A strong and healthy mind is able to help you realize your dreams by way of strategizing, planning or the performance of the actual steps that you need to take in order to achieve your goals. Your mind must have the ability to break down goals into tangible steps that you have to take in order to achieve success.

by Giesele Bohn
in Other (submitted 2011-03-13)