Creating mental balance through daily habits.

Mental Balance

Maintaining mental balance is crucial for overall wellbeing as a healthy mind supports emotional resilience, sharpens focus, and enhances quality of life. While life's challenges can often disrupt mental equilibrium, intentionally cultivating balance through various practices can lead to sustained mental health. Many of the practices mentioned elsewhere in the booklet will provide a strong foundation for cultivating mental balance, however, there are some more specific strategies you can apply to foster a calm and resilient mind. 

1. Make Use of Restorative Practices

   Make time for periods of rest that take you away from the daily grind. This has beneficial effects on our wellbeing, helping us perform better and avoid burnout.
   Engaging in a mindfulness-based practice can be a great way to relieve feelings of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout. Apps like Calm can be a great way to easily access these practices.
   
   Utilising brief breathwork practices, particularly cyclic sighing, can be an excellent way to improve mood and provide stress reduction both in acutely and chronically
   
   Use stressors to build mental resilience by reappraising challenges as opportunities to develop coping skills. This perspective can transform difficult situations into opportunities for personal growth.
   
   

2. Seek Support

   If you feel like things are getting on top of you consider consulting a mental health professional. They will be able to provide you with personalised guidance that can help you understand and manage psychological challenges, whilst building resilience.
   
   Surrounding yourself with supportive friends and family who can provide emotional support, distraction and practical guidance can assist you in overcoming adversity and protection from depression.
   
   

3. Cultivate self-awareness

   Build your self awareness through paying attention to your mental state, understanding your emotional triggers, and acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses. Developing this capability can guide you in seeking timely support.
   
   

4. Connect with Nature

   Spending time in environments rich in green and blue space, such as in a forest or at the beach, has been shown to have significant restorative effects, even periods as short as 20 minutes!

   Try to integrate natural elements into your living and workspaces, such as plants or natural light. Even small changes could make a significant difference.
   
   Consider chunking together multiple activities that can be done in a natural environment e.g., walking/cycling in the morning might allow you to be exposed to natural light and green space as well as getting beneficial aerobic exercise, all of which will benefit your mood and sleep!

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References

1. de Bloom, J. et al. Do we recover from vacation? Meta-analysis of vacation effects on health and well- being. J. Occup. Health 51, 13–25 (2009).

2. Albulescu, P. et al. ‘Give me a break!’ A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro- breaks for increasing well-being and performance. PLoS ONE 17, e0272460 (2022).

3. Khoury, B., Sharma, M., Rush, S. E. & Fournier, C. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis. J. Psychosom. Res. 78, 519–528 (2015).

4. Huberty, J. et al. Efficacy of the Mindfulness Meditation Mobile App ‘Calm’ to Reduce Stress Among College Students: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR MHealth UHealth 7, e14273 (2019).

5. Balban, M. Y. et al. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Rep. Med. 4, 100895 (2023).

6. Shand, L. K., Cowlishaw, S., Brooker, J. E., Burney, S. & Ricciardelli, L. A. Correlates of post-traumatic stress symptoms and growth in cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychooncology. 24, 624–634 (2015