Mental Health: How Spiritual Health Can Help Mental Health

Mental Health: How Spiritual Health Can Help Mental Health

Mental health is all about being healthy and at peace inside. Spiritual health also, refers to your inner well-being and nurturing your spirit, which is the essence of who you are and your life purpose.

Naturally, the two are closely interlinked.

Being mentally healthy and spiritually strong means that you work on the wellness of your mind, soul and spirit. And both of them, impact your physical well-being and help you stay away from various types of mental health problems.

How to Experience Mental Health and Spiritual Well-Being

Being spiritually strong doesn’t mean that you spend your entire day in prayer or meditation, though the two can be part of your spiritual well-being routine.

Spiritual wellness can mean different things to different people, with some considering it to be more religion centered while others focusing on the qualities of finding meaning, defining purpose and infusing calmness into one’s life.

Being spiritually strong is more about strengthening your inner self and feeding your mind and soul with wholesome food- positive thoughts, quiet time, connection with others.

Spiritual wellness can lead to good mental health, by helping you reduce stress, experience greater calm and lesser anxiety, and by giving you the confidence you need to handle everyday interactions with ease.

Simple Spiritual Wellness Steps to Improve Mental Health

1. Spend some quiet time everyday. This can either be through meditation, breathing exercises, walks or runs, or just sitting and sipping your first cup of coffee in complete silence and contemplation.

2. Feed your mind and soul with positive thoughts. Affirmations, positive books and reading material, spiritually centered podcasts, take your pick!

3. Go with the flow. Our hyper-productive modern society believes in packing every minute of the day with activity. Learn to go with the flow and not get stressed out when things don’t go according to plan. Being spontaneous can be joyfully freeing and liberating.

4. Practice spiritually strengthening behaviors, like forgiveness, non-judgmental thinking and receptiveness. This is more long term and can take practice but, like nearly everything else, can be done!

5. Spend some time in caring for others. You can simply reach out to a friend who may be feeling a little lonely or help an elderly neighbor with grocery shopping or volunteer at the hospital. Doing things for others has great feel-good value and can help you experience a sense of purpose and peace as you perform them.

Improving your mental health can go hand-in-hand with working on spiritual wellness, so spend some time today looking within and reaching out. Connect with the mindsetmax community on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest to find more actionable ideas on being mentally healthy and strong and share some mental health resources or a mental health assessment that you found useful.