Maintaining Me Week 3 >>>

For Week 3 you’re challenged to focus on your mental wellness.

What do we mean by mental wellness?

Mental wellness refers to active participation in scholastic, cultural, and community activities and intellectual well-being occurs when we use our intellectual abilities in meaningful and satisfying ways. It includes the pursuit of intellectually stimulating and challenging activities throughout life. This includes things like learning, creativity, communicating, critical thinking, problem-solving and the pursuit of understanding and wisdom. The use of memory, imagination and other cognitive faculties to communicate, solve problems, create new ideas, and think critically enhances well-being.

Healthy intellectual well-being can look like many things depending on the individual. You may be the kind of person who is inspired by creative pursuits. You may have an interest in science and mathematics or be interested in the human condition. Music may colour your life. Finding out what you are passionate about in life and weaving this into your life is likely to encourage and sustain your motivation, attention, and concentration-and keep your intellectual well-being healthy in the process. Also, listening to and learning from others and respecting different perspectives is a sign of intellectual wellness.

There can be a circular relationship between intellectual well-being and experiences of distress, including an anxious or low mood. When you are not challenged or stimulated by life you may begin to think that you are “stuck in a rut”, and feel apathetic about life. This may impact negatively on your mood, behaviour or feelings of self-worth.

Some tips for looking after your mental wellness:

• Try something new. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences. Historically, scientists believed that
  the brain stopped growing after childhood. But current research shows that the brain can continue growing and changing throughout the lifespan. Your brain can change and adapt through stimulation, stress, and experiences.
• Read for fun. Reading, especially something you enjoy, can improve your intellect by stretching your mind to think about things you normally don’t think about. And if you don’t like reading maybe try an audiobook. Audible offers a free trial.
• Learn a foreign language. When learning different ways to communicate, your mind expands. This not only helps with being receptive to new knowledge, but also helps broaden information already learned.
• Play or learn to play a musical instrument. Playing a musical instrument can increase intellectual wellness by learning how to create sounds, make patterns, and emote through music.
• Play a game. Board games and cards are popularly known as leisure activities. These activities can also help with your intellectual wellness.
• Do puzzles. Crosswords and Sudoku are leisure activities that have proved to increase intellectual wellness. Working through puzzles or finding words in patterns uses a great amount of brain power. Increasing your ability to work through these activities can maintain and build your intellectual wellness.
• Keep a journal. Taking the time to write down thoughts or journal frequently can help those who struggle with expressing their feelings or in general for anyone who is trying to make sense of what they are feeling inside. Being able to identify your feelings and understanding yourself more and your actions increase intellectual wellness by exposing your mind to deeper thinking.
• Listen to podcasts. Strive to be open to new experiences and ideas in all areas of your life and podcasts are a great way of being introduced to new ideas.
• Expand your ability to create, develop, analyze, critique, concentrate, understand, evaluate, problem solve, predict, comprehend, etc.
• Exercise. Not only is exercise good for your heart and body, but it can also help improve another major muscle, your brain. Studies show that aerobic exercise stimulates the release of the substance known as a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which supports the growth of new connections in your brain. Ultimately,
  exercise enhances your learning, sharpens your memory, and helps you feel better overall.
• Eat well. The food you eat fuels not just your body but your brain. In fact, your brain consumes about 20% of your daily calories. Some great food sources for brain health include antioxidants in blueberries, micronutrients such as magnesium and zinc in pumpkin seeds, vitamin K, folate, and beta carotene in green leafy vegetables,
  flavonoids in chocolate, lutein, and the healthy fats and compounds in nuts, specifically walnuts.
• Stay hydrated. The human brain is composed of over 75% water, with some studies suggesting that the number is closer to 85%. What do you think happens
  when we are dehydrated? You guessed it—the cells in your brain are dehydrated too, and you experience brain fog, loss of focus, memory as well as headaches, and emotional issues like moodiness and fatigue. Aim to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily. 
• Get good sleep. Sleep is restorative.