Thoughts and experiences of life and mental health

Exercising the mind Part M-3

Daily goal - read at least 20 pages from a book.

Most people would focus on exercising their physical bodies, yet forget that their minds ought to be exercised as much as their physical bodies do, "if not more."

When someone feels that their bodies need exercise, they join a gym, yet when their minds start waning, they relapse.

Exercising the mind daily needs to be a top priority on the agenda. Reading, learning something new, and writing thoughts and feelings in a journal, it is important to remember that looking after your mind and body's well-being is an exercise in itself.

Exercising your mind is an activity that not only challenges you but also helps you to understand yourself better. By reading and studying, we can learn more about ourselves and what we want out of life. Reading is one way of exercising the mind, however, a daily goal may be to read at least 20 pages from a book or article. This may sound like a lot, but if you read for 5 minutes each day, it will add up to 20 pages in a week. Do this for one month and you will have read over 100 pages which is quite significant!

By reading books that interest us, we will feel more motivated to finish reading them, as opposed to simply reading from school books that don't interest us at all. If our interests lie in fictional novels, then there are many free sites on the internet where we can download books for free or at cheap prices such as Barnes & Noble or even Amazon.

My favorite authors are Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and James Herbert (the horror author). Reading these authors has helped me understand myself better, and I feel my imagination has improved since I started reading them regularly (over the years).

It's interesting how these authors write so well that you can almost live through what they are describing,!

Another way of exercising your mind is by writing thoughts down onto paper or typing it into a word document. This helps our minds to release emotions and feelings, 'again we notice journaling pop up'.

These are all examples of what you can do daily to benefit and create mental health strengths. One's mind can decay just like any other substance on the natural earth.

Research has proven that cognitive skills wane over time, this is the main reason why we should be exercising our minds daily.

Finding alternative ways to cope with mental difficulties and hobbies is an exceptional way of coping, and dealing with continuous raging thoughts. Anxious feelings can be diverted to productivity. Depressed emotions can be lightened with positive or humorous books. One of the best ways "from my personal experiences" to deal with mental health difficulties is to exercise my mind daily and find alternative ways of dealing with my struggles.

Adding a mental exercise to your routine daily may just change your life and bring more positive attributes to your daily struggles. Using the excuse "I don't have time" or "I don't have the energy" will not change anything. No one can rewrite your emotions or temperaments, only you have the power within to make a difference in your life.

"Be better than yesterday".

Challenging the mind with some of the following examples may improve mental health substantially. Some research programs proved that coloring is similar to meditation, and meditating has also been proven to improve our mental states.

learning new skills in our daily life, the significance of this skill is not of consequence, as long as a new skill or subject has been uncovered during the day.

Go outside, breathe in some fresh air, and merely relax in the outside world, this may improve the mental state significantly. We all have to cook at some point during our lives, whether we cook daily or once a week, learn a new recipe, try something new, maybe add something exotic, this will add excitement to your life and in return, your mind will thank you through growth and satisfaction.