Connecting with other human beings is good for your mental health.  Friends and family can help reduce your stress levels and increase your overall sense of well-being.  These connections help you feel supported and valued, which in turn will help you feel happier and less lonely.  Personal connections are beneficial to your health.  For example, loneliness can increase high blood pressure and human connections can actually prolong your life span. Existing friend and family connections need to be supportive to you, or they may not be beneficial.  You should have at least a few friends or family members with whom you: feel comfortable being around; get the sense that you could tell them anything without being judged; can ask for help to solve problems; feel valued; are treated seriously. If you're looking to make new friends, consider one of the following activities: enrol in an interesting class; join a book club; participate in a hiking club; volunteer at a non-profit organization. Helping other people is obviously beneficial to those people, but it also has many positive impacts on you.  Helping other people can: increase your level of happiness; make you feel lucky to be who you are; provide you with connections to other human beings; make you feel needed and helpful; reduce the amount of worrying you do; and give you a sense of meaning or purpose to your life. There is no shortage of charities and non-profit organizations that need volunteers to help do just about any job you can think of.  But helping others doesn't have to be so organized.  It can also include helping your neighbor carrying in her groceries, or shoveling another neighbor's sidewalk after a snowfall. Give yourself the chance to feel joy, happiness and satisfaction on a regular basis.  Laughing, for example, is known to decrease pain, promote muscle relaxation, reduce anxiety, and help your lungs and heart.  Some ways to add fun to your life on a regular basis are:  Read joke books when you're feeling down or bored. Keep a collection of photos in a place where you can look at them to give you a positive energy boost. Watch comedies on TV or at the movies, or on the radio while you're driving. Check out the silly photos on websites like I Can Has Cheezburger! Laugh at yourself and the absurd situations you may find yourself in. Colour in an adult colouring book, or have a colouring party with your friends. Enrol in a class or activity you've always wanted to try, like pottery or stained glass. Go to the spa for a pedicure, massage or facial (or all three!). Spirituality doesn't have to mean an organized religion.  It can mean understanding (or trying to understand) your purpose in life, or the meaning of your life.  Spirituality, in general, can: help reassure you of the existence of a greater force or being; give you a sense of purpose or meaning; help you understanding suffering; help you connect with other people; and remind you that good does exist in the world.  Spirituality can include joining or maintaining your faith in a specific religious institution, or it can mean focusing on your own notion of God. Meditation such as deep breathing, mindfulness, visualization and mantras can help you focus your energy and enhance your feeling of calm. Not every point in your life is going to be happy and positive.  Taking control of your health also means learning how to deal with the bad times by developing strategies that will help you understand, cope and eventually feel better.  There are several habits you can develop that will help you cope with the negative things in your life, including:  Write out your thoughts and feelings regarding a bad event.  Take the opportunity to rant about the situation (in writing).  Once it's down on paper you'll likely feel better because you've been able to organize your thoughts and release the stress you felt about the situation.  Ideally you'll be able to move on from the situation and forget it ever happened. If the problem you're experiencing is more logistical than emotional, tackle it like you would any other problem.  Write down what the problem is and all the solutions you can think of.  Assess the pros and cons of each solution.  Select a solution that works best for you and reinforce the positive reasons why you selected that solution.  Implement the solution. Sometimes we worry about a problem way more than we 'should.'  Not because we want to, but because we can't help it.  When you find yourself worrying a lot about a specific situation, take a step back and ask yourself how realistic your worry is.  Is it possible that some of the worry is exaggerated? Realize that you can't spend all day, every day worrying, so if you must worry, set aside a specific time every day to do your worrying.  Then, once you've had a chance to worry, stop and think about the good stuff going on in your life to remind yourself things are not as bad as they may seem.
حافظ على العلاقات الصحية الجيدة مع الآخرين. ساعد الآخرين. كافئ نفسك. اهتم بالروحانيات. تعلم استراتيجيات أفضل للتغلب على المشاكل.