Good physical health and nourishing relationships are excellent sources of long-term mental health. On the other hand, poor health and unhealthy relationships can have the direct opposite effect. 

If you regularly experience excessive stress, take a good hard look at these elements. They might hold plenty of potential for permanent stress reduction. 

Health

Many people stress about their weight, appearance and general health. An environment that makes healthy diet and fitness automatic can help a lot in this respect. 

Also, as we discussed last week, exercise is an excellent stress management tool. But this awesome tool only becomes fully accessible if you’re already in reasonable shape. This is yet another great reason for building healthy fitness habits. 

Lastly, many people stress about how much they stress. Taking concrete actions to improve your mental health according to the ideas shared this week and last week can be highly beneficial. 

Relationships

Being on bad terms with someone you spend plenty of time with can be very stressful (especially if you really care about what that person thinks of you). 

Many times, it’s best to just swallow your pride and compromise a little more than you might want to. Not stressing about a soured relationship is often worth a lot more than winning an argument. 

But the best is to prevent serious relationship setbacks in the first place. Challenge yourself to become mindful enough to catch yourself in that moment when things start going seriously wrong. 

In that critical moment, chances are that both parties have become defensive and irrational. Further escalating the situation can only end in tears. 

Either postpone the discussion to a time when everyone has calmed down or at least get yourself back to a calm and objective state (stop – breath in deeply – breath out slowly – think – speak). If you become calmer, chances are that the other person will too. 

And if the other person keeps responding poorly, accept that, like you, they’re just a caveman stuck in the future. Practice some tolerance or, if there really is no other solution, consider permanently moving your life away from that person. 

An extra incentive

We all know that we should look after our health and occasionally check our egos at the door for the good of our relationships. The tricky thing is actually doing it. 

If you have trouble following through, your own mental health can be a great added incentive. Adding stress reduction to the long list of other reasons might just get you over that crucial tipping point 🙂