Building Resilience to Strengthen Your Mental Health Muscle

What do you think about when you hear the words “mental health”? The Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation offers the following definition:

Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual…

• Realizes his/her own abilities,
• Can cope with the normal stresses of life,
• Can work productively and fruitfully, and
• Can contribute to his/her community.

So, when you hear the words “mental health,” do you go to a place where you think about well-being, effective coping skills, and working productively, as shared in the definition? Or did your mind take you somewhere else? Mental health is a part of who we are. It cannot and should not be ignored. There are many things we can do to promote our mental health. Just by reading this blog post, you are doing something very important for your well-being. And, you know what? The research tells us that, for us to provide the best care for children, it is important that we take care of ourselves, our well-being, and our mental health!

The question is…are you ready for a workout? We may be more aware of the importance of taking care of our physical health, but our mental health is equally important. Physical health is the state of your body and mental health is the state of your mind, your feelings, and emotions. Like physical health, mental health is always there, and it’s fine to have good days and bad days. There are many things that can influence these good days and bad days, both in positive and negative ways.

Resilience is the inner strength you use to cope with stressful situations and is a big part of mental health. When we give more time and attention to building our own resilience, we can maintain good mental health. Having good mental health helps us to be most effective in supporting the young children we care for. But like everything else, it takes time and energy! Just like exercising can build our muscles and support our physical health, think about our mental health as a muscle. We must exercise it so it becomes stronger and so we can call upon it when needed.

Here are some “exercises” you can take part in, that will help build your resilience and strengthen your mental health muscle…

• Invite a friend out to dinner. Relationships matter to your resilience and mental health. And in taking part in this “exercise,” you’re not just supporting your own, you are supporting your friend’s resilience and mental health too! Update each other on your lives, share stories, and laugh together. By the end of the night, we are sure that you will feel as though your “pitcher” is fuller than it was at the start.
• Make a list of things you like about yourself. The beliefs you have about yourself greatly impact your resilience and mental health. Think about it…when you’re feeling good and excited about yourself and about your life, would you say it would be easy or difficult for someone to bring you down? Acknowledging what you like about yourself and about your life, and celebrating those things, can help build up your resilience to negative influences.
• Try something you never have before. Unsure how this helps? By taking part in this particular “exercise,” you’re increasing your spirit of initiative. When faced with difficulty, those with initiative will make decisions and act upon them to move from a state of “what is” to a state of “what can be.” Think about a time when you were struggling with your mental health. In those moments, you can feel stuck and it’s challenging to move forward. If you work to increase your initiative, you’ll be able to more easily get going and find a way to work through the challenge.
• Rest. This one should be easy, right? It should be, but many of us struggle with it. The bottom line is that rest is an important part of exercising – physically or mentally. On the mental health side, proper rest contributes to your self-control. When you think about a lack of self-control, it’s hard to think about a positive outcome, isn’t it? Without proper rest, it can be difficult to have any level of self-control. So, keep this in mind the next time you’re thinking you should be doing something when, really, rest is the thing you should doing.