Most people know the keys to physical health, even if they don't always eat right or get enough exercise.
Knowing what to do to stay mentally healthy isn't as clear, even though the activities are much the same. Staying active and eating a proper diet go a long way to help both areas of health, but mental wellness can also be improved by learning how to deal with stress and other challenges that come up in our lives.
"We have this belief we've got to take care of our body and we know that if we take a period of time, a couple of years, where we do nothing but smoke and drink and stay up and don't get enough sleep, we're probably going to suffer some physical health impacts as a result," Canadian Mental Health Association Prince George branch executive director Maureen Davis said. "The same thing is so true for mental health, so if you aren't putting the time, effort and energy into keeping your mental well-being strong, you are putting yourself at risk of developing mental health problems and mental illnesses."
Davis said mental health, much like physical health, is a continuum. Some people are very healthy and experience few challenges, while others face ongoing challenges to stay mentally healthy.
By understanding what type of mental wellness activities and supports exist in the community, people can help themselves or loved ones deal with mental health issues, which can occur at any point in life.
"Most of us, at some point in our lives, will be touched either personally with a mental health challenge or we'll have family or friends who experience those challenges," Northern Health northwest mental health and addictions services director Michael Melia said. "There's still a lot of stigma and people find it hard to discuss and want to avoid being seen as experiencing difficulties."
Mental wellness tools help people deal with adverse events in their lives in a more manageable way and can prevent the onset of mental illness.
"There are always things in our lives that are going to invite us into sadness," Davis said. "But they don't always have to invite us into depression."
For instance, Melia said studies show people's mindsets surrounding how they deal with stress has a direct impact on their overall health. People who feel the stress is damaging their health are worse off than people with similar stress levels who feel they are able to handle stress.
So mental wellness isn't about removing all types of stress, which are inevitable in life, it's learning how to live with the right level and type of stress.
"Can we accept a certain level of anxiety and appreciate anxiety has a healthy role for us?" Davis said. "It warns us of danger, it warns us of things we need to be cautious of - but we have to learn how to manage anxiety so it doesn't overwhelm us."
Diet and proper exercise are great places to start when examining mental wellness, but there are other more specific activities that can also help.
Davis said learning relaxation activities like "thought stopping" and meditation are ways to control and manage stress levels. She said they can take time to master, but can pay off with persistence.
Even something as simple as learning how to breath properly can help. Davis is encouraged young children are being taught deep breathing activities in school, while Melia said adults can benefit as well.
"If we teach people the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing [also known as belly breathing] in controlling and reducing those feelings of anxiety and stress, we can make a difference in how people respond," he said.
According to Davis, other mental wellness tools include getting enough sleep, taking time out for yourself everyday and watching out for overabundance in things like eating, watching TV or using other electronics.
"[Those things] do impact us, they tend to raise anxiety," she said.
Technology can be helpful in other ways, according to Melia. He's been subscribing to a daily service that sends him an inspiring text message each afternoon and said it gives him a boost whenever they arrive.
Melia said personalized supportive text messages have also be shown to increase the effectiveness of smoking cessation as the positive reinforcement helps people work through the urge to pick up a cigarette.
Talking about mental health issues as they arise can be a big help as well. The initiative for a conversation could come from the person dealing with the mental health challenge or from someone supporting them asking them how they are doing.
"[Asking] is a very easy thing if you feel comfortable, but it's extremely hard if you don't," Melia said. "It can make a real difference to an individual, just having someone asking how you are doing, if there anything I can do to help."
Mental wellness isn't just something to practice at home, it can also be done at work. Davis said employers are increasingly seeing the value of encouraging positive mental activities because it leads to a healthier workforce overall.
She said workplaces should not only offer breaks for employees, but strongly encourage they take them. She also hopes that managers will begin to better understand that taking a day off for mental wellness can be just as important taking a sick day when someone comes down with the flu.
"There's still a [perceived] difference between I was out snow boarding and I threw out my back versus I've been facing Christmas and feeling depressed about it," she said.
The Canadian Mental Health Association uses a "personal wellness flower" to help people determine how well their doing with their overall health.
Each petal represents one of seven different types of health people need to balance. It touches on everything from physical and emotional health to how people feel they're doing when it comes to their intellectual, social, spiritual, sexual and occupational health levels.
Many people are good at monitoring their physical and emotional health, but the others may require further reflection.
Intellectual health can include everything from memory to creative thinking to concentration levels. Social health covers areas including having satisfying friendships to how you interact with the world around you. Spiritual health applies to people with religious believes and those that tend to their spirit through other ways, like taking a walk in nature. Sexual health looks at whether people practise their sexuality in a good way. Occupational health varies from feeling satisfaction from work to goal setting and time management.
Davis said all of the different types of health are connected.
"If your physical health goes down, let's say you develop cancer or something along those lines, then the chances of you developing a mental illness along with that are much higher," she said.
