Methods of maintaining a good mental health

Methods of maintaining a good mental health

Written By: Pavithra Srinivasan

Mental health is a level of psychological well-being, or an absence of mental illness. It is the "psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment".From the perspective of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life, and create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience.

Activity therapies

Activity therapies, also called recreation therapy and occupational therapy, promote healing through active engagement. Making crafts can be a part of occupational therapy. Walks can be a part of recreation therapy.

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a process of gaining control of physical processes and brainwaves. It can be used to decrease anxiety, increase well-being, increase relaxation, and other methods of mind-over-body control.

Expressive therapies[

Expressive therapies are a form of psychotherapy that involves the arts or art-making. These therapies include music therapy, art therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy, and poetry therapy.

Group therapy

Group therapy involves any type of therapy that takes place in a setting involving multiple people. It can include psycho dynamic groups, activity groups for expressive therapy, support groups (including the Twelve-step program), problem-solving and psycho education groups.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the general term for scientific based treatment of mental health issues based on modern medicine. It includes a number of schools, such as gestalt therapy, psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy.

Meditation

The practice of mindfulness meditation has several mental health benefits, such as bringing about reductions in depression, anxiety and stress.^{[49][50][51][52]} Mindfulness meditation may also be effective in treating substance use disorders.^[53][54] Further, mindfulness meditation appears to bring about favorable structural changes in the brain.^[55][56][57]
  

Spiritual counseling

Spiritual counselors meet with people in need to offer comfort and support and to help them gain a better understanding of their issues and develop a problem-solving relation with spirituality. These types of counselors deliver care based on spiritual, psychological and theological principles.

References:

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2. Garland EL (Jan 2014). "Mindfulness training targets neurocognitive mechanisms of addiction at the attention-appraisal-emotion interface". Front Psychiatry. 4 (173). doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00173. 
3. Tang YY, Posner MI (Jan 2013). "Special issue on mindfulness neuroscience". Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience. 8 (1): 1–3. doi:10.1093/scan/nss104.
4. Posner MI, Tang YY, Lynch G (2014). "Mechanisms of white matter change induced by meditation training". Frontiers in Psychology. 5(1220): 297–302. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01220.  
5. Holzel BK, Lazar SW, et al. (Nov 2011). "How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 6 (6): 537–559. PMID 26168376. doi:10.1177/1745691611419671