There’s never a bad time to prioritise your mental health and take steps to make yourself more resilient, but it being November and Men’s Mental Health Month now’s the perfect time for men to take stock and see if there’s anything that’s having a detrimental effect on their health and wellbeing.
The next few weeks are dedicated to bringing more awareness to a range of different health concerns that men in particular might face, encouraging them to start conversations about how they’re feeling and to seek support if they feel they need it.
Simple ways to protect your mental health include connecting with other people, whether that’s spending more time with friends and family or joining a forum or group that’s tailored to something you’re especially interested in, for example.
Practising self-care is another immediate way you can positively impact your outlook and how you feel, so make sure that you’re getting between seven and eight hours of sleep a night, are getting regular exercise and are maintaining a well-balanced diet.
Avoiding alcohol can also make a huge difference to your mood, since it’s a depressant and disrupts the balance of neurotransmitters in your brain, affecting your thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
Moving away from the patriarchal concept of ‘manning up’, however, is particularly important as this convinces you that it’s not masculine to express emotion. When you bottle your feelings up, they can manifest in a range of negative behaviours, affecting both you and your interpersonal relationships.
We’re all people and we all experience the same emotions, good and bad, but women are far more likely to talk about what’s bothering them.
Men who are able to do the same and who seek out support when they need it will find that they become more self-aware, kinder and more empathetic, as well as becoming more resilient, with good coping mechanisms to fall back on when required.
If you do feel as though you need some support at the moment, it can be beneficial to talk things through with a psychotherapist. If you’d like to find out more about counselling, get in touch with me today.