What it means to be in a tip-top shape
with your mental health
So what?
At a point in our lives, we all try yoga, meditate, join the gym, go for walks or eat a healthier diet in an attempt to improve our mental, physical or spiritual health. At some point during this attempt, we all skip a day, get sidetracked or sneak in a treat. And at some point during this slack, we give up without having reached the tip-top shape that we wanted to get to. In reality, we may already be in our tip-top shape which means that we just have to maintain your level of mental, physical or spiritual health.
Whether you’re looking to maintain or improve your mental, physical or spiritual health, it’s critical to determine what your tip-top shape is so you can adjust these “attempts” to your level of health. Otherwise, you may under or overdo your time and efforts. So let’s find out what your ideal tip-top shape is as it relates to your mental health. Have a look at the list below to see how many boxes you can tick and where you need to improve.
Signs that your mental health is in a tip-top shape
- Able to handle normal stresses of life
- Know your potential
- Connected to your community
- Productive at work
- Have goals and/or aspirations
- More optimistic than pessimistic
- Relaxed when meeting with new people
- Confident when facing new situations
- Connected to your feelings and emotions
- Experience happiness, love and joy
- Compassionate towards others
- Have a sense of belonging to your surroundings
- “No” is in your dictionary
My experience
My two areas of improvement are the ability to face new situations and handle normal stresses of life. Before that, it was the fact that I couldn’t say “no” to anyone. Growing up, I didn’t feel comfortable standing up for myself which meant that I didn’t learn to say no until later in life. Whether it was bullying, people asking me to do things or me simply standing up for myself, I didn’t have the confidence or the guts to say no in fear of rejection and hurting other people’s feelings. I just wanted to be liked. I felt ashamed and guilty about expressing my emotions and wasn’t able to convey my displeasure.
What now?
- What areas are you striving in and need to improve on?
- In the next few posts, we will discuss the signs of other areas of health and how to improve those areas.