Throughout life we will all be faced with stress, loss, adverse situations and disappointments. Having good/solid mental health doesn’t mean we never feel anxious, sad or stressed; but it does mean we have stronger resilience to bounce back from adverse scenarios, stress and trauma. Just as those with physical strength are able to better handle injury or illness.

Here’s a few tips on how to better handle emotions as they arise, boost your mood and build resilience:

1. Stay Active

Regular activity and exercise are beneficial for you brain, not just your body. Even if you hate the gym (like me), you can find enjoyable ways to stay active daily liking walking around in the park at lunch time, cycling instead of driving to work, throwing the ball with your kids/dog. Find something active which enjoy doing and focus on the movement of your body at the time. Dancing, swimming, walking all great options.

2. Don’t skip on sleep

You need only ask a new mom with months of broken sleep and a newborn how it’s affected her mood, energy levels and ability to handle stress and you’ll realize how beneficial sleep is to our state of mind and long-term health. Try to wind down before getting 7-9 hours of good sleep per night. Discard screens two hours before bed, read in soft light or start a meditation routine before bed to ensure you can enter into a deeper sleep and more easily.

3. Find a purpose and meaning in life

This may seem like quite a huge one but it’s really just trying to find work and activities that add meaning to your daily life and others. Volunteering and caring for others often help us to take our minds and focus off our own daily struggles and find gratitude in what we do have. Whether or not you’re getting paid to do it; find something that makes you feel productive, and/or gives you a chance to be creative like painting, making something new, learning a new language, caregiving or volunteering.

4. Take regular stock of your stress levels

In between the business of life and work, take time to do things you love and ease into leisure of walks in nature, listen to your favorite music, dance in the kitchen, read a book you’ve been dying to. Find out what makes you feel calm and incorporate that into your life especially when you feel stressed- long baths, uplifting music, your favorite scents of ground coffee or a rose garden.

5. Face-to-face connection

While for some of us during isolation this is not possible, whenever you can- put the video calls or text messaging aside and choose to have quality in-person time with loved one who is a good listener. If you don’t have such a person/people in your life right now, a counsellor is only a phone call away and once you find the person you’re comfortable to share with, this is a great tool and space to share and let go of your mental stresses to make space for new habits to form and creativity to flourish.