Our relationships are our lifeline. Without strong and meaningful relationships, we humans can become isolated and asocial, eventually impacting our mental well-being. And your mental well-being is equally important for maintaining healthy relationships. While humans have always craved companionship, having meaningful relationships has never been so important as it is in our current social conditioning. Today, we are increasingly becoming limited in our social connections. In the wake of our current social structure, we need to pay more attention to our mental health and how it impacts our relationships. Be it having a close-knit social life, deep and dependable relationships, love and romance, or sexual intimacy, all these factors are crucial in maintaining good mental health and relationships.
This article will tell you everything you need to know about why it is important to have strong relationships, how to improve relationships, and how they can impact your mental health.
Tips to Improve Your Mental Health and Relationships
Most of us think that building resilient mental health is limited to overcoming depression and anxiety. But there is far more to being in a good mental space than that. It directly impacts the way we live our life, connect with people around us, and enhance the quality of our lives. Here are a few benefits of having a great mental health include:
- Better self-esteem
- Decreased anxiety
- Greater sense of inner peace
- Mood enhancement
- Stronger and deeper relationships
As good mental health provides you with the opportunity to create stronger relationships, it indirectly betters your living standards. Some of the benefits of having solid relationships include:
- Making you happier in life
- Reducing stress levels
- Enhancing healthy social behaviour
- Improving life quality
- Giving individuals a greater sense of purpose
For something that can have such a lasting impact on your life needs careful treading and attention. Most people tend to ignore these fundamental aspects of life to pursue bigger, more superficial goals. But unless your inner self is healed and healthy, no amount of external achievement will bring true happiness. This is why it is important to maintain good relationships and mental health.
Here’s how to create an environment that will help you have the best of both worlds
It has been proven time and again that people who are more socially active and have a larger circle of friends, family, and community bonding live a happier, healthier, and longer life. And it is never about the number of connections you have; it is about how deep and meaningful those bonds are.
Here’s how you can create strong bonds and better social life:
1. Maintain a healthy lifestyle
A healthy lifestyle means eating healthy and exercising regularly. These are two proven ways of remaining physically and mentally fit, which in turn will add more value to your relationships. It has been seen that people who maintain an active and healthy lifestyle are more socially active and accepted. They have been found to live a better life in terms of their happiness quotient and life satisfaction. Eating healthy and exercising increases the blood flow in our body and regulates dopamine and serotonin levels – hormones responsible for a positive life balance.
2. Develop a balanced sleep cycle
Not sleeping enough can be an unhealthy habit impacting both your body and your mind. It can lead to mental health issues like depression and anxiety and impaired behaviour. It also reduces your quality of life as you would constantly feel lethargic and unenthusiastic. To maintain a healthy sleep cycle, you should try relaxation exercises, bringing healthy lifestyle changes like not consuming alcohol and caffeine as suggested by NAD. Very often, couples who have different sleep patterns also lose out on spending quality time together making their relationships weaker. You must develop a healthy and similar sleep cycle for better relationships.
3. Spend quality time with your partner
One of the best method to improve relationships is to spend quality time with your partner. It could be anything from talking, going for walks, taking a vacation, volunteering for a social cause, or doing small little things that will make your partner feel happy. This will also keep your relationship emotionally stronger and it is considered one of the best ways to enhance your sex life. Leave a surprise love note, call to say ‘I love you,’ send a surprise gift, go for an unplanned date. Such things keep the fire alive.
4. Keep things exciting in the bedroom.
Did you know that there is a strong correlation between sex and mental health? Several studies have suggested that a healthy sexual relationship is the basis of a deeply connected relationship and good mental health. The body secretes ‘happy hormones’ when you have sex, and it keeps your mental and physical health in a good space. So, if you are in a romantic relationship, make sure you keep the fire burning inside the bedroom. One of the simplest tips to improve sex life and keeping the fire alive is being experimental in bed. It could be using couple sex toys that you can order online from Australia’s Finest Adult novelty store: Sextoys.com.au. To make it more alive, you can also try BDSM and bondage toys, fulfilling your fantasies, role play, etc. This way, you can create a strong bond with your partner and keep yourself physically and mentally healthy.
5. Take help from the experts.
One of the most effectual ways of improving mental health and relationships is by seeking therapy. It could either be cognitive-behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy, or couple therapy. Through these therapy sessions, you can find out where you are going wrong. Whether developing a stronger sense of self to boost your mental health or finding out tools and insights about better communication between couples, therapies are great ways to reconcile.
Taking care of your mental health is needful, just as much as it is to maintain healthy relationships in your life. While love and romance are sure to make your life worth living, maintaining a healthy sex life is important for building worthwhile romance in life. And all these factors add up to good mental health and relationships.