Self-Care for Men: Tips for a Healthier Lifestyle

While stigma is beyond over for men’s mental health, there are still generations and parenting methods that keep their son’s feelings within, and that may not be deliberate. Men for centuries have had this role of being the provider, protector, and strong for their family and against others. A common misconception about weakness is when you show any kind of feeling, which is a very unfortunate pressure that society and fathers have consistently put on their sons.

In modern society, we are beginning to understand and break the walls that men have been putting up. With suicide awareness and substance abuse programs, these are just the basics that need to be in place. Together as a community, we need to encourage our sons, partners, and fathers to treat themselves with kindness and to do stuff that helps with their mental health.

Today is the day that we need to introduce and push these mental health and self-care days to the ones we love to ensure they are clicking the reset button and better processing their emotions.

Physical Health

Some people believe that a way to promote better mental health through encouraging serotonin and endorphins throughout the body is through moving it. If you aren’t a gym lover, there are other ways you can squeeze in some physical activity, such as going on long hikes with friends and family, paddles, tennis, running, or long walks with the dog. Even if it’s as simple as getting your 10,000 steps through walking up and down shopping centre looking for a men’s hoodie in sale.

These are just a few examples of how to get your body and mind stimulated. Physical health keeps your mind occupied and away from overthinking about things that you both cannot control and are meaningless to your actual life. I have been guilty in the past of getting myself into a depressive state because of my lack of activities. I would usually resort to doom scrolling, which would take hours away from my day and I would have accomplished nothing and compared myself to hundreds of people, leaving me upset and angry that I’ve done nothing with my day.

Finding a way to better your physical health will enable a better outlook on life and give you some self-worth that we all need to keep hold of. Find something you enjoy and roll with it.

Mindfulness

I have definitely in my time even around negative nancies and it’s interesting to hear that some people would much rather complain than see the bright side of any and everything. Not only that but before something has happened, they convince themselves the latter is what will happen, it’s like a lack of hope that anything will go their way. Mindfulness has transformed my life and if you are not yet familiar with what this is, let me introduce you.

Mindfulness is a basic human ability that allows you to be present and aware of where you are and what you’re doing without judgement. So you are not dwelling or stressing on either the past or the future; you are living in the moment and taking things as they come and leaving things as they are. While this isn’t something that comes naturally to most people, it makes perfect sense, as we are always told to look ahead, and then when we are older, we can’t help but look backwards.

In order to begin your journey with mindfulness, there are a few things that you can do today, such as setting reminders to tell yourself to remain present and shutting your mind off when you catch yourself dwelling on things you have no control over and stressing yourself out. You could keep a bobble or elastic band and then snap it to send your body into the realisation to present what we are focusing on. This is so freeing and it’s a long journey to take but it will free your mind up with all that weight you are carrying.

Meditation

While this isn’t something for everyone, especially myself when I am not doing something, my mind tends to go off on a spin and remembers everything I have done that I am embarrassed about, dwelling on people’s potential opinions of me and everything I have yet to do with my life, but meditation is supposed to help you silence that self-deprecating voice and allow you to sit comfortably with yourself in complete and utter silence and relaxation.

If you are interested in learning how to meditate, here are a few tips that I have gathered that have helped others.

1. Settle in a quiet space that you feel relaxed and comfortable in.
2. Breathing techniques you can trail, but you can begin with deep breaths, defocusing your eyes, and gazing softly into the middle of the room, or completely close if you prefer.
3. Take a few moments to centre yourself and settle into your position and body.
4. Focus on your breathing, shutting off from the noise around you, and minimising it to one thing.
5. Allow your mind to be free from everything else, whether it be your job, your partner, money issues, or an old memory.

There are many ways you can adopt meditation into your life so don’t be afraid to try different methods and different advice, as it’s not a one-size-fits-all method.

Connect With Others

As people, we are very social creatures so being surrounded by people that you love and the love is returned back is extremely enriching and has so many benefits to our mental health. It’s easy to say surround yourself with loved ones but some people aren’t blessed with such luck to have a close family or to have friends they can rely on for a good time or for a rich relationship.

If you are blessed with people who love you but are sure to return the love and arrange plans for things to do, with such a demanding and busy world we currently live in, we find it hard to prioritise our friendships but make the necessary sacrifices elsewhere to ensure you are nurturing these other relationships, and it will do your mental health a world of good. 

If you are currently feeling like a lack of close and reliable friends surrounds you, it’s never too late to make new ones, no matter how old you are. Take pride in your hobbies and whether it’s through social media platforms you find like-minded individuals you can enjoy them with or you go to events, travel around the world and potentially bump into people you connect with. There are so many ways to make friends and more than likely they are feeling the same. 

Final Thoughts

When it comes to men improving their mental health through self-care, there are so many things that we do to ourselves, such as self-deprecation, bad habits, neglecting things that make us happy and or missing connection with those we love. Recognition of where these issues stem from and taking the necessary steps to fix them.