3 Overlooked Ways to Boost Mental Health

Overall, the new experiences contribute to the feeling, “This is why life is worth living."

• These findings highlight a link with feeling grateful for just being alive.
• Gratitude in this sense is deeper than feeling grateful for all you’ve achieved or acquired in your external, material life.
• Rather, it’s inner life awareness of your continuous connection with life in all its forms; an awakening of being part of a continuous whole, from the beginning of time.

Embracing new experiences and gratitude for your existence, at this moment, lifts you from conflicts or disappointments you might be experiencing. That expanded perspective is part of whole-being health.

Research highlights turning fear into positive energy for growth.

• A study published in the journal Emotion reveals the overlooked positive impact of experiencing uncertainty in your daily life.
• Tolerating, and even embracing, the unpredictable nature of life stimulates greater appreciation for simply being alive; for enjoying what is, in this moment of time.
• Savoring the “small things” in life pulls you out of immersion in daily ups and downs.
• That understanding adds to a healthy, whole-person recognition of life and helps you appreciate this moment that you occupy, in your brief lifetime.

Another overlooked way to grow the “health” part of mental health sounds simple, but research finds it has particular benefit for your essential cognitive and mental capacities as you age: engaging in small talk with people, and listening to them in return.

• It might be an encounter with a grocery-store clerk, or passing the time for a few moments with a neighbor.
• This study of over 1,800 participants found that connecting with others in meaningful ways tends to make people happier, and that connecting with others in deep and meaningful ways increased well-being.

Similarly, an NYU study published in JAMA Network Open found that engaging with people on whom you can count to simply listen to you when you need to talk and connect with others is associated with greater cognitive resilience as you age; it’s a buffer to the effects of brain aging and disease.

New findings from Georgetown University reveal that age does not automatically lead to declining mental abilities.

• Contrary to prevailing thinking, this large-scale research found that those capacities—especially the ability to focus and orient yourself to whatever you’re engaging with - actually improve with age, as you use them.
• These findings add to evidence of the interconnectedness of all dimensions of your being, as your healthy cognitive capacities stimulate the other facets of your self.

All of these findings underscore the overall mental health implications of engaging fully with life - appreciating it within this brief moment of time we occupy—and staying mindful of how transitory and impermanent everything is.