Your Mental Health  As carers and others working in this field, it is easy to forget the importance of looking after your own mental health. Staying mentally healthy isn't just about treating illness – far from it!
Self care is an important aspect of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). Only by looking after ourselves can we be effective carers for others. So what can you do to look after your own mental health? Here are 5 ideas (from www.wellscotland.info) to help maintain positive mental well being: 1. Talk about your feelings
Sharing your feelings with others and being listened to can help enormously. The very act of trying to put how we feel into words makes us think more clearly about a situation and can help cut the problem down to size.
If there's nobody you feel you can turn to, call or email a helpline. By talking to others, we can get fresh perspectives on what's happening to us – something that's usually in short supply if we're feeling the effects of mental health problems.
If we talk to someone about what's happening, they might have useful suggestions about where to go for help or support.
If not, even just the knowledge that someone else has tried to understand can go a long way towards helping us feel better. 2. Keep active and get outside!
Physical activity is a proven way to keep mentally well. Exercise makes us feel better immediately through the release of uplifting chemicals into our bodies. Even just half an hour's brisk walk every other day can make all the difference. Joining a gym or taking up a sport are also great ways to meet new people and to see new places and things.
Spending time outdoors in green spaces is calming and helps lift mood. Research has also suggested that people in hospital wards with country views get better more quickly and need less pain-killing drugs.
Get out for a walk or a cycle, or do a spot of gardening. No garden of your own? Local conservation projects and community gardens are always looking for new volunteers. Or, you could join a cycling or running club (look in Yellow Pages or ask at your local volunteer centre).
You could get more green-time if you change your daily routine – take a detour through the park on the way to work, for example. The point about the benefits of the great outdoors, is that to get the full effect you actually have to be out in it, not just looking out at it. 3. Eat well & drink sensibly
A balanced diet is essential to maintaining good mental health. A growing body of research shows direct links between what we eat and how we feel.
Even though it might make us feel good in the short term, alcohol is a depressant drug. Even a small amount of alcohol before bed stops us getting enough deep sleep to feel properly refreshed – and the world never looks good through a hangover.
Avoiding too much alcohol is crucial for both our mental and physical health, but particularly when we're feeling low or anxious. 4. Sleep well & three good things
 Apart from making you feel tired, overwrought and run down, not getting enough sleep makes us more prone to mental health problems.
Aim for eight hours shut-eye every night. Not only will you feel the benefits, but your skin will see them too.
Keep some paper and a pen by your bedside and every night for a week write down three good things that happened to you that day.
By the end of the week you may be surprised at how much more positive you feel. Some psychologists say that it's human nature to focus on the negative aspects of our lives. What this technique helps to do is re-educate us to pay attention to the good and positive things in our lives. 5. Keep an Eye on Personal Stress
Some pressure is unavoidable – and some can be motivating – but stress is harmful to both mental and physical health. (stress is when pressures exceed our ability to cope).
If you find you're not sleeping, becoming ill-tempered, having difficulty concentrating, worrying a lot, eating a lot more or a lot less, or feeling 'on edge' all the time then you should take a step back and consider how much pressure you are under.
See what you can do to remove or reduce sources of pressure in your life. Meanwhile, deal with the effects of stress by relaxing more and using other, positive coping methods such as relaxation and controlled breathing. Other ideas can be found on the Mental Health Foundation website along with some great recipes to feed your mind!
Haylis Mackay – Choose Life Development Officer Photos by John Birdsall http://www.johnbirdsall.co.uk
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