Promoting mental health

Table of contents

The alarm clock rings. You open your eyes in despair.

A new day lies ahead of you.

But that’s no reason for joy, it’s a reason for absolute panic.

You want to crawl under your comforter.

Everything is getting on top of you.

The exams.

Your job.

Your social life.

And then there’s the cold, wet, gray weather.

Stop!

If you feel that your life is restless and challenging, then this article is just right for you. We’ll show you how you can promote and maintain your mental health.

Important: This article does not constitute medical advice. If you have mental health problems, please contact a specialist; you can get initial acute help from the Telefonseelsorge Deutschland.

#1 Recognizing and setting boundaries

This is a super important point, which is why we have put it at the top of the list. It’s crucial for your mental health to recognize your limits and set them for yourself and those around you.

Why do many people find this so difficult?

Even today, in our seemingly modern and enlightened times, we are still brought up to function: We are expected to be well-behaved in kindergarten, hard-working at school and successful at work.

What hardly anyone ever teaches us is to look after ourselves and our boundaries.

Here are a few examples of when you go beyond your limits:

You get tired on an afternoon of studying. You actually need a break. But a coffee or an energy drink will do the trick.
A friend has invited you to her birthday party on Saturday. You have a social hangover from the stressful week and you’d love to just be by yourself and binge-watch series. But you force yourself to go to the party because that’s what you do.
Your fellow student has asked you to help him move house. You say yes, even though you realize you’re sick. But you don’t have the heart to say no.

Does that sound familiar?

Please don’t get us wrong: it’s a great thing to help others. But not if you overstep your own boundaries and do so at the expense of your mental health.

How do you recognize your limits?

The best guide for this is your gut feeling. Observe how you feel when you have made a commitment, for example. Do you feel good about it? Are you looking forward to the upcoming event? Or do you feel overwhelmed and stressed?

If the latter is the case, you know that you have gone beyond your limits.

Recognizing and setting limits is a process. Be patient with yourself. You will occasionally go beyond your limits, even if you are tackling the problem. Don’t judge yourself for it, but be proud of yourself when you notice it. This will sharpen your perception, allowing you to recognize earlier and better in the future when you are overstepping your own boundaries.

How do you set your boundaries?

Many people find it incredibly difficult to say no to others.

Yet this is so important, or as mindfulness expert Susanne Kühn puts it in a nutshell:

“A clear ‘no‘ is a ‘yes!” to yourself.

This means that every time you stand up for yourself, you are protecting your own mental health.

Sometimes this is not so easy for those around you to accept, especially if you have never or hardly ever said no because you have focused more on the needs of others than on your own.

If you find it difficult to say no to a request, try the following formulation:

I’ll think about it.

This will give you time to think calmly and without pressure about whether or not you want to say yes to something.

#2 Set routines and learn time management

We humans like routines.

Okay, sometimes we hate them too, namely whenever they bore us. Like in the movie Groundhog Day. You haven’t seen it? Then put it on your watchlist, it’s worth watching despite its age 😉

Back to routines: they give us structure because they make everyday life predictable. And that relieves our brain, which in turn promotes mental health.

You should develop these routines:

Fixed meals: Eat regularly throughout the day and at set times. This can be the classic division of breakfast, lunch and dinner, but several small meals are also possible if this fits better into your day. Make sure you eat high-quality brain food.
Regular exercise: very, very important to stay mentally healthy. That’s why we have also dedicated an extra section to this topic in the article (point #3)
Fixed study and relaxation times: The times for your lectures and seminars are set externally. But you can decide when you study and when you take breaks. It is also important to have a phase of the day when you can switch off completely. As a rule, the evening is a good time to wind down and relax for the night.
Fixed bedtimes: Sleep experts recommend going to bed at the same time every day. Yes, even at the weekend. Hey, honestly, we know how unrealistic that is. So it would be a big help if you followed a healthy sleep rhythm during the week.

These are the basics. We recommend that you don’t overdo the establishment of routines. They are not intended to make your day rigid, but to relieve you so that you feel comfortable, fit and rested in everyday life.

This is where time management comes into play: How do I complete which tasks and when? And which ones can I even cross off my to-do list completely? Read our guide to time management.

#3 Move a lot

For millions of years, we humans have been constantly on the move: hunting and gathering food, working in the fields, as nomads moving from city to city. Nowadays, we move far too little.

Pizza is delivered to our doorstep, now even ice cream or a bag of potato chips. We only travel by public transport and car, we’ve sold our bike to the highest bidder in the classifieds and are proud to have earned money that way.

Fuck that!

Convenience is the mortal enemy of your mental health. Humans are not made to sit on their butts all day and stuff themselves with pizza and coke.

That brings movement:

Boosts circulation and metabolism: Exercise gets your entire body moving, leaving you feeling fresh and vital.
Reduces stress hormones: Therefore very important in stressful times and during intensive learning phases.
Provides distraction and relaxation: Get out of your own four walls and get some fresh air – it’s good for you and creates distance from your stressful everyday life.
Promotes fitness: Your muscles and tendons are strengthened, not just by jogging, walks also strengthen your body.

So our tip is: get moving whenever you can!

This is how you integrate movement into your everyday life:

Cover as many distances as possible on foot or by bike
Take a university sports course of your choice
Take the stairs instead of the elevator
Get up from your desk regularly, walk around the room, do squats, press-ups and sit-ups
Do mini-workouts: 10 minutes of exercise every morning before the day really gets going
Take short trips where you can hike.

Our brain loves energy-saving mode. This used to make sense in the past, at a time when there were no supermarkets. But nowadays we have to fight against our own laziness if we want to stay mentally healthy.

#4 Eat right

Body and mind influence each other.

If you eat junk, you will also feel bad emotionally.

If you eat fresh, healthy food, you will also feel better emotionally.

You don’t need a complicated diet plan, you can do a lot for your (mental) health if you follow these rules:

Avoid highly processed foods

The more processing steps a food goes through, the fewer ingredients are left for your body to use.

Examples of highly processed foods:

Ready meals (pizzas and microwave snacks)
Sweet stuff (chocolate bars, sweets, popcorn)
Snacks (potato chips, nachos, nuts wrapped in dough)
Sausage
Sweet drinks
Fried food

The list goes on and on.

When shopping, always ask yourself: how close is this food to nature?

A sugar beet from the field, for example, is much, much healthier than the pure sugar that the industry extracts from the beet.

Eggs, quark, potatoes, salad: these are also all unprocessed or barely processed foods that are good for your physical and mental health.

Seasonal and regional

This rule makes shopping sooo much easier. Seasonal and regional food generally has shorter transportation routes and fewer harmful substances than fruit and vegetables from faraway countries.

Strawberries in December? Something can’t be right, they must come from far away and have been treated with appropriate products.

The same goes for blackberries in spring or chestnuts in summer …

By eating regional and seasonal food, you are supporting your health and the farmers in your region in equal measure.

But what do you do in winter when the fields don’t produce a harvest? Here’s another tip …

The freezer will be your best friend

And not for chips or other junk. We are talking about frozen fruit and vegetables. These foods are flash-frozen immediately after harvesting. This preserves the vitamins, minerals and trace elements to a high degree.

There is a wide range to choose from: the freezer contains healthy items such as red cabbage or spinach, and you can spice up your morning muesli with delicious berry mixes. If you’ve only ever taken ready meals out of the freezer, you’ll now see their contents with new eyes.

Diversity counts

A one-sided diet, in whatever form, is not good for your health. You need variety on your plate! So look for new recipes from time to time, this brings variety to your diet and also makes eating more fun.

#5 Maintaining relationships

As social beings, we need stable relationships in order to feel good. Regular contact with your partner, friends and family is therefore important.

This is how you maintain your relationships in everyday life:

Quality time: it doesn’t always have to be hours of activity. A walk or a cup of tea, but consciously and without looking at your smartphone, are very valuable.
Use technology: If you already have your smartphone to hand, then use the technology we have at our disposal: Send a greeting via WhatsApp or try a spontaneous video call. Since Corona at the latest, everyone knows about virtual game nights.
Combine the pleasant with the useful: Form study groups and plan breaks or a nice closing ritual after each learning unit. This could be a cozy get-together with coffee and cake, for example. Relationships can also be established and maintained in sports courses.

Relationships thrive on conscious and regular contact with one another. Sometimes it’s not easy to keep in touch, so a simple “Hey, how are you?” is all the more appreciated by those around you. Have the courage!

#6 Digital and media detox

Technology is a blessing and a curse these days: an iPad is great for university and a smartphone is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, as described above.

But, and this is a big fucking but: these things are addictive. Did you know, for example, that you get a little dopamine rush every time someone likes your Insta picture or your TikTok reel? Your brain gets used to it very quickly and wants more of it.

Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t stop with social networks. Messages can also be addictive. It doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad news, FOMO strikes: the fear of missing out on something important keeps driving you back to websites, YouTube, etc.

And then, of course, there are the messages that land on your phone with a pling. Just asking: How many times a day do you look at this thing? Too often, guaranteed.

Really sucks, doesn’t it?

That’s why there’s now a radical detox that will do you good.

How to achieve a digital and media detox:

Put away your cell phone, laptop and tablet: This is the easiest and most effective way to detox because it takes the least effort. Out of sight, out of mind – your devices can no longer constantly distract you if they disappear into a drawer, at least temporarily. Switched off, of course.

Establish fixed rules and times for use: The artificial light from tablets & co. damages our eyes. It keeps us awake for an unnaturally long time, and we can’t mentally relax if we’re exposed to news from all over the world late at night.

So set clear times for using your devices and swap a relaxing book for your smartphone in the evening.

Use apps: Funnily enough, there are apps that help you detox. For example, they block the browsers and messengers on your devices so that you can write your homework instead of surfing around somewhere else.

Of course, you can set which apps should be blocked and for how long. The best known are Freedom and Forest.

Targeted information instead of consumption: News is a product, like bread rolls or tomato sauce. Exciting headlines, thrilling teasers, shocking images: Media use such tricks to get you to consume their content.

Of course, there are differences here, but “infotainment” has long since taken the reins: news should trigger emotions in you so that you consume more articles, videos, podcasts etc., in the worst case at the expense of your mental health.

Put an end to this!

Set yourself a fixed time each day and use this time to find out about topics that really interest you. You probably won’t need more than 20 minutes a day for this.