5 Tips for Improving Self-Belief and Mental Strength
In recent years, many people’s mental health has taken a toll due to the pandemic and the isolating conditions that came with it. Although we are past the pandemic, it has been hard for people to maintain their mental strength.
The World Health Organisation released an article in March 2022 which discussed how the pandemic increased anxiety and depression by 25% worldwide, with one of the main reasons being a lack of services available for people in need. Find out what well-being tips we recommend for improving self-belief and mental strength below.
Exercise
Exercise is a great way to improve self-belief and mental strength for several reasons. A crucial benefit of exercise is that it releases a number of chemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin and cortisol, which help with mental well-being.
Dopamine and serotonin are known as ‘the happy chemicals’ as they do actually make you feel happy! It is reported that exercise can have a similar effect to medication when increasing these two chemicals. Cortisol is the chemical used to manage stress, which means that exercise doesn’t just help make you feel happier, but also helps you feel less anxious.
Also, when you regularly exercise, you will often find yourself setting and reaching goals, known for improving self-belief and your mindset for exercise. Here at Safari Health Hub, we offer classes to help improve your self-belief with goals and targets to reach.
Step outside of your comfort zone
Being able to grow and develop are both key to improving self-belief. If we spend too much time in our comfort zone, we can’t experience new things and push ourselves further, and these help us grow.
When we push ourselves, we become more confident in our ability, thus improving self-belief. We offer beginners-only classes to help make them feel less daunting, for example, we offer beginner’s kickboxing classes, which allow you to take that step out of your comfort zone and help you become more confident in your ability, with the added benefits of exercise.
If you don’t want to start with exercise, taking up a new hobby or learning a new skill are great ways to step outside of your comfort zone and are good well-being tips. Even if you do not succeed immediately, building resilience will help you improve your mental strength.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is defined as being able to be in the moment, and there are many ways to practice it.
One of the best ways to do this is to engage the five senses at the given moment and focus on where you are and what you can see, hear, taste, smell and feel. This will help you steady your mind in that situation, but the more practice you do, the easier you will find it to slow down the stimulus-reaction loop, helping you choose an appropriate reaction. This is a great well-being tip, as it can help you control your anxiety in any situation, helping you build your mental strength, which, in turn, will help you feel more confident in yourself.
There are numerous ways to practice mindfulness, such as meditation in your surroundings. Another way to do so is by taking a daily task that you don’t pay much attention to and engaging your five senses, for example, when you brush your teeth, think about what you can see, hear, taste, feel and smell.
Keep a journal
Journaling is one of the most effective ways of keeping track of your thoughts and feelings and then being able to identify certain triggers and situations which cause stress or anxiety.
It is a straightforward exercise to practice; all you need to do is note down how you are feeling, what time it is and why you felt that way at a given point in the day. This will help you become aware of when and why you may be feeling low, but also when you are feeling good and why. Patterns and triggers for certain behaviours may begin to emerge, allowing you to work on these, which will help build your mental strength.
Take some time out and reflect
This is a good well-being tip, as it will help in any situation, no matter how you feel. To improve self-belief, try recognising some of the positives; for example, celebrate your successes, no matter how small they may seem. You can also ask people what they like about you and do the same; this will help you understand that you are a good person, allowing you to feel more confident about yourself, which helps to build mental strength.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking others, don’t worry, you can still write your own list and recognise your best traits! When reflecting, a gratitude diary is also a good way to help improve self-belief and mental strength. Writing down what you are grateful for and why helps you to understand that there are positives in your life and can also help you understand your previous achievements.
As previously mentioned, setting targets or goals and hitting those is a good way to improve self-belief, the best way to do this is with exercise. Attending some classes with us or going to the gym or for a run, then ensuring that you can improve on these activities will prove extremely effective and is one of the best well-being tips. Having the mindset for exercise isn’t easy, and neither is developing it, but with determination and drive, it will become much easier.
When looking at tips on how to gain mental strength and improve self-belief, it is always easier said than done, what works for someone may not work for someone else, but patience and determination are going to be important. Ensure you don’t lose focus on the end goal if something doesn’t work! To start, contact us, book your first class, and meet like-minded people on a similar journey to you.
