Mental Wellness is critical to our overall quality of life. January, designated Mental Wellness Month, is a time to promote strategies for maintaining mental well-being. It is a time to leave last year’s baggage behind, unwind from the bustle of the holidays, forgive what didn’t get done, and focus on yourself and your goals for a healthy new year.

Let’s define mental health or mental wellness. According to SAMHSA, mental health encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, affecting how we think, feel, and act, how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

Unfortunately, when many people hear mental health, they think of mental illness and all the frightening unknowns about a serious illness.

Like physical health, mental health is something to strive for. It takes time and attention.

It waxes and wanes. How much it waxes and wanes is up to us.

A physical symptom or weakness, like a headache or a cold, doesn’t make us unhealthy but alerts us to pay attention to a developing disease. Similarly, when we talk about mental health, changes in sleep patterns, social interests, or activities should alert us to act just as a headache would.

Unfortunately, when we start to talk about mental health, a good number of people still shudder at the thought and turn their heads as if to say, “can’t be me.” According to the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH), 20% of adults experience a mental health condition, and 50% of those adults had symptoms at age 14 (National Alliance on Mental Illness — NAMI). The adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” could not be more true than when we talk about mental wellness.

Internal and external stigma are still prevalent around mental health issues.

Our ingrained beliefs, stemming from a lack of information, maintain fears of being labeled as weak or unstable and prevent people from learning even the basics about good mental health.

Mental health is important at every stage of life, and not being observant of declining mental health is a disservice to everyone—those individuals and all who are around them. It’s everyone’s responsibility to decrease stigma around mental health and increase comfort around it by saying something when you see something, sharing your own experiences to reduce barriers, and offering support.

So how do we achieve better mental wellness and reduce the likelihood of experiencing a mental illness?

Not unlike physical wellness, there are basics to mental wellness that apply to all people — sleeping well, eating a balanced diet, maintaining positive social relationships, and creating and preserving a sense of purpose.

Also, not unlike physical wellness, maintaining mental wellness requires awareness of your strengths and weaknesses — your family history, genetics, experiences, and resources — these factor together to impact how you develop and maintain a plan that helps you be your best self.

Here are some ways to improve and maintain your mental wellness in 2025 and always:

• Emphasize adequate sleep and rest. Sleep is critical to learning, memory, emotional response, and mood regulation. Sleep disturbance is among the earliest and most frequent symptoms of existing or burgeoning mental health conditions. If your sleep issues are situational, make changes. Frequent sleep issues—insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakening, short sleep time—should be discussed with your physician. It’s too important.

• Pay attention to the nutritional content of your food. The food you eat affects your brain, which regulates stress, mood, and sleep. Research is clarifying a food-mood connection and the link between diet and mental wellness (Mass General Brigham McLean). We also know that appetite changes — increases, decreases, and even food choices — are indicators of changes in your mental health. Both stability and good nutritional balance are important.

• Social activity at all ages is critical to mental wellness. Connectedness—the feeling of belonging, being a member of a group, and being cared for—has been repeatedly identified as essential for developing resiliency and achieving and maintaining mental wellness.

• Engage in meaningful activities. Researcher Kaylin Ratner published in the Journal of Happiness Studies that when people feel a greater sense of purpose, they report greater satisfaction with life and overall mental well-being.

• Invest time in building your self-image. A healthy self-image can boost our physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being (Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials 2024). A positive self-image facilitates openness to new experiences and helps build the resiliency needed to maintain mental wellness while coping with stress and life’s everyday struggles.

• Know your family history. Mental health conditions have family patterns just as physical health conditions. Substance use disorders are also heritable and influenced by complex interactions among multiple genes and environmental factors (National Institute of Health). Don’t ignore your family history.

About the author, Carol Zuniga, MS, LLP, CEO of Hegira Health, Inc., is a licensed psychologist with more than 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Hegira Health, Inc., a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), is a leading provider of behavioral healthcare services with clinic locations southeast Michigan.