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What is Mental Hygiene?
Daily habits to support your mental health and wellness for as little as 10 minutes per day. Check out this infographic or watch the video below to learn more.
The term “mental hygiene” refers to daily activities that support and maintain mental health. Public health guidelines tell us that we need to do small tasks daily to maintain our physical and dental hygiene, like showering and brushing our teeth. We are now extending the same concept to mental health. Just like going to the gym is about building up our strength, mental hygiene is about building up that mental muscle. It’s an important way to maintain good mental health and build the resilience we need to help face challenges in the future.
Experts at The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group have developed a list of 16 research-based mental hygiene practices that can help boost your overall sense of wellness when practiced daily. Some of these include deep breathing, journaling, guided meditation, gratitude exercises, self-compassion, mindfulness, and spending time in nature, to just name a few. Check out our full list of exercises with instructions, how-to videos, and printable worksheets by accessing our Royal Mental Hygiene Challenge Resource Toolkit.
What is The Royal Mental Hygiene Challenge?
To spread the word and get people excited about mental hygiene, we decided to turn the concept into an annual public challenge for the month March! By participating in this 31-day challenge, it may help motivate people to prioritize their mental hygiene and help turn these daily practices into lifelong habits that contribute to overall wellness.
Although the 2023 challenge is over, you can use our resource toolkit to challenge yourself at any time! We encourage you to start or continue practicing mental hygiene year-round. Access the resource toolkit here.
Do you want to promote mental hygiene to your audiences?
We encourage other organizations to promote the mental hygiene framework as a wellness tool for their audiences! If you're interested in learning more and gaining access to our marketing toolkit, send an email to michaela.berniquez@theroyal.ca.