10 tips to stay mentally healthy

Enjoying mental health means having a sense of wellbeing, being able to function during everyday life and feeling confident to rise to a challenge when the opportunity arises. Just like your physical health, there are actions you can take to increase your mental health. Boost your wellbeing and stay mentally healthy by following a few simple steps.

Connect with others. Develop and maintain strong relationships with people around you who will support and enrich your life. The quality of our personal relationships has a great effect on our wellbeing. Putting time and effort into building strong relationships can bring great rewards. 

Take time to enjoy. Set aside time for activities, hobbies and projects you enjoy. Let yourself be spontaneous and creative when the urge takes you. Do a crossword; take a walk in your local park; read a book; sew a quilt; draw pictures with your kids; play with your pets – whatever takes your fancy. 

Participate and share interests. Join a club or group of people who share your interests. Being part of a group of people with a common interest provides a sense of belonging and is good for your mental health. Join a sports club; a band; an evening walking group; a dance class; a theatre or choir group; a book or car club. 

Contribute to your community. Volunteer your time for a cause or issue that you care about. Help out a neighbour, work in a community garden or do something nice for a friend. There are many great ways to contribute that can help you feel good about yourself and your place in the world. An effort to improve the lives of others is sure to improve your life too.

Take care of yourself. Be active and eat well – these help maintain a healthy body. Physical and mental health are closely linked; it’s easier to feel good about life if your body feels good. You don’t have to go to the gym to exercise – gardening, vacuuming, dancing and bushwalking all count. Combine physical activity with a balanced diet to nourish your body and mind and keep you feeling good, inside and out. 

Challenge yourself. Learn a new skill or take on a challenge to meet a goal. You could take on something different at work; commit to a fitness goal or learn to cook a new recipe. Learning improves your mental fitness, while striving to meet your own goals builds skills and confidence and gives you a sense of progress and achievement.

Deal with stress. Be aware of what triggers your stress and how you react. You may be able to avoid some of the triggers and learn to prepare for or manage others. Stress is a part of life and affects people in different ways. It only becomes a problem when it makes you feel uncomfortable or distressed. A balanced lifestyle can help you manage stress better. If you have trouble winding down, you may find that relaxation breathing, yoga or meditation can help. 

Rest and refresh. Get plenty of sleep. Go to bed at a regular time each day and practice good habits to get better sleep. Sleep restores both your mind and body. However, feelings of fatigue can still set in if you feel constantly rushed and overwhelmed when you are awake. Allow yourself some unfocussed time each day to refresh; for example, let your mind wander, daydream orsimply watch the clouds go by for a while. It’s OK to add ‘do nothing’ to your to-do list!

Notice the here and now. Take a moment to notice each of your senses each day. Simply ‘be’ in the moment – feel the sun and wind on your face and notice the air you are breathing. It’s easy to be caught up thinking about the past or planning for the future instead of experiencing the present. Practising mindfulness, by focusing your attention on being in the moment, is a good way to do this. Making a conscious effort to be aware of your inner and outer world is important for your mental health.

Ask for help. This can be as simple as asking a friend to babysit while you have some time out or speaking to your doctor (GP) about where to find a counsellor or community mental health service. The perfect, worry-free life does not exist. Everyone’s life journey has bumpy bits and the people around you can help. If you don’t get the help you need first off, keep asking until you do.

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Choose a Strategy

Choose a Strategy

Choose a Strategy
Seeking the ‘best choice’ is the most obvious strategy in decision-making situations.
However, other strategies often play a role in decision-making.
Eliminate the worst:
Sometimes it is more important to avoid making a poor choice than it is to make the best choice.
This strategy is often used during the first visit to a new restaurant. When there are many menu selections and you are not sure what you might enjoy most, a common strategy is to narrow the range of choices by eliminating the choices that definitely do not appeal. A vegetarian might first mentally delete all the meat dishes. Someone on a first date might first delete all the dishes with garlic. Someone on a diet might first delete all the dishes with rich creams and sauces.
During World War II, the psychologist J. P. Guildford devised aptitude tests that were used by the US Army Air Force to help in screening candidates for pilot school . After implementing these tests the failure rate in pilot training was reduced by over 60%.
Guilford’s psychological tests were not designed to select the best pilots, but to help identify and eliminate the candidates who were unlikely to become pilots.
Some employers use a similar strategy when hiring and promoting – especially when union rules and/or civil laws make it very difficult to dismiss an employee for incompetence. In such a situation, an employer’s first concern is to ensure that they do not hire an unsuitable candidate. After unsuitable candidates have been eliminated from the process, the employer cannot go too far wrong in hiring any of the remaining applicants.
Pick the lowest bid
In the lowest bid strategy, you create a set of specifications describing what you are looking for and then allow qualified suppliers to submit their offers. Many contracts for public works are awarded this way.
The lowest bid process has two main objectives. First, the process is intended to be open and fair so that all suppliers have an equal opportunity to make their bids.
Second, the process is intended to reduce costs. If a bid is inflated then it probably will not be lowest and thus will not be accepted.
It might be fun to buy a new car using a lowest bid process. You would describe the car that you want and then all the auto dealerships in town would have until the end of the week to submit their bids. All you would have to do is open the envelopes and call the winning dealer to get the car you want at the lowest price in town.
Rank the choices
Another decision-making strategy is to rank all your choices, from highest to lowest, and then select the top ranked choice. In order to rank choices, you have to first establish a set of criteria to rate various aspects of each choice. Then you apply those criteria and construct a final ranking for all your choices.
Suppose that you are trying to decide among ten possible destinations for your next vacation. Using a scale of one-to-five, you could rate cost, accommodation, travel time, local attractions, and safety for each possible destination. Then all you would have to do is add the scores to determine where you are going for your vacation.

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Clarify Your Choices

Clarify Your Choices

Clarify Your Choices
The first step in the decision-making process is to clarify what your choices are. This involves gathering the pertinent information, arranging that information so that similar features in the choices can be easily compared, and then summarizing the options that are available with each choice.
The next step is to analyze each choice to consider all the potential consequences. Once the costs and benefits of each available choice are clearly defined, the decisionmaking process is greatly simplified.
Benefits
What is a benefit? A benefit could be a gain in physical resources, financial resources, social status, or future opportunities. A benefit could represent enhanced chances of survival for yourself, your family, or your nation. A benefit could be enhanced comfort, increased personal power, or decreased workload.
In most situations, each of the possible choices that you can make has some associated benefits; otherwise there is no point in making it a choice. Some benefits associated with a choice are obvious; some are more obscure; some may require reasonable predictions of events in the future. Some benefits occur almost immediately; some may not occur unless other favourable events also occur. There can be major benefits, secondary benefits, and deferred benefits associated with any choice
The benefit of a choice may be that it has the least negative consequences.
Costs
In most situations, each of your possible choices also has some associated costs. Some costs are obvious; some are hidden; some may require reasonable predictions of events in the future. Some costs may occur almost immediately; some may never occur unless other unfavourable events occur as well. There can be major costs, secondary costs, and deferred costs associated with any choice.
The failure to recognize all the costs, especially ‘hidden’ costs is one of the commonest sources of difficulty in decision-making. Sometimes hidden costs are simply overlooked; sometimes they are ignored or deliberately hidden to bias the decision-making process.
Money, time, and physical energy are obvious costs. Lost purchasing power, psychic wear and tear, damage to the environment, and social repercussions are some of the costs that tend to be ignored.
Other factors
There are a few other factors that should also be considered before making a choice.
Can a decision be reversed? If it could be reversed, what would be the cost? What would be the cost of not making a particular decision? What is the cost of not making any decision? What is the cost of delaying a decision? Is a particular choice guaranteed? Are any of the choices ‘win-win’? Are there other choices that have yet to be considered?
Suppose you plan to purchase a new car this year. There are literally thousands of makes, models, and options to choose from. It is a challenging task to collect and compare all the available information. The Canadian Automobile Association (www.caa.ca) provides some information on costs that allows you to begin comparing the expenses associated with different vehicles. The safety ratings of automobiles can be checked at www.safecar.gov. As you gather more specific information for side-byside comparisons, it becomes easier to make a reasoned decision.

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Decision-Making

Decision-Making

Decision-Making
Every action we take is the result of a decision. Do we take our coffee with milk or cream? Do we wear the red outfit or the blue outfit? Do we turn left or right to go around that tree? Do we save or spend? Do we apply for that job or not? Which of the political candidates should we vote for?
Decision-making can involve a choice between two alternatives, the ranking of alternatives, the elimination of the worst alternatives, or the selection of the best alternatives.
The simple ‘if – then –jump’ construct is one of most useful processes controlling all the computers in the world. This simple line of code provides a computer program with the ability to compare two numbers, decide if they are equal or not, and then jump to other corresponding lines in the program. This very basic decision-making process underlies the ability of computer programs to solve complex problems and appear to mimic some aspects of human thinking.
The following example illustrates this important concept. Just about any quality can be expressed as a number, for example the colour green could be ‘6’ and red could be ‘7’. At some point in a computer program, suppose the variable A corresponds to the colour of a sweater that you want to order over the Internet, and B corresponds to the colour of the sweaters in stock. Then a segment of a computer program might look something like this:
300 If A = B then jump to line 400.
400 Print “We have your sweater in stock.”
600 Else If A <> B then jump to line 700
700 Print “Sorry we do not have that colour at the moment.
(The symbol <> is often used in computer programs to mean ‘not equal to’.)
The rest of this is section is devoted to examining strategies for making the best decisions in challenging situations.

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Dealing with Employee Theft

Dealing with Employee Theft

Dealing with Employee Theft
Suppose that you own a small retail store with a dozen employees. Your sales have remained steady, but your profits have dropped and you suspect that the cause may be employee theft. What can you do to deal with this problem?
First you should remind yourself that reliable and efficient employees are a business’s greatest asset. You want to take all reasonable steps to encourage and reward your good employees. Any action taken against an employee needs be judicious and planned to cause minimum disruption to your business.
Second, you should conduct some background research and reassess the general situation. ‘Shrinkage’, as it is often called, is a common problem in any business.
Somehow, the revenues at the end of the week are less than they should be. There are a number of potential causes, including:
1. Poor inventory control – sometimes you do not receive all the inventory that you have paid for, some inventory may be damaged and has to be written off, some sold items are returned, some items are discounted, or some items are given away for advertising.
2. Poor accounting – through poor bookkeeping you may not really know how much inventory was sold at what prices, you may not know the true total of your expenses, or you may not know how much you owe others, or others owe you.
3. Theft – items may be stolen by shoppers, by employees, or by third parties after your business is closed for the day. Theft may be described as pilfering – a little here, a little there – or theft may be described as a money-making operation for a professional thief.
Prevention is a major component in controlling shrinkage. You may need to update and develop better procedures for inventory control and accounting. You may need to do a better job of selecting employees in the first place.
You may need to hire a security expert to review your procedures for dealing with customers, handling cash, and securing inventory. You may need to organize a professional development program for your employees outlining any new procedures and emphasizing the benefits of being part of a prosperous business.
If an employee is caught with incriminating evidence, you may call the police and press charges, you may fire the employee, or if the offence was minor you might be able to work out an ad hoc rehabilitation program. In all such cases it is essential to carefully document your evidence and your actions. In general, problems involving people need to be dealt with carefully and according to established procedures.

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The Monty Hall Paradox

The Monty Hall Paradox

The Monty Hall Paradox
There was a popular television game show in the 1970’s called ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ with host Monty Hall. In a regular segment of the show, a contestant was shown three doors and was given the details of a really good prize that was behind one door, and poor consolation prizes behind the other two. With a lot of showmanship, the typical game then proceeded as follows:
1. The contestant selected Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3, hoping the prize was behind that door. The door was not opened at this stage of the game.
2. Monty then opened one of the other two doors to reveal a consolation prize.
3. The contestant was then given the opportunity to switch from the original selection to the third and last door.
The problem is to determine whether or not switching doors would have been a good strategy. This is a problem in deduction. The key to its solution is to find a way to express the components of the problem so that the implications are more obvious. 

At a first glance, the following statements seem to be correct:
1. Since there are three doors and your selection is essentially random, the probability of winning the grand prize after your first selection should be one in three.
2. After Monty reveals a consolation prize, there are only two doors left, so your chances of winning should increase to one in two.
3. There appears to be no obvious advantage to switching your choice; there are still two doors with a big prize behind only one door.
In reality, participants who switched doors won about two times out of three. That is the paradox. How could switching doors be an advantage? If you search the Internet using the key words ‘Monty Hall paradox’ you will find hundreds of sites that explore this problem.
To simplify the discussion, let’s assume that the prize is behind Door #1, but as a contestant you do not know that. You still have a random choice of one of the three doors. As Monty takes his turn he will always open one of the two remaining doors to reveal a consolation prize, never the door to the grand prize.
Working through the possibilities:
1. If you picked Door #1 – then Monty will open either Door #2 or Door #3. In this case, if you switch from Door #1 you lose.
2. If you picked Door #2 – since Monty knows the prize is behind Door #1, he has to open Door #3 revealing a consolation prize. In this case if you switch to Door #1 you win.
3. If you picked Door #3 – then similarly Monty has to open Door #2 revealing another consolation prize. Again, in this case if you switch to Door #1 you win.
The net result is that if the prize is behind Door #1 and your first choice is random, then two times out of three, you will win the grand prize if you switch doors after Monty reveals a consolation prize. The same pattern applies if the prize is behind Door #2 or Door #3.
The key to the paradox is the phrase Monty ‘has to open’ in the second and third possibilities. For example, if the prize is behind Door #1 and you have selected Door #2, then Door #3 is the only choice available for Monty to open without spoiling the game. In two cases out of three, your initial choice plus Monty’s forced choice direct you to the winning door.

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Two Applications

Two Applications

Two Applications
As you read through the following descriptions of problems, try to identify the various problem-solving strategies that are being used. You can probably devise alternate strategies that would work just as well.

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Recreational Problems

Recreational Problems

Recreational Problems
Many of us enjoy working on problems as a form of recreation.
Jigsaw puzzles, Sudoku puzzles, crosswords, table games, and video games are all designed to provide invigorating challenges for the human mind. The only reward in these activities is the satisfaction of solving the puzzle.
Many of our creative hobbies involve significant problem solving. What are the best materials to use? How can certain effects be achieved? Is there a more interesting way to achieve a similar result? A partial list of creative hobbies includes amateur astronomy, carpentry, collecting, painting, photography, sewing, sculpting, and writing. The products of these hobbies can often be purchased elsewhere readymade, but there is a great source of satisfaction in creating something yourself and being able to solve all the attendant problems.

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Professional Problem Solvers

Professional Problem Solvers
Experts and professionals in any field have specialized knowledge and experience that allow them to deal efficiently with problems that a lay person would find very challenging. Experts and professionals like to deal with these problems; their livelihoods depend on being presented with problems that require their knowledge and expertise.
Professional problem solvers include medical doctors, dentists, lawyers, architects, engineers, computer programmers, auto mechanics, and police detectives.
There are others, including university professors, government and industrial researchers, and inventors who deliberately seek out problems that no one else has been able to solve. Their professional success is based on their ability to find and solve unique problems. Their work contributes to humanity’s library of knowledge and
problem-solving techniques.

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