Resilient Staying

Mental Health America recommends 10 tips for staying resilient — common sense activities that are practical, doable and can make a real difference in whether you will be able to roll with the inevitable punches that life throws.

Connect With Others

Connections can help you with specific tasks, emotional support, providing perspective, giving advice and offering validation. Ways to form connections with others include enrolling in classes, joining clubs, volunteering and reaching out to others. Strengthen the relationships that you do have by scheduling time for them and doing what you can to enrich them. Consider joining a support group.

Stay Positive

Cultivating optimism is good for both your mental and physical health. Stay optimistic by tracking your gratitude, writing about a positive future, looking for silver linings and avoiding negative thinking.

Taking care of one’s mental health is important for everyone

Get Physically Active

Exercise is not only good for you physically, but can boost your mood by decreasing stress, reducing anxiety and offering a greater sense of well-being. The American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity five days a week plus strength training twice a week.

Help Others

According to research, people who consistently help others experience less depression, better health and greater calm. Helping can range from volunteering for a charitable organization to calling a friend to smiling at a stranger in the street. Look for a way to volunteer that matches your interests and values.

Get Enough Sleep

People who don’t get enough sleep suffer from higher anxiety, impaired memory and a greater risk of depression. Try setting a regular bedtime with a healthy sleep routine. Drink less caffeine, especially in the hours before you sleep. Give yourself an hour before your bedtime to de-stress.

Create Joy And Satisfaction

Laughing can reduce pain and anxiety, and positive emotions can reduce stress hormones. Add humor to your life by reading joke books, collecting sayings that make you smile, listening to comedy podcasts or just finding things in your life to laugh about. Engage in leisure activities that you enjoy, especially if they involve spending time with others.

Eat Well

Having a good diet can boost your energy, lessen the effects of stress and bolster mood-related body chemicals. Plan healthy foods, don’t skip meals, snack well and don’t over-diet. Limit alcohol and cut back on caffeine. There is some evidence that you can fight depression by eating foods rich in Vitamin B-12, folate and Omega-3 fatty acids.

There can be so much more to summer than swimming and suntanning

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have regular access to a luxurious pool or lazy beach. But you can still have plenty of summer fun with old standbys like Frisbees, volleyball or horseshoes — right in your own backyard. Here’s a look back at the fascinating history of these classic summertime games.

Throw A Frisbee

One of the activities most associated with summer was actually discovered by happenstance. Walter Morrison and Lucille, his future wife, began tossing a popcorn lid to one another out of boredom on Thanksgiving 1937. Finding it was fun, they brought a five-cent cake pan on a swimming trip and again began tossing it back and forth. When another beachgoer offered them 25 cents for the flying disc, Morrison realized he’d stumbled upon something that could perhaps turn a hefty profit.

He initially partnered with Warren Franscioni after World War II to make lighter, more durable plastic versions that served as the prototype for everything that followed. Later, after forming his own company called American Trends, Morrison introduced new versions called Flying Saucers and Pluto Platters. Wham-O subsequently bought Morrison’s company, and the new owners coined a name that stuck — the Frisbee. By the1960s, they were everywhere.

Play Volleyball

The game of volleyball is much older, having been invented in 1895 by William Morgan, an athletics director for the Holyoke, Mass.-based Young Men’s Christian Association. He developed an early version of the game when he couldn’t find another indoor sport for businessmen who weren’t interested in or physically able to play basketball. Official rules for volleyball followed over the next few years, under the supervision of the YMCA and the NCAA. By 1928, the U.S. Volleyball Association had been formed.

Tossing Horseshoes

This fun backyard game actually goes back centuries. The practice of throwing quoits, or iron rings, was enjoyed by both Roman officers and medieval peasants, who were said to have played their own versions of a game that closely resembled horseshoes. They may have only turned to horseshoes because they couldn’t find the proper iron rings. Settlers brought the tradition to the North American colonies, where it flourished. The National Horseshoe Pitchers Association was founded in 1926, and still oversees a series of championship tournaments.