Recently, I did a blog post on good mental health reminders for the New Year. Here are 10 more to add to that list. Check out the lists on both blogs and see if there are areas to improve. It could make a difference in your attitude and mental health this new year.

1. Learn to laugh. The more you laugh the better you feel. Laughter has a list of benefits including better pain tolerance. So find a funny movie, get together with friends, do fun things that make you laugh more.

2. Consider the words you speak. When you add bad words to a bad mood, things just get worse. You can’t change your words once you have spoken them. So think before you speak and don’t make a bad situation worse.

3. When you are wrong, own it and apologize. Apologies are signs of relationship strength, not weakness. Apologies are part of relationship repairs. And repairs sustain relationships. Look, we all mess up from time to time, but an apology begins the process of repair.

4. Manage stress on a regular basis. It’s not enough to stop stress. Sure, it helps but you need to build in stress preventions  focusing on beauty, taking nature walks, laughing more (see #1) and socializing to destress and have fun. Do not destress with substances as they create their own problems.

5. Take your mental health seriously. Media tends to romanticization mental health problems: Addiction is portrayed as edgy; anxiety is cute or funny; and depression is trendy. All of these mental health issues need to be addressed as serious but treatable. So get help and don’t glamorize real struggles.

6. Improve your sleep. Sleep is one of the number one changes you can make to improve your mental health. The better you sleep, the better your body reboots from the day. And one of the often unspoken benefits of sleep is you learn better. So come on all your students. Get that needed rest to function at your best.

7. No matter your circumstances, practice gratitude. If you feel stuck, anxious or even depressed, begin a gratitude practice and watch your mood lift. Everyday, speak or write three reasons to be grateful. Focus on what is going right despite problems. It’s a game changer.

8. Be true to yourself and your beliefs. Yes, actions speak louder than words. Know what you believe and why. A secure person doesn’t have to force their beliefs and choices on others.

9. Embrace your distractibility. Distractibility can might be a sign of creativity. Easily distracted people tend to be more creative. Now, this too has to be in balance. You have to get things done, but if you feel restless at times, it could be the inner creative person trying to express.

10. Be comfortable be alone. When you can be alone and not feel loneliness, you are relationship ready! So many people struggle to be alone for any period of time being highly relationship dependent. But healthy people can handle being alone without feeling lonely.