Mental health is something that is often overlooked until someone is in crisis. It’s no secret that stressful situations can leave people feeling anxious and depressed. The pressures of everyday life, combined with the more harmful aspects of modern society, such as social media, complex jobs and personal debt are enough to create anxiety in even the strongest people.

However, there are ways you can help strengthen your mental health in order to reduce your risk of developing a mental illness or being triggered by stressful events. In this article we are assessing how 'prepping' can be good for your mental health.

You’ll Learn To Prioritize What’s Important

When you’re prepping, you learn that essentials come first. It’s easy to get caught up in the latest gadget, fad diet, or other item that promises to solve all our problems. However, when you step backward and take on a prepping mindset, you start to shift your perspective and see things far more clearly.

Part of prepping is evaluating your core needs, and ensuring that you have the right skills and resources to thrive regardless of what might happen.  This helps you prioritise and create order in your life; not taking anything for granted, not being frivolous with your money, planning your expenditure carefully, and focusing on long term thinking.

You’ll Set And Achieve Meaningful Goals

Setting and achieving goals is an effective way to boost your mental health and well-being. That’s because setting goals gives us direction in life, provides new challenges that expand our comfort zone, and helps us set priorities and achieve things we wouldn’t have succeeded at otherwise. Achieving new goals gives us a sense of self-believe, self-confidence and satisfaction that stays with us for a long time afterwards.

Establishing goals also provides something to focus on and look forward to. This improves your sense of control and can help to combat feelings of depression.

You’ll Gain Confidence In Your Own Abilities

One of the greatest advantages of becoming a serious prepper is that you commit to developing your knowledge and skills.  In today's society very few people are raised with an ability to survive without all of the support infrastructure to which we have become accustomed.  Becoming a prepper will bring a focus on survival skills and expert knowledge that will enable you cope in tough circumstances, and over time you will start to see yourself in a new light, with an appreciation for how rare and how crucial your skillset will be for you, your family and friends in the event of a crisis. 

A prepper's mindset is one of continuous learning and development - working to improve their strengths and reduce their weaknesses. They don’t let their mistakes hold them back from growing and improving.  Long term preppers often skilled at many different things, and this brings confidence and self-belief.

Exercise Is Good For Your Mood

Whether you’re hiking, hunting or growing your own food, exercise is good for your mental health. It helps reduce anxiety, improve mood, and increase your overall sense of well-being. Exercise releases endorphins in your brain that make you feel better about yourself. It also helps reduce the amount of stress hormones in your body. This helps keep you from feeling overly anxious and irritable. Exercise is a great way to clear your head after a stressful day an is an effective way to work out any pent-up frustration.

Fresh Air Improves Your Mental Wellbeing

Research has shown that spending time outside can help lower your risk of depression, improve your mood, and increase your creativity. It can also help you to reduce stress and improve your sleep quality. Exposure to natural light has been shown to help release the hormone serotonin, which can reduce feelings of paranoia. Spending time outside can also help reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation, whilst fresh air also has lasting effects on your physical health as well such as positively affecting your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease. It can also help improve your immune system and reduce your risk of certain types of cancers.

Being Prepared Reduces Stress

Prepping helps reduce your overall stress levels by giving you a sense of control. You can’t always control the events that happen in the world, but you can control how you react to them. This can help you stay calm in an emergency. Prepping allows you to focus on the positive things you can do to help yourself and how you can help others.  Many people find it helpful to do something with their hands, like gardening, cooking, or building, when they’re feeling stressed out - prepping includes many similar practical, physical activities.

A Sense of Community Has a Big Impact

Prepping offers you the opportunity to form new friendships and strengthen the ones you already have. It allows you to work together with like-minded people and share in the experience - so take the opportunity to join a prepping community, and build more relationships. It’s also a good idea to look for ways to help others in your community. If and when disasters strike, people can become closer when they’ve been through something difficult together.