Getting together with the guys or partying with your girlfriends is not just fun it’s healthy.According to Chantelle Simmons, chief of Psychiatry at the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute, socialising in this way is good for your mental health. And it doesn’t have to be partying. Interacting with colleagues at work, having lunch with friends or family, even attending business meetings, are all ways of connecting with other people.It’s these social connections that Dr Simmons highlighted as one of the ways people can maintain and strengthen their mental health. In celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week, the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute wants to get the message out that there are five easy steps we all can do to help keep ourselves happy and healthy mentally.“A lot of these strategies can be self-directed with little to no cost to the individual,” said Dr Simmons. That’s especially important in this economy where many people are feeling stressed over their finances.“What we are trying to reinforce is not new or revolutionary, it’s all things we’ve done over the course of our lives. The difference is that now there is a wealth of data to support these ideas.”The advice is that we each should:l connect;l be active;l be curious;l keep learning;l give.ConnectResearch has proved that people who are isolated have higher rates of depression than those who have social interactions, Dr Simmons pointed out. It’s important too to recognise that direct interactions are an important aspect of connecting. Various electronic social media like Facebook, internet chat rooms and even Skype while fun, are unlikely to provide the benefit of direct interaction.“I’m not aware of any current research which specifically addresses the issue,” Dr Simmons said. “Given that Facebook, Twitter are relatively new forms of social media (and systematic research studies usually take a few years to get off the ground), I would anticipate that we’ll gain additional information over the next several years.”She said electronic social media may be helpful in cases where a person has few or limited social supports. She said in such circumstances, connecting on Facebook might be seen as a positive step.Socialising is also healthy for those with mental illness, according to Dr Simmons. She says that it helps restore relationships and sets an environment conducive to the patient recovering.Be activeAccording to Dr Simmons keeping fit and active is not only good for your physical body, but for your mental state as well.“The same advice your GP will give you to walk, run or jog, just get outside and do things” is the advice a mental health practitioner would give, she said.“We know that moving, being active, increases endorphin levels and can improve our mood. It’s associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety.”Active seniors have been shown to gain some protection against memory loss.“Among the elderly, regular exercise later in life slows the onset of cognitive decline,” she added.Be curiousAccording to Dr Simmons, this aspect of strengthening our mental health is one where we should ‘stop and smell the roses’. “Take time to reflect on the world around us,” she said. “Being curious gives us the ability to appreciate things that are important to us. Some researchers describe this as mindfulness. It is predictive of a positive mental state.”The advice to be curious is especially directed at those of us who may be too busy or worry a lot. ”The message is not to get caught in the hustle and bustle and anxiety” but to step out of that and appreciate what is directly in front of us at any given moment, she said.Keep learningAccording to Dr Simmons it’s good for our mental health to try new things. “We should be challenging ourselves all the time. There’s anecdotal evidence that it improves depression symptoms in the elderly and that it improves our satisfaction and confidence in ourselves.”Her advice is that we take a class in something that interests us, or try a new activity, join a new club or even teach ourselves a new skill. In our efforts to expand our learning we also strengthen other aspects of the five steps. By joining a new class or club we meet new people and broaden our connections. If the new skill is something physical, like learning golf, we also have a chance to be more active.GiveThe desire to give and share is intuitive, according to Dr Simmons. She said our ability to gain satisfaction and pleasure from things outside us is important to our mental health. The simple act of smiling at someone stimulates the rewards section of the brain and helps us to feel pleasure.“Sharing and team-oriented behaviours increase your feelings of self-worth and give you more positive feelings about yourself,” said Dr Simmons.