Amy Morin

Sleep deprivation impairs everything from your motor skills to your reaction time.

Lack of sleep greatly impairs your ability to make good decisions.

The quantity and quality of your sleep plays a major role in your ability to learn new information.

Feeling sad or lonely isn't a bad thing. But those emotions increase the risk that you'll cross the line into self-pity.

While reflecting on past relationships and learning from them can be helpful, February isn't the best time to try and gain insight.

Thinking things like, 'I will never get hired for this job,' or 'Nobody ever listens to me,' can alter your behavior in a way that makes those predictions come true.

Reminding yourself of your strengths can help chip away at your core belief that you aren't good enough to be successful.

If you've ever felt like you aren't good enough, you're not alone. However, if you're not careful, those feelings can keep you from reaching your greatest potential.

As a therapist, I've worked with many high-achieving people who don't feel worthy of their success. Whether it was a recent college graduate who had landed a high-paying job or a mature adult who had just received another promotion, all of these people suffer from impostor syndrome.

When you're feeling overtired and stretched too thin, it may seem incomprehensible to squeeze in a little 'me time.' But, the times when you feel like you can't possibly spare a minute for yourself, are likely the times when you need 'me time' the most.

Somewhere along the line, positive thinking seems to have been confused with magical thinking. There's a notion that if you think positively enough, you can make anything happen by using the power of your mind. All the positive thinking in the world won't deliver good fortune or prevent tragedy from striking.

Don't allow negative people to steal your time and energy. Rather than complain about people you don't enjoy, choose to strike up conversations about pleasurable topics.

The busyness of life can keep you running from one activity to the next. If you never step back to consider whether all those activities are really how you want to spend your time, you could miss out on building the kind of life you want. Devote at least 10 minutes each day to examining the bigger picture in your life.

Although circumstances may change in the blink of an eye, people change at a slower pace. Even motivated people who welcome change often encounter stumbling blocks that make transformation more complicated than they'd originally anticipated.

You certainly can't prevent all mental health problems - factors like genetics and traumatic life events certainly play a role. But everyone can take steps to improve their mental health and prevent further mental illness.

Building mental strength is about learning to regulate your thoughts, manage your emotions, and behave productively despite whatever circumstances you find yourself in.

It'd be nice to learn enough from each mistake that we'd be guaranteed to never repeat that same mistake twice. But, how many times have you said, 'I'll never do that again,' only to find yourself right back at it a few days later. Learning from our mistakes requires humility and a willingness to look for new strategies to become better.

Mentally strong people don't shy away from change - nor do they expect immediate results.

Proactively working to develop mental strength increases your resilience to stress and reduces the toll it takes on you both physically and mentally.

Mental health is a continuum, and people may fall anywhere on the spectrum.