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In general, you can sum up experience as
stimuli -> processing -> reaction
Think of mental health as how appropriately your mind processes an experience. Healthy processing requires conscious attention, and your capacity for this can be exercised with mindfulness and meditation. The goal is to increase the space and consideration between stimuli and reaction.
In meditation you sit (or walk, etc.) with complex emotions, under stress, boredom, or even joy, examining your thoughts rather than immediately jumping into reaction. This practice pays off, allowing you to exercise more consideration in all moments. It allows you to wield intention, to create your OWN mental patterns, rather than allowing your inertia to take you where it will.
Many mental health issues are essentially well-reinforced patterns of negative stimuli -> negative processing -> negative reaction. If one strengthens the mental muscle of pumping the brakes in the middle there, they can access other perspectives, and make more balanced decisions. If they do this enough, they can move away from negative patterns and into balanced, present, healthy processing.
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