Putting your Mental Health first
What does it mean to put your mental health first? Where do you start? To put it simply, you start with yourself. Taking the time to reflect and learn about yourself. What about that interaction at dinner made your stomach sour? What about that conversation with your mom made you angry? We rarely have the time in our busy lives to reflect on what provoked certain feelings and emotions which is what makes it such an important place to start.
Take time to get to know yourself. Journal specifically to reflect on the emotions you felt throughout the day, take personality tests (my favorite is the Enneagram), talk to a family member about what you were like as a child, participate in individual therapy, etc. The first step in focusing on your mental health and putting it first is awareness of where the discomfort is coming from
Routine and consistency. Once you’ve identified the discomfort, create an easy, reasonable routine to focus your energy on. Consistency and routines have been proven to alleviate feelings of anxiety, depression, mood disorders, etc. because of the stability and predictability it gives us.
Put yourself first. We so often do things from a place of guilt of how the other person might feel, that we sacrifice our own mental sanity. We need to prioritize ourselves and put boundaries around what makes us feel good.
Move. Whether movement looks like a 10 minute walk and stretch or a 60 minute HIIT workout, we have to prioritize movement in our days. The mind and body connection is so strong and when we’re sitting in discomfort we feel very disconnected to our bodies. Find movement that feels good and don’t feel bad about it being ‘enough’. Movement is just as important for mental health as it is physical.
Lower the stimulation. We are so over-stimulated in every aspect of our lives, it’s very important to find moments and ways to remove ourselves from that. Whether it’s giving yourself the morning or evening without your phone or taking the TV out of your bedroom, we need to decompress from the constant that is media.
Whether you’re at the beginning of your mental health journey or have been working on it for years, always practice patience and self compassion because there is no easy fix but there is hope to find ways to feel better.
*If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or others, please seek immediate assistance by calling 911 for medical emergencies and 988 for mental health.
