How to Care for Your Mental Health

Your mental health is a vital part of who you are. We all have different relationships to our mental health. Some struggle more than others, but it’s inevitable that you’ll experience difficulties with your mental health at some point, whether it’s the stress of daily life or dealing with depression. The important thing to realize is that you don’t need to constantly struggle with your mental health to take care of it. Being in a good place with your mental health might even give you more of a reason to maintain that positive relationship. And when you’re in a difficult place with your mental health, it’s essential to know the actions you can take to help yourself. 

We’re taught to take care of our physical health, but mental health often gets pushed to the side, even though it is just as important to our overall wellbeing. For me, it’s even more important to care for my mental health because the things that I struggle with usually start from within. In order to get through my daily life, I need to pay attention to where my mind is at and how I’m feeling emotionally. Over the past couple years, I’ve learned how to care for my mental health in helpful and life changing ways. I believe that no matter what your relationship to mental health is, everyone can benefit from taking care of it. Let’s explore a few things you can do to care for your mental health.

Embrace and accept all of your emotions. The good, the bad, the exciting and the scary. Feel it all. It’s easy to embrace the positive emotions, but often not so easy when it comes to the more difficult emotions. I’ve realized that pushing away negative or difficult emotions often makes them push back harder. Instead of immediately resisting these feelings, allow yourself to feel them, listen to them, and try to understand them. It’s only when we do this that we can then learn how to deal with them. You are a human with a soul, which means you will inevitably feel a wide range of emotions. The first step in learning how to deal with your emotions is to embrace and accept them.

Practice self-reflection and introspection. Taking the time to engage in self-reflection and introspection can be helpful in so many aspects of life, especially when it comes to mental health. To do this, simply reflect on the state of your mental health, some things you’ve been struggling with, and any breakthroughs you may have had. Check in with yourself as much as you can. Journaling is a very effective way to practice self-reflection and introspection. Try writing out how you’ve been feeling or anything else that’s on your mind. For me, journaling often leads to realizations and small epiphanies. The practice of self-reflection and introspection are effective tools to use when caring for your mental health. 

Give yourself what you need. If you’re having a bad day and you just need to be alone, do it. If you need to go for a run or read a book or eat a whole bucket of ice cream, do it! It’s important to not deprive ourselves of the things we need, especially when struggling with our mental health. Nurture yourself and your mind by allowing yourself to seek what you need in that moment. These needs can be mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and everything in between. When I’m in a low mood, sometimes what I need is to lie in bed with some Netflix or hang out with my family or eat a good meal. The small gifts we give to ourselves can provide a whole heap of help when caring for our mental health.

Be kind to yourself. If you’re like me, the person you’re the most critical of, the person you give the hardest time, the person you find yourself speaking the most cruelly to, is yourself. It’s a difficult habit to break. One of the strategies that I find helpful is trying to talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend. If your best friend was feeling down about themselves because they didn’t reach a certain goal, you wouldn’t tell them they’re never going to achieve anything because they’re just not good enough so they might as well give up. If you’re a decent human, you would never even think about talking to someone like that. So why do we do it to ourselves? The next time you start saying these types of things to yourself, take a step back and rethink the situation. If your friend was going through the same thing, what would you say to them? Think about that, and then say those words to yourself.   

Give yourself a break. Just like our bodies, our minds need time to relax and recharge. Overstimulation of the mind can lead to exhaustion, burnout, and other mental health issues. It’s important to allow ourselves to take a break from the busyness of life, the never-ending stream of information we get from the media, and even from our own thoughts. Thinking is essential, but it can also be exhausting. Try to declutter your mind, separate yourself from the chaos of life, and just be.  

When you need it, ask for help. You are strong and powerful and have the potential to overcome so much, but you don’t have to go through everything alone. It’s okay to ask for help. In fact, in some situations, it’s essential to seek guidance and comfort from the people you trust and from professionals. There is no shame in asking for help. This is something I’ve had a hard time with. I find that when I’m really struggling with my mental health, it’s difficult to reach out to someone else because I can barely understand my own feelings, so how would anyone else? I’ve found that the best way to approach this is to practice talking it out with someone you trust. It might be frustrating and difficult at first, and may even make you feel worse, but the more you practice verbalizing how you feel, the easier it will get. Another option is to seek help of professionals, like a therapist or counsellor. This can be even scarier because you’re reaching out to people you haven’t built any trust with yet. At the end of 2018, I finally found the courage to reach out to my family doctor about therapy and counselling options. I found that simply asking for help made me feel better. I started a counselling program at the beginning of this year, and it has significantly enhanced how I take care of my mental health. Reaching out to others can be scary, but seeking help might just be the biggest gift you can give to your mental health.

No matter where you’re currently at or what you’re going through, it’s always essential to care for your mental health. Try out these strategies in your own life and see the effect they have on you. We’re all unique, so these tips will work better for some more than others. Discover what works for you and taking care of your mental health will become a little, or a lot, more manageable.

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