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How Do You Care For Your Mental Health?
What do you do to help your mental health? What sort of routine do you have in place to strengthen your mental fitness? Do you know what sort of things you’re doing that harms your mental health?
3 Areas to Strengthen Mental Health
Shine a light on these three specific areas of your mental health and you will improve your mental strength and ability to weather difficult times.
1. Intentional Living
First and foremost, we are always always always going to feel better when we are living intentionally. When we are making conscious decisions about our life and how we are showing up. When we are taking actions that are in alignment with how we want to show up in this world, we feel a level of content even if the decision is a hard one.
We are almost always going to feel worse when we are making decisions with our child brain. The more we can use our fully developed frontal lobe to make decisions ahead of time, the better we are going to feel. How do we do this? Make as many decisions as you can ahead of time. Here are some examples of things you can decide ahead of time:
When will you wake up? When will you go to bed?
When will you drink alcohol in your week? How much and what kinds?
When will you order out?
What kind of purchases are you planning on making this week? This month?
When will you watch news on the TV during the day?
When will you spend time with the people in your family?
When will you care for your physical body
These are just an example of some ways you can make decisions ahead of time and strengthen your mental strength. Can you share in the comments which decisions you make ahead of time?
2. Equal Air Time
We are going to have negative inputs coming into our brain. That’s a part of life. The more we pair living intentionally (#1) with this concept of equal air time the higher our mental strength will be. This means, getting intentional about where, when, and how we are getting negative input into our brain and pairing that with this concept of equal air time. Essentially this means to be giving equal air time to the negative and the positive inputs in your life. If you are choosing to watch or listen to an hour of news in the morning and an hour at night, then intentionally and consciously choose to listen to an uplifting podcast or an hour to read an uplifting book about someone who perseveres or a documentary on something inspiring or an inspiring YouTuber. Be deliberate.
For my mental health and wellness, I am intentional about where I get my news from, how often I look at the news, and also the equal air time I place on filling my brain with positive input. This leads us to the third way we can care for our mental health on all days, at any time of the year…
3. Habitualize Mental Health
What you do daily matters. That walk after dinner? (helpful) That glass of wine? (not so helpful). That calm talk with your spouse? (helpful). The news on in the background? (not so helpful).
What sort of practices can you habitualize that strengthen for your mental health? Here are some areas to look at and resources to check out:
- Begin Meditating: My free resource: How to meditate for busy moms. Here are some free videos to help you meditate.
- Move Your Body: Start a regular exercise plan. Some ways to start here
- Caring for your 5 Pillars of Wellness: Blog Post link here and Podcast link here
- Prioritize Sleep:How has your sleep been? I have been loving this sleep supplement from Dr. Amen
- Clean it Up: How much do you know about essential oils? This is a great time to get the toxins out of your house.
- Relationships: Maybe it’s the time to have some deeper conversations with your spouse about your future and your goals? Link to listen to or read 5 Rules for Great Conversations or here’s the link to listen to my interview with Oren Jay Sofer on Non Violent Communication.
With all of these things, start small. 1-2 minutes a day of exercise or meditation is a great place to start. Switching out your candles for oils or choose to get 15-30 minutes more of sleep a night. Small shifts make BIG changes.
You are Never Alone
As I said, one of the most helpful things you can do for your mental health is to live intentionally. My 10-Day Cleanse for Intentional Living is half off right now. I am so grateful that the people who have done it so far during this time have reported how easy it is to make these shifts with the guidance of the program. For those of you who haven’t signed up yet, head on over. It costs less than your latte a day used to and will have far greater benefits (though I do love me some coffee).
For those of you who want in on the fun and the relief, use this link and use the code PEACE for half off.
