- Don’t Sit on the Sidelines Waiting for Everything to Be Okay ➞
- Start by Weeding Out What Damages Your Mental Health ➞
- Nurture Your Mental Health with Soothing Choices ➞
- Don’t Be Afraid to Let Someone Else Help You ➞
- Keep Tending to Your Mental Well-Being, Even When Everything’s Going Well ➞
(Photo by Arif Riyanto/Unsplash)
Mental health is by far one of the most important aspects of our day-to-day lives. It affects everything we do and can determine whether or not we can reach our productive potential.
Recognizing problems and developing the determination to fix them can help you in many different ways. Good mental health will make you happier, healthier, and feeling more accomplished and fulfilled.
However, these changes won’t happen on their own unless you decide to be proactive in pursuing it. It may be hard at times, but the outcome of an overall better life will be worth it. You just have to do the work.
Don’t Sit on the Sidelines Waiting for Everything to Be Okay
Sometimes when people begin to realize that they’re in a mental health rut, they tend not to take the correct form of action to properly get themselves out of it.
They might get defensive about how they’ve been acting. Even though internally they know things aren’t good, they don’t want anyone else pointing it out. They lash out at those who notice, and they might struggle with shame.
Some act paralyzed in an attempt to ride out the storm and not rock the boat, making things worse. Others look to people besides themselves to make it all better for them, relying on the mental stability of those around them to keep themselves afloat.
Doing this is not going to help you. Even if it seems to ease the issue at the time, ultimately your problems will not be solved unless you do it yourself.
Let’s say you’re faced with a dilemma and someone else ends up fixing it. Although your problem is gone, you will have learned absolutely nothing from the situation. As a result, the next time you’re faced with something, you will have less experience with knowing how to get yourself out of such complications.
This kind of over-reliance on others to bail you out is a form of using other people as a crutch to avoid having to learn how to better manage your own needs and capabilities, which becomes risky and unreliable because then you leave yourself vulnerable to these other people having power over your life when you become disempowered by unexpected or unprepared-for difficulties.
Plus, if you’re constantly looking to others for support in times of mental or emotional crisis, but never developing the strength to be able to reciprocally support them back in their times of need, people will start pulling away from you, or worse, start disrespecting or taking advantage of you, due to perceiving you as incapable of being an equal partner in the relationship.
Sure, a lot of times friends and family members would be glad to help someone they love during tough times, but keep in mind that placing the burden of your mental health struggles on other people could start to wear on their own state of mind, too. If nothing improves over time, they may end up finding you toxic and having to prioritize their own self-preservation.
On the other hand, simply waiting things out usually won’t work in the long run either. Choosing to ignore or endure problems can allow them to snowball into something worse that could end up becoming more damaging or overwhelming to deal with.
Instead, you need to stop expecting things to just work out with little to no effort, or for people around you to constantly pull you out of preventable ruts. You need to realize that some thing you’ll face during life will need lots of effort, and that sometimes it may take a lot of courage and fortitude to force yourself to learn how to deal with things on your own.
To help yourself in becoming your best support system, make sure you take care of yourself and your mental health. Good ways to do this include staying active, talking to someone about how you feel, taking breaks, getting good amounts of sleep, and keeping needlessly stressful things out of your life.
Taking care of your mental health will lessen the blow when you’re stuck with an issue in life that requires you to rely on yourself to take care of. Learning to become your own support system will benefit you throughout life when facing any issues thrown your way.
Start by Weeding Out What Damages Your Mental Health
One important aspect of taking an approach to fix mental health issues is to get rid of things in your life that damage your mindset. Doing this will help clear unnecessary stressors out of your day-to-day life, improving your overall mood and mental health.
The first step in weeding out damaging things in your life is to take a step back and look at the root of your sadness, anger, and other emotions. These stressors could be anything, including habits, people, your career, beliefs, etc.
In order to successfully recognize damaging things in your life, you need to be willing to be honest with yourself and let yourself separate from things that you know harm your mental health, even if it’s difficult to let go.
Once you’ve figured out what the main causes of mental health decay in your situation are, you need to be able to accept that sometimes these things need to be altered or cut out of your life.
Start this by slightly weaning off whatever it is that causing your mental health to suffer. Going totally cold turkey may cause other issues, especially if you’re struggling with things like people or your career. Plus, sometimes what is causing stress is having picked up an ineffective solution to deal with a very real and vital need, and simply cutting out that solution might not be a complete remedy without a healthier replacement solution to exchange it for or finding some other way of managing the underlying need.
Start to lessen the amount of time you give attention to things in your life that are causing the decline in your mental well-being. For example, if talking to one of your family members always stresses you out or takes a toll on your mental health, start talking to them less and less over time so that the transition to less stress is smoother and more natural.
Some stress factors can’t be cut out completely. One example is a career. For most people, it’s a horrible idea to just quit your job randomly because it stresses you out. Sometimes it will be more beneficial to dig deeper and find out why this issue is stressing you out, instead of suddenly or completely ridding it from your life.
For example, if your job is a huge factor in your mental health decline, figure out why. Maybe you’re working too many hours or you would like to work in a different department. In these types of cases, trying to resolve specific elements of the issue before completely getting rid of it is the best thing you can do.
To weed out things that damage your mental health, analyze the root of your feelings and be honest with yourself when figuring out what needs to be done in order to make your life as stress-free and mentally healthy as possible.
Nurture Your Mental Health with Soothing Choices
Maintaining your mental health can be difficult and quite stressful at times. Having a healthy mindset isn’t something that can be rushed or treated harshly. Sometimes when people realize they’ve been struggling with mental health, they tend to get down on themselves and try to simply snap out of it by willpower alone.
Taking this approach can end up making your struggles worse, because dealing with mental health should be done in a way that takes care of you instead of making yourself feel worse.
When it comes to your own state of mind, treat yourself with the same nurture and care as you would for others. If someone you love and care about came to you and told you about their struggles, would you just tell them to suck it up or get over it?
Probably not. Instead, you would show them that you care. You should give that same treatment to yourself when it comes to your own mind. Start by recognizing things in your life that break you down, and plan ways to stay away from them.
For example, if social media riles you up or demoralizes you, stay off of it and look for more constructive ways to keep your mind occupied. These things should soothe you and bring more positivity into your world.
Find a variety of things that you enjoy so that you don’t get bored. Don’t be scared to try new hobbies that you are unsure of. Keep an open mind when it comes to planning out new endeavors.
A few examples of things you can do are painting, spa treatments, going for walks, yoga, arts and crafts, watching comedy, and spending time with supportive people that bring happiness to you.
Another thing to keep in mind is that maintaining physical health is a very important step in maintaining mental health. Make sure you’re staying active, as activity can help with both mental and physical health.
Also, make sure you’re maintaining good nutrition and a good sleep schedule, because this will both reduce stress and strengthen your body and mind.
Make sure you have outlets that you can turn to when things get too overwhelming or when your brain just needs a break. Treat your mental health with nurture and care so that you can heal and grow stronger.
Don’t Be Afraid to Let Someone Else Help You
While you shouldn’t make a perpetual habit of relying on others to solve things for you, one of the most important steps in healing mental health is being able to get support from others so that you learn how to support yourself.
Trying to fight a battle inside your own mind with no one to turn to can easily become draining and overwhelming, and can cause the situation to snowball into even worse issues than you started with.
Lots of people worry about a stigma around mental health, afraid that speaking up about their struggles will make others label them as crazy, or an attention-seeker, or high-maintenance, or someone who has lost control.
These stigmas carry on into counseling and therapy, too. Some people are afraid to seek help due to a fear of being exposed or shamed when it comes to their personal struggles.
However, breaking through these false ideas is very vital and beneficial to maintaining and strengthening your mental health. Getting help from those who are professionally trained to deal with such struggles can be an eye-opening experience.
Professionals will know how to deal with situations that you may be facing in your life, and will offer helpful, unbiased insight as to what you can do to feel better. There are many online resources that will help you find a variety of counselors near you.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to them to ask questions or to determine whether or not they would be a good fit for dealing with the things you would like to speak to them about. You can also ask people you trust if they know of any professionals who they could refer you to.
Some people go to counseling or therapy but don’t outwardly talk about it with others. Asking people you trust may help you in finding counselors, but it may also help you feel better about seeking help if you’re feeling hesitant because of stigma concerns.
You can also look online for web groups of people who have recommendations for counselors or therapists. There are many resources for first-time counseling or therapy seekers that give tips and advice on how to feel less anxious about getting professional help, as well as people who post about their experiences so that you can better know what to expect from a session.
Talking to a professional mental health expert can be extremely beneficial in your journey to maintaining a good mindset. Break the stigma around getting help, and don’t be afraid to take the proper steps to becoming your most mentally healthy self.
Keep Tending to Your Mental Well-Being, Even When Everything’s Going Well
Some people tend to ease up on supporting their mental health when things seem to be going steady. They think that since things are better now, they won’t have to look after their mental health anymore because there’s nothing going on that could damage it.
However, this is not the time to let your foot off the gas. This is the time to really focus on your mental health and ramp up the care so that in the future when you are faced with adversity again, you will have a strong mentality that will be able to back you up.
Keeping up with your mental well-being is also important for maintenance. If you’ve achieved a healthy and good headspace, you should be making sure you’re trying to maintain it and not let it slip away.
Maintain a healthy mind by de-stressing everything that is within your power. Make sure that you are keeping stressful things out of your life when you can.
Not all things are going to be in your control, of course. Some issues are things that you unfortunately can’t really do anything about. But taking care of the things you can will leave you with more strength and resources to better deal with the unexpected or unavoidable.
Life is not always going to be stress free. You know that there will be times in your future where you are going to have to worry or stress about aspects of your life, so it’s important to keep your mental reserves strong for when these times come up.
Sometimes, however, people can struggle with feeling lost on what to do with themselves when they’re not experiencing some kind of stressor in their life. It can be hard to adjust to feeling comfortable with times of peacefulness if you’ve gotten accustomed to your days being driven by worry and chaos.
If you struggle with being able to enjoy the victories of hard-won peace, practice the art of living in the moment. Don’t look for things to worry about. Instead, put your mental health at a top priority so that you can focus on improving it as much as possible while you’re not being overwhelmed by other things.
This way, once you do find yourself in a place where you need to worry about something, your mindset will be prepared to handle what comes your way.
Make sure you’re maintaining your physical health at all times as well, not just when you’re going through something tough. The endorphins you generate through exercise will help you stay mentally healthy, plus good physical maintenance will also increase your quality of day-to-day life and lessen the probability of other health issues to have to worry about later down the road.
Tending your mental health is always important, even when things are going well in life. Make sure you tend to your mindset to make sure you’re fit to handle future events. You have to strengthen your mind to support yourself mentally, just as you strengthen your body to support yourself physically.
It’s difficult to be proactive sometimes when you feel down or depressed. Often, people in this state of mind would rather climb into bed and hide under covers to avoid facing the things that are haunting their thoughts.
However, facing your problems head on and learning how to deal with them in a healthy way will help ensure you’re not continually plagued with negativity in the future. Instead, when something hard comes along, you’ll know from past experiences effective ways to handle it.