32.8% of adults experienced elevated levels of depression one year into the pandemic. With stress levels at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever to be practicing self-care, but how often do you make time for this?
With responsibilities at work, overwhelming assignments at school, and day-to-day care for your family, it can be hard to make time for your own needs.
Practicing self-care allows us to relieve stress, nurture our minds and regain the energy we need to continue embracing life’s responsibilities. In this post, I will share 9 simple ways you can care for your mental health, starting today.
1. Practice gratitude
Get yourself in a positive headspace by writing down three things you’re grateful for each day. They can be anything, like the delicious meal you had last night, your dog, or the warm weather outside. When you focus your mind on your blessings, you won’t think about the burdens. Keep your mind “positively distracted” by healthy thoughts.
2. Get active
Get at least 20 min of exercise per day. Exercise has been known to reduce anxiety and depression so it’s a great way to lift your mood if you’re feeling down. Getting active can be as simple as taking your dog on a walk, following along with a workout video, or dancing to your favorite song in your living room. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you get moving a little bit every day.
3. Meditate daily
Meditation has been proven to reduce stress, and the best part about it is you can do it anywhere! Although everyone’s different, studies have found that meditating for an average of 10 minutes per day is enough to experience real change in your brain. But if you can’t squeeze in 10, that’s okay. Even a few minutes a day can make you feel more alert, focused, and self-aware.
4. Stay in touch
Humans are social creatures and with that, they have a basic need: to socialize. Be sure to reach out to friends and family regularly. After COVID made its entrance, it has become increasingly difficult to see your loved ones face to face, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t stay in touch. Facetime them, call them, whatever you need to do to stay in touch. If this is something you’re bad about, consider setting a reminder on your phone once a week. Even if you don’t feel like talking to a friend or family member, push yourself to do it anyway. You will feel better afterward and your mental health will thank you.
5. Journal about your feelings
Feeling down, anxious, depressed, or even, perfectly fine? Write it down. By writing down how you feel each day, you are able to track certain thought patterns and emotions. Journaling can be a release if you don’t have someone to share your feelings with. There are lots of ways to journal, some most popular being: gratitude journaling, reflecting on your day, writing about a problem and expressing how you feel about it, and setting goals and tracking your progress toward them. Journaling is about acceptance. When you write, you don’t judge. Just let yourself release.
6. Give to others
Giving has a magical way of not only brightening the other person’s day but yours as well! When we give, we feel good about ourselves. We feel like we’re making a difference (and we are). A Harvard study actually found that a group of people who spent money on others, versus themselves, led to greater levels of personal happiness. So if you want to cheer yourself up, try cheering someone else up first. The feelings will be contagious!
7. Do something creative
Even if you feel like you’re not a creative person, you can find something to do that you enjoy. If you’re feeling stressed or simply down, try doodling in a sketchbook, dancing, tinkering with various parts of something, or writing poetry. Make time a couple of times per week to do something you like to do. Society has a way of draining our creativity sometimes, so we need to make sure we nurture it regularly. Your creative activity can be anything as long as it’s something that keeps you present in the moment while doing it.
8. Lower your expectations
Don’t take life so seriously. If you uphold unrealistic standards of yourself, you’ll only be let down and burn out. If you struggle with perfectionism, practice giving yourself some grace. Remind yourself that nothing on this planet is perfect, and this includes you! Laugh a little, watch a funny video, take a break. It’s not all about productivity. Show your mental health some love and be kind to your mind.
9. Build on your strengths
What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? Be sure to make time each week to focus on building your strengths. If you’re a good artist, block out time to cover that canvas. If you’re a great conversationalist, practice talking to others everywhere you go, so you can grow that skill. When we do what we’re good at, it builds our confidence. When we’re confident, we’re happier and more likely to seize opportunities that come our way.
Final Thoughts
Practicing self-care is vital when it comes to keeping your mental health in check. It can be easy to run on our hamster wheel 24/7 until every ounce of our energy is dried up, but this is a recipe for burnout. If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, or just like you need to focus more time on yourself, put these 9 self-care tips into practice. Making time for yourself is not selfish, it’s necessary. By recharging your batteries and caring for your mind regularly, you’ll be able to take on any challenge life throw’s your way.
Do you ever have a long list of to-dos but don’t feel like tackling them? Me too.
But I’ve found some ways to still be productive even when I’m not feelin’ it. If you want to know what they are check out my post How To Get Things Done When You Don’t Feel Like It.
