Today – Monday 10 October – is World Mental Health Day. This year, the theme for Mental Health Day is ‘Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority’ and you can find out more information about how this is being achieved here at their website. I am, and will always be, a big advocate for mental health and mental wellbeing and I do believe that mental health should be treated the same as physical health. Just as it is really important to keep your body healthy, it is equally important to keep your mind healthy, and so I thought it important to share a few ways in which I look after my mental health. Over the years I have tried a lot of the recommended techniques and tips to help manage my mental health and therefore I shall share them with you guys to see if these can also help you.
1. Journaling
This is easily my number one saving grace for my mental health. I have kept a journal of some kind ever since I was a child and as I have grown older I have always benefitted from having somewhere to dump all of my thoughts. I literally use my journal to get any thoughts out of my head and down onto paper, as I find it far easier to deal with an issue when I can visually see it before me. If I am stressed about work, I will write down why I am stressed about it and then can prepare a to-do list on what needs to be done, what deadlines need to be met and this helps me feel a bit more in control of my day.
Now I know a lot of people use journaling to document their experiences, and find comfort in looking back through their journals to see the progress they have made and to see how their lives have changed. Personally, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than reliving my bad days or my confused days or just my everyday random thoughts. I write it down and never go back to it. One thing I have found to be really helpful in this regard, is keeping a digital journal. I have a blank document saved onto my computer/tablet that acts as my journal. I can word dump everything that comes into my mind and then, once I am finished, I can delete the whole thing. For me, the best part about journaling is the act of getting everything out of my head so this method of writing and deleting has worked well in helping me manage my stresses, anxieties and any worries I may be having.
2. Running/Physical exercise
I have tried meditating before and personally, I can not get on with it. I think I am someone who needs to be doing something to focus my mind, otherwise it will just wander off. Whenever I have tried to sit down and just sit with my thoughts, I will find my mind wandering off onto the most random of topics. For example, that theme song from a TV show I watched once as a four year old that I can still remember to this day, to then thinking about how weird it is that the internet exists, to then thinking about how my toe is itchy. I will then get frustrated because I end up with even more thoughts going through my head than I did when I first sat down.
I have always found physical exercise – especially running – to be very meditative for me. Perhaps it is the act of actively counting out repetitions, or the rhythm of my feet hitting the ground when I run, or just the sheer act of moving my body that allows my brain to shut off for a while. If anything, I find that when I am working out, and when I am running especially, all my mind can focus on is the exercise. When I am running, I will have roughly 5 minutes of my brain like ‘what on earth are we doing?!’, but afterwards I settle into my rhythm and any thoughts or worries I may have before just seem to melt away. Afterwards, I find that the only thoughts I have left are of things that genuinely need my attention, such as what I can cook for dinner or what I need to get ready for work the next day. All the little worries such as the annoying client I dealt with, or the busy crowds around me or the angry drivers honking at each other while I try to walk home, all melt away and I don’t even think of them again.
Now obviously there are some days where the thought of going for a run, or doing any sort of physical activity, feels like a monumental task. On these days, when I know that going for a run or working out will do more harm than good, then I will always go for a walk. Even just a ten minute walk around the block can do wonders for your mental health. It does help that there are a lot of dog walkers near where I live, so I usually end up getting a lot of puppy cuddles in this time, but even without the dogs I still feel so much calmer after I have done even 5 minutes of walking. I will always stand by the fact that exercise should be fun. It should be something that makes you feel energised and inspired, so find something that you enjoy doing and make time in your day to do it for at least 10-20 minutes. You will never regret a bad workout, but you will always regret no work out.
3. Gratitude
Now I know some people will do this every single day and I think that is a great place to start. But for me, I have found that gratitude helps to ground me when I need it, and I also found that after about a week or two of practising gratitude everyday, I found I was repeating myself a lot. I am quite the stickler for my routine, so most of my weekdays are very much the same: I get up, I go to work, I come home, I work out, I read, I journal, I go to bed. Rinse repeat for the rest of the week. Therefore I found that the things I was grateful for each day tended to be the same each day: soya milk for my tea, my fluffy socks for the cold mornings, my partner when he cooks me dinner, my journal, my ability to read and write, the fact that I can afford to put a roof over my head. Obviously these things vary in the seriousness of them (having a safe place to sleep is obviously way more important than fluffy bed socks) but there are some days where my morning cup of tea genuinely soothes my soul.
I therefore only do gratitude work when I am feeling especially frustrated or upset by something. As someone who struggles a lot with perfectionism (I blame the Virgo in me) I have found that writing down five things I am grateful for when I am having a very stressful day helps to ground myself a bit. It helps me put everything in perspective. There are some days where I hate my job, I hate the commute and I start to question every life choice I made in choosing this career. In this moments, writing down what I am grateful for from this career helps to put it all into perspective. Yes, the hours can be long and the clients can be difficult, but my problem solving skills and conflict revolution skills have come in handy so many times in my day to day life. Yes the commute sucks sometimes, especially when it is dark and cold and raining, but it has also allowed me to get through numerous audiobooks and helps me get my step count up. Yes, the house chores can be really tedious and time consuming some days, but I am so grateful that I own my property and don’t have to worry about dealing with a bad landlord.
Gratitude will obviously look very different for everyone, but I have found that it has helped centre myself on numerous occasions, and also makes me feel proud of what I have achieved and the type of life I have managed to create for myself. If you want to try it, I found it helpful to list 3 things you are grateful for every day for a week. After that week, you can obviously continue it for another week, or a month, or have it be something you do every single day before you go to bed. But find what works for you and make time every so often to just check in with where you are.
4. Yoga/Deep breathing
As I said before, I am not someone who can just sit and meditate. Which is where yoga has been super helpful. A lot of yoga practice is based on breath work, so matching your breath with the movements and noticing how this feels in your body. I personally find this very helpful. I do not practice yoga as much as I used to (although I am now slowly incorporating a yoga session into my mornings) but I have found the breathing techniques used have been very helpful in making me aware of my breathing and how my body feels. When I am feeling very stressed or overwhelmed, taking some purposeful and deep breaths have really helped me slow down for a few minutes.
I think the best thing I have learnt from yoga is how to listen to my body. I have learnt how to notice the smallest changes in my body, from a slightly tight muscle in my calf to tension in my side. I can notice this and slowly work backwards to find out why I have that in my body. A sore calf is probably because I didn’t stretch properly after my run, but the tension in my side could be caused by a grumpy email I received or a passive aggressive text. I have found yoga and the techniques it teaches to be helpful in checking over how my body is feeling, and just keeping tabs on how it’s doing. It has also allowed me to notice problem areas in my body. For example my calves have always been tight, so I have learnt to notice which stretches work best to release them, but also how to alter my running speed so as to cause them less stress.
Now I will never be a person who will be super flexible or one of those yogi people who can do push ups while in a handstand position. But having just 10 minutes to stretch and breathe and check in on my body has always worked wonders me for and on very stressful days, 5 deep breaths can honestly make a huge difference to my mood. There are some fantastic people to follow on YouTube – my personal favourites are Boho Beautiful yoga and Yoga with Bird – but have fun just trying out different providers and just seeing where your practice takes you.
Where to find more information
There are obviously so many other options out there for people. If you want more information, or want to know where to start and read up on the subject of mental health, here are some resources that have really helped me:
- Mind
- Action for Happiness
- Mental Health Organisation
- The NHS
- Calm
- Rethink Mental Illness
- The Happiness Planner – very good for journaling prompts, and tips for starting out with journaling
As always, my email and this blog will always be a safe place for people. If anyone ever wants to talk, about anything that is bothering them, then my emails are always open. I will always want to listen to you and your concerns and please know that you will never be a burden on anyone for discussing your mental health.
As someone who loves learning new things, please do let me know how you guys manage your own mental health and mental wellbeing. Are there any tools that I have not listed that you have found to be a game changer for you? Let me know in the comments and I will give them all a go!
Taylor Talks Vegan 