Five Ways I Build Mental Wellness – My Brain’s Not Broken

As it’s Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s an excellent time to share assets, ideas and strategies about psychological well being and wellness. After a decade-plus of residing with melancholy and anxiousness, I am happy with how I’ve realized to handle my psychological well being challenges. However, power psychological well being points can imply I generally undergo my day on auto-pilot, which isn’t nice for my psychological well being. That’s why I need to re-share just a few issues I flip to when I need to work on my well being and construct psychological wellness. While there are much more ideas and strategies on this space, these are 5 issues that work nicely for me. Hope you discover this data useful!

Meditation

My journey with meditation has been prolonged, however I’m lastly at a spot the place I can confidently say it’s a part of my psychological well being toolkit. Meditation has grown in its significance and worth in my day-to-day life, and I’d say there are extra days than not that I get in a meditation session or two. What I take pleasure in most about meditation is that I’ve stopped seeing it as an answer to my issues, and extra as a apply and approach of being. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say meditation is the proper resolution for everybody (I’ve tried it quite a lot of occasions), it doesn’t damage to attempt!

Exercise

You may already bear in mind, however bodily train can play an enormous function in enhancing one’s psychological well being. While it’s essential to verify individuals have a wholesome relationship with train and understanding, I know that it will also be damaging to solely do issues when I have the correct motivation (thanks, melancholy!). Exercising, in any capability, has the chance to offer somebody a quick confidence increase, increase the center fee greater than it’d beforehand, and make us really feel like we now have completed one thing. There are many different advantages to bodily train, however I’ve come to understand the advantages to my psychological well being and wellness greater than anything.

Therapy (There’s More Than One Type!)

Shocker, I know – a psychological well being blogger suggesting remedy. But I need to transcend the generic “therapy is good for you” recommendation and take issues a step additional. Instead of suggesting that individuals look into remedy extra, I need you problem what your concept of remedy is. Yes, there’s sitting in a room with a therapist, or on a Zoom name with a psychological well being skilled; however remedy is a lot greater than that. There are a number of forms of discuss remedy, together with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mentalization-based remedy (MBT) and so many extra. And even past that, there are forms of remedy that contain actions and motion, going past speaking and making an attempt to satisfy the wants of different elements of who we’re. I’m not right here to say that remedy will clear up all of your issues, however it’s usually a secure place to determine the place you can begin.

Getting to Know Myself

One essential a part of constructing my psychological wellness is enhancing my relationship with somebody crucial — myself. We spend our complete lives attending to know ourselves, understanding who we’re and the way we see the world. But there are some issues about ourselves which can be exhausting to come back to phrases with. Maybe it’s a part of our character, or an expertise we went by means of, however all of these items embody who we’re and why we act the best way we do. When I take into consideration my psychological well being challenges, I know that there are facets of my character don’t play a big function in why I take care of anxiousness and melancholy. But these facets do make up the particular person I am, and understanding how I see the world helps me perceive the way it impacts me. I know this may sound slightly off-the-wall however the extra I’ve centered on understanding why I do issues, the extra I’ve understood my psychological well being challenges.

Reflection

Whether it’s by means of journaling, speaking with individuals or just sitting and performing some considering, reflecting on my psychological well being journey has finished some wonderful issues for my psychological wellness. When I mirror on the journey I’ve had, I can see my progress. I can see the enhancements I’ve made, and the methods I’ve gotten higher at managing anxiousness and melancholy. Upon reflection, I also can have a look at the ups and downs with a gentler lens that I’d been in a position to earlier than. I’m not good, and I’m by no means going to be. But moderately than chase perfectionism and “getting rid of” my psychological well being challenges, my reflection results in gratitude. To being happy with who I am and what I’ve skilled. And it’s that angle that has made me stronger, braver, and higher geared up to face the challenges that I know lie forward of me. And I know that upon reflection of what we’ve been by means of, many individuals studying this may really feel the identical approach.

While these are essential methods to construct psychological well being and wellness, they’re removed from the one ones! What do you do to construct psychological wellness in your day-to-day life, and what helps you’re employed in your psychological well being? Let me know within the feedback under!