Do you know why you wake up on the wrong side of the bed sometimes? Or how to combat those Monday Blues? What about those stressful spirals that go through your mind and keep pushing yourself, do you wait to just finish your day, forcing yourself to ignore the nagging chaos waiting to explode out.
In today’s world, mental health is seen through the lense of mental illness, where we don’t engage in our mental health because we either don’t know how to or we don’t think it’s necessary, because we’re not mentally ill.
But what if we compared this to physical health. Imagine a world where only those who were physically ill with a chronic condition were the ones who went to the gym, who ate healthily and took the time to monitor the number of steps the walked each day. What if schools failed to teach children how to run or tumble, how the body works and how to proactively manage their physical wellbeing.
The truth is that just like physical health, we all have mental health. What if you pulled a muscle — would you keep running on it? Would you keep pushing it, telling yourself that you would take a rest later that evening instead of massaging it out and resolving the issue now?
The largest muscle in the human body is the brain and our greatest asset in the working world is our mind. Now ask yourself, do you keep pushing it — even when you’re feeling tired or burned out? Or do you act proactively, engaging with the techniques that would massage out the stress?
For most of us, we automatically do the former, ignoring the feelings of stress just to get on with our day, despite our productivity decreasing. Instead of resolving the issue, we focus on just finishing for the day and getting home. In other words, we keep running on that pulled muscle, slowing down and limping along to the finishing line.
And the sad reality is that while we learned how to stretch out our muscles in school and at the gym, too many of us were never taught the tools to proactively take care of our mental health, at least until we reach crisis point. Because our mental health is just like our physical health, if we ignore it and eat too much sugary or salty foods, it can lead to dehabilitating conditions like diabetes or heart disease. And if we ignore the building up of stress in our heads, it can lead to burnout, ignoring continuous low mood can lead to depressive episodes.
Just as preventative and proactive measures are necessary for our physical health, it makes sense that similar measures are important for our mental health.
Managing Mood
Low mood can often lead to feelings of despair, of disinterest and a lack of motivation. It can be seen in the form of a Monday afternoon slump, waking up on the wrong side of the bed, even just feeling low on a given day.
Proactively managing low mood often comes in the form of gratitude, focusing on the little things that you were thankful for each day and write them out. Alternatively, take the time to write out a ‘to do’ list at the start of each day / week / month and feel the satisfaction (and endorphin rush) of striking a line through each task. Finally, dehydration is often a key factor in low mood, so focusing on your water intake can be a great measure against low mood.
Stopping Negative Thinking
Negative thinking or ‘distortive’ thinking is a process of self hate. Most negative thoughts will have their routes in two key origins “I am a Failure” or “I am Unlovable”, but it is more likely to be seen in phrases like “I am doing terrible at my job”, “everyone is disappointed in me”, “I am not good enough” or “I am a miserable friend / parent / child”.
Combatting negative thinking is one of the hardest things to do within the realm of psychology. Our thoughts exist in an echoing vacuum of affirmation. Every time we tell ourselves “I am not good enough”, there is no one there to disagree, so with every perceived ‘failure’, we reaffirm the thought.
It takes immense willpower and dedication to challenge these thoughts. Every time you catch yourself thinking this way, question it — are you really not good enough? Didn’t you send out an email and receive thanks from a client, didn’t your child do well in a school test because you took the time to go through their spellings? Even the process of getting your job above all other applicants is a win in itself, you must be good enough to be where you are now.
Challenging these thoughts take practice, but it starts with you acknowledging their presence.
Tackling Stress
The most common feeling of 2020 must undeniably be ‘stress’. Whether it’s fears about our loved ones health, the transition to work from home, the constant swinging between lockdown and easing restrictions, the political context of this year, the devastating weather anomalies born out of climate change, or even just regular work stress. Honestly, it’s time we were a little kinder to ourselves and accepted that it is okay to feel stressed at the minute.
What isn’t okay though, is allowing it to manifest itself, strengthening over time and taking over our thoughts, exploding out of us in reactionary words and behaviours to those we love and respect.
Journaling has been described as “the best form of free therapy”
To tackle stress, it is often most important to reflect and explore its roots. Journaling has been described as “the best form of free therapy” and if you are a descriptive person, taking time to write out your thoughts on a situation can be an excellent combatant to stress. Alternatively, if you are more goal oriented or less interested in writing, it can be extremely beneficial before you go to sleep to write out the tasks you have to do the next day. By categorizing and managing what needs to be done, it tackles feelings of being ‘overwhelmed’ and allows you to feel a little more in control. Finally, there are countless studies to prove that mindfulness (particularly respiratory or sensory grounding techniques) are great ‘emergency breaks’ when you feel yourself having an anxiety spiral.
Maintenance
In 2019, there were 20.1 million smart watches sold in the US. We use technology to track all components of our physical health in today’s world, from steps to weight, to calorie counting and our sleep quality. A PWC study projected that over 83% of people weigh themselves during a month period. Technology has enabled us to take control of our physical health, but due to the stigma surrounding mental health — at no point do we ever track our happiness levels.
Think about it, do you objectively know how happy you are today in comparison to this period last year? Or even last week? Maintaining our mental wellbeing requires understanding of how well we are currently and in the past. Simply put — you can’t improve what you don’t know.
Which is why it is important to track your wellbeing with tools like mood trackers, bullet journals or wellness wheels. Take time to check in with yourself and measure your wellbeing.
