Mental Health is one of the most undervalued concepts in our society.
A typical individual that tells a friend, co-worker, boss, "Hey, I need some down time to think/process/rest"
They will hear in response "yea, cool everything alright?" - however most of those individuals are actually thinking about how that person should get their crap together and stop being weak -
Theres no pill for mental health. It's not a weakness, its a normal part of life that our diverse genetic makeup, surroundings and experiences play a part in. You can see as most Doctors will prescribe a medication without an actual plan for complete health. Rather a pill to hide symptoms, but never actual get to health...The pills just dumb us down into the very thing that depression and isolation are. Even think about the word 'depression' to let air out of, or make smaller, or to sink down. Not what I want...
Excellence and health are not natural - quite the opposite - things tend toward disarray, complacency and averageness. Individuals do not just get lucky, and stumble into mental health. It's a choice to tend to and build health. In the same way you would tend to your physical health or spiritual health, tend to your mental health. Tell someone you need to pray, or work out and they are like "cool" tell someone you need a "brain break" there is still a negative connotation attached to it. People are coming around to the importance of it - but we have to continue the dialogue to overcome the stigma.
Here are a few Mental Health Tips that are not scientific and that I try and do regularly.
Get your blood moving everyday - isolation is not your friend, and when hard circumstances cause you to sit in blah on the couch you will not magically understand something that fixes your feeling. Going for a walk/run, go play, throw some iron around and the dopamine and endorphins will help you think clearer.
Find laugh breaks - especially if you work at a desk - if you need help with this let me know and I will gladly do a whole new post on this. The key here is don't laugh at other peoples pain, laugh at genuine joy. Find a kid - and watch them...I have attached a few pics of mine that should help induce some laughter...Bryan Regan helps me (look him up on the google machine).
3 . Get a journal or a friend - if you are more of an internal person use a journal, otherwise ask a friend. And give yourself permission to vent. Take 20 minutes if you need and get your feelings/rage/frusteration/anger out. Let someone/journal know how you feel. The key here is that you stop after that 20 minutes. Giving yourself permission to get it out will then actually help you think clearer and move forward, but to only vent will just sit you in a pit of discouragement.
*be sure to ask your friends permission - you don't want a friend giving advice or trying to help here...just listening.
4 . Practice smiling. I know this sounds crazy - but when we go internal with our thoughts the physical act of smiling has done wonders for my soul. This is not fake it till you make it, rather practice the discipline of smiling when your situation wants to force you to frown. It requires like 97 muscles or something crazy to smile...it requires like 3 to frown, so at the very least burning them calories.
Again I'm no expert, but I do practice these things - I have fumbled with depression, isolation, suicidal thoughts earlier in my life and try to actively destroy them when they come creeping. When they hit, I tend to the pain and dominate it.
If this is something thats relevant for you would love to hear about it below - but would also love to invite you to check out @voiceshares and the cohort of people being built there...I just got into it today and am pretty pumped about it...
as always thanks for following along -
I do need to find more reasons to smile these days!
Thank you for this this was an awesome read !
glad you enjoyed! smiling is amazing...contagious and really helpful for your health...
As someone who works in mental health this is a fantastic post an I hope everyone reads it and take note :) Resteemed :)
thanks for reading and following along
Great read, and I happened to do all those things already but this has been a good reminder to the health of the mind.
feel free to add frequent chestbumps...
I looked that up but could not find it..??
hahaha got it!
Fantastic points. Great reminders. Hugely important to a balanced life and avoiding burnout, etc. Following.
thanks! burnout stinks
Excellent advice, I went through the clinical depression horror despite being the eternal optimist, and it hit me very hard! Years later I'm now free of meds and have learnt some coping mechanisms, the kind of stuff you're talking about in your post, will never neglect my mental health again, it is just as much if not more than tending one's physical well-being! Thank you for an awesome post:)
thanks for sharing @lizelle So glad you came out the other side - and tending to our mental health is critical for life!
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