5 Self Care Tips to Improve Your Mental Health

It is essential to stay connected with your friends and family during this lockdown to keep your mind and heart-healthy. Just take enough rest, relax, and recuperate. Keep your mind and heart occupied to improve your mental health.

In this blog post, we will talk about five simple ways that you can try and incorporate some self-care into your daily life; and I think that self-care is essential, and I don’t think that it should be a luxury; I don’t think it should be kind of scoffed at, but if this is your first foray into self-care or if it’s something you’ve been struggling with for a while where ever you fall on that self-care skill hopefully there will be something you can take away from this blog post.

Find Your Routine

Easier said than done is something that many people struggle with, but I think it’s probably also one of the most important things you can do for your mental health and well-being.

I think this one is especially important if you have mental health problems because they can seem overwhelming and unpredictable. In contrast, if you do try and incorporate some routine into your life, you get that a little bit of a sense of control and know where things are going, so you should hopefully be less anxious about things overall.

And set attainable goals that will work for you, so if you barely have any confidence to accomplish the goal this week, maybe don’t set a goal that you will work out for the next seven days because that might not happen. You might end up feeling crappy that you think that you’ve failed when you haven’t – it’s just life.

So whether it’s just getting out of bed, eating breakfast every day; showering before a specific time of day, or even just going out for a walk once a day; set goals that are easy for you to achieve that you can kind of check off and feel good about and chances are you will slip up because you’re a human but don’t be so hard on yourself when you do make sure that your next choice is a good one.

Get Creative

Some of you might identify yourself as a very creative person. Others might feel like they don’t have a creative bone in their body, so I’m not suggesting that you carve a life-size sculpture of yourself, but all I’m suggesting is that you do something creative.

Whether it’s like painting; creating a physical photo album and decorating it; it might be an adult coloring book; it might be doing some nail art, but there’s something incredible about channeling your creative energy even if you don’t feel like you’re immensely talented in that area.

 And maybe none of these things appeal to you; you’re more of a chef; maybe you want to decorate some cookies or plate your dinner in a super fancy way. Just do something that kind of calls out to you or something that you might have put off for a while because you think it’s like not super important.

I think that visually seeing that you can create something beautiful is a fantastic feeling, so definitely give it a go and if it doesn’t go well, don’t dwell on it, move on to something else.

Regulate Your Sleep

I have seen many doctors from my mental health issues but for loved ones as well, and one thing that every doctor will stress is how important sleep is. So whether you struggle with mania or depression or you’re somewhere in between and just struggling it’s definitely of the utmost importance that you try and regulate your sleep.

 Sleep not only has many physical benefits such as organ repair and tissue repair but it’s almost certainly going to help improve your mood if you are getting the right amount of sleep for you.

If you struggle to keep a regular sleep cycle, whatever that is, or if you have a delayed sleep cycle, try making small adjustments, so maybe right now you sleep from like 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. don’t suddenly try and switch; try and make small changes like maybe the next day get up at noon and go to bed an hour earlier than you usually would and just inch closer to your goals that way and then on the flip side you might also be a bit of a sleep-dependent like definitely used to be. I used to take naps whether I was happy, sad, angry cold any occasion could bring on a nap.

I made a conscious effort to take fewer naps a few years ago now, and I haven’t looked back since because naps are the gateway drug to sleep for me, so try and work on your sleep routine.

Talk About It

Venting out about something bothers you to someone, which is an obvious one that can also be very hard to execute. If you don’t yet feel comfortable saying, “I’m feeling a bit weird mentally can we have a chat” start by asking a friend if you can hang out because you need a distraction or you need some quality time, and there is chances that they will catch on to what you’re saying and will ask you questions and you can go from there?

And if you are already a little bit more comfortable asking for help, just let it out; call a family member or friend and just let them know that you’re having a hard time.

 I will always call my mom, I don’t necessarily have to say anything, but she’ll immediately be like “kiddo what’s wrong.” We usually end up laughing about it. I find that that’s the best way for me to move on from whatever is going on in my head.

Take time to feel

Often, we might think that distracting ourselves from either evil thoughts or things going on in our lives is the best way to go, and I think to the extent that it is, but I also think that sometimes we need to feel those emotions.

As crappy as they might be, I think that sometimes we need to go through things to get where we want to go instead of going around them, or sometimes these issues just never get dealt with.

Sometimes I’ll even set aside 10 minutes so that I can worry about or overthink specific things. Then I will write down how I can fix it if I can and go from there because being anxious or worrying about something that you can’t change isn’t very productive. It might feel like you’re doing something about the issue, but you’re not; you’re just making yourself suffer.

 So try not to dwell on whatever the issue is but also don’t hide from it either. And crying can be therapeutic, so if you feel like you need to have a little meltdown, schedule yourself one and do it. You might find that none of these things work, but in the process of trying them out, you might find things that do so you have to try even if it’s very small things like I said, waking up before noon or making yourself eat breakfast; celebrate the small things and know what works for you and put some importance on that like really make sure that that is a priority for you to do in your self-care routine whether it is something as simple as eating that day or if you need to do something more like an hour of yoga do what works for you.

Conclusion

These are my kind of must-do basics of self-care; moreover, this mental illness can be treated with proper medical data via doctor’s observations or via medical surveys, which can be a great help for the healthcare industries.  When the healthcare industry, especially the mental healthcare industry, is aided with proper data through medical surveys, they can develop more constructive and optimal treatments for depression and other mental health illnesses. MDforLives is one such medical community helping the healthcare industry through its paid medical surveys for doctors.

 If you do want me to get into something I guess a little bit more advanced, and once you’ve got all of these essential things down, do you let me know because I would love to write more blog posts on this and please do leave any tips or resources that you’d like to use in the comments down below or maybe even open up to someone in the comments and make some new friends that might be going through similar things.

 When I get stuck inside my head, sometimes doing things to help other people is the best way to go.

 The bits of help put things in perspective and be a good distraction, and if other people are going through things, sometimes going through them with them can also help you go through your things.

 So I guess all I have to say is be nice to yourself and make yourself a priority because you deserve it.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this blog post and let me know what you would like to read next in this series and give a thumbs up; and if you liked it, please make a comment below and share it with your friends who need self-care.