Happy New Year!
As we jump into 2022, let’s make this a year of great hope, abundant healing, and pure joy. It may not be rocket science, but we did want to remind you of just a couple simple habits that, if practiced, will give you an amazing foundation for truly getting the most out of this year!
Mental Health Practices
Tending to one’s “mental health” looks different for everyone, but there are often some consistent underlying pillars. Some may find certain ones more manageable and realistic than others, but finding regularity in those that best fit your needs and point you in the trajectory of wholeness can help you constructively engage life’s challenges while better understanding both yourself and others. Here are a few practical avenues for proactively caring for your mental health:
Journaling
Journaling is a wonderful way to express your thoughts and emotions by physically getting them down on paper. Journaling is proven to be one of the best mental health exercises because it allow you to see and name the abstract. It offers containment to chaos, providing an avenue to visually see your experiences and begin to make new associations. Journaling is a powerful tool for tracking your goals and progress, writing down your desires and disappointments, providing a context to decompress and relieve stress, delineating between what is true and false, and even strengthening your memory. Journaling isn’t about whether or not you are an eloquent writer, but about slowly developing a language for your inner world so you can begin to express it and live with a greater sense of self-awareness!
Daily Exercise
Studies have shown that daily exercise is integrally connected with your mental health. Exercising releases endorphins that help relieve stress and tension in your body, and also can activate and strengthen neural networks across the right and left hemispheres of your brain. Regularly moving your body is a simple but great way to help you clear your mind and regain perspective. If you have a job that requires sitting most of the day, be sure to regularly change sitting positions, stretch, stand up (if possible, invest in a standing desk), and even take a walking lap around the office a couple times each day. And outside of work, even if it’s only 30 minutes a day, get yourself into a fitness routine. You’ll start to find that your mood is lifted, your quality of sleep is better at night, and your self-esteem is slightly boosted.
Healthy Nutrition
Did you know that your mind can be affected by the foods that you eat? For example, Serotonin – one of the primary chemicals in the body for mood regulation – is produced largely within the gut. What you eat can be an anchor holding you back or wind in the sails moving you forward in your mental health journey. Finding healthy changes to mitigate the level of salt, sugar, processed foods, and alcohol in your daily intake might seem like a daunting task, but pick one substitute at a time and allow yourself time to slowly change. Set aside 10 minutes a week to skim a couple cooking blogs that offer creative, affordable, and delicious recipes for both snacks and meals that include more fruits, vegetables, clean proteins, whole grains, and water.
Quality Sleep
Getting a good night’s rest is one of the most important pieces to your mental health When your sleep is not prioritized, your brain and body don’t get the necessary downtime to heal itself, tend to different bodily functions, move information into long-term memory, or help regulate emotions. Lacking quality sleep can heighten levels anxiety and depression, but can also cause us to respond inappropriately or less rationally to situations. Start scheduling 8 hours of sleep for yourself each night and really try to hold yourself to that schedule. If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, try:
- Taking a warm bath or shower
- Setting a diffuser with lavender oil
- Practicing a grounding exercise focused on deep breathing and body awareness
- Turning your phone and TV off 30 minutes before bed
- Listening to soft, instrumental music
- Journaling for 10 minutes
Professional Counseling
Lastly, it’s never a bad idea to seek out a therapist or counselor. Professional counselors are trained and equipped to help you better invest in and care for yourself. Rarely do we naturally find ourselves in settings where we have sufficient, uninterrupted time to engage, learn from, and heal parts of our stories and experiences that desperately need our attention. The act of talking to someone (preferably in-person, when possible) provides the opportunity consistent, empathetic connection, new insight and perspective, a chance to give voice to the unspoken parts of you, and ultimately move towards the truest and most integrated version of yourself.