These days, it's no secret that taking care of your metal and emotional health is extremely salient. Just a couple of decades ago, mental health was a foreign concept to most, and was something that very few people actively paid attention to. Fast forward to today, and it's an area of growing focus, with many workplaces now implementing measures to help employees take care of their mental health. In fact, in Australia, under the National Employment Standards (overseen by the Fair Work Ombudsman), full-time employees are perfectly entitled to take up to 10 paid 'sick days' per year for their mental health. Additionally, an employer is legally not allowed to discriminate or take adverse action based on someone's mental health. This growing focus is important, as it is mutually beneficial for individuals, corporates and governments to have a 'mentally healthy' population. For example, workplaces that put initiatives in place to support their employees' mental health report reduced absenteeism, increased employee engagement, and group productivity. Adversely, poor mental health in the workplace can lead to a loss in productivity and an increase in absenteeism and employee turnover.
With the importance of good mental health now fresh in our minds, what can you do to calm your mind and take care of your mental health?
Different Strategies For Different People
The one thing you have to keep in mind, is that everyone is different. What might work for one person, may not work for you. This notion extends to many facets of life, but is especially important when discussing strategies that you can use to look after your mental health. As much as it pains me to say it, finding what works for you can ultimately just come down to trial and error. That is, trying out a bunch of different techniques and seeing what works best for you.
To find the right technique, it's also important to take into account how you're feeling at any given time. Perhaps you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Perhaps you're frustrated and angry? Or perhaps you're feeling good, and want to stay in that mindset. How you feel at the time should determine which technique you implement. And once again, it's all about trial and error, and finding the methods that work best for you for in a variety of different situations. For example, you may find that meditation works really well for you if you're stressed, but not so well if you're not so well if you're angry; so instead, you go on a walk, which proves to be much more effective at calming you down.
Here are some techniques you can use to take care of your mental health. They are simple, yet can be extremely effective. I encourage you to give each one a go and see which works best for you.
Methods To Calm Your Mind And Take Care Of Your Mental Health
Go For A Walk
I find that people either love or hate this one. I personally love it and find it great to clear my head and reduce frustration. You can listen to your favourite music or just concentrate on each foot hitting the ground. Walking is a great way to destress, and it's been found regular walks can boost self-esteem, mood and sleep quality, and reduces stress, anxiety and fatigue.
Sit In A Quiet Spot And Read A Book Or A Magazine
I know this one is common and people say it all the time, but reading really can do wonders. By shifting your focus and attention from your external problems to the words on a page, you're allowing your brain to recuperate and your imagination to run wild. Reading can also strengthen your brain, prevent stress, decrease cognitive, alleviate depression, aid sleep, increase lifespan and much more.
If you're someone who can get lost in a good book, then this one is definitely for you. And if you haven't historically been a reader, then I'd still highly recommend giving this one a go. In a world with so much instant gratification and constant hits of dopamine, this art of reading is now more important than ever before. So instead of spending 30 minutes scrolling Instagram, try reading a book instead.
Just Sit And Breathe: Micro-meditation
This is basically just a form of meditation; and what I like to call 'micro-meditation'. It's a a simple method that I've been using for years to help me de-stress if I only have a couple of minutes. It involves sitting or lying down, closing your eyes and then taking a deep breathe in, holding for 3 seconds, releasing, holding for 3 seconds and then repeating it over and over again. This can be done in as little as 30 seconds or for as long as you wish. There's really no limit!
This one might sound a little silly to you, but I personally use this one a lot, and it can literally be done anywhere. It can also help you to tackle negative, difficult, stressful or unpleasant situations and can ultimately lead to a much more positive state of mind. Sometimes you get so caught up in the moment, that you just need to sit, breathe and reset.
Lie Down With Your Legs Up On The Wall
This technique involves lying down, placing your legs up against a wall, closing your eyes and staying in this position for 8 minutes. You may be tilting your head with a look of confusion on your face, but this technique can actually help you relax, reduce anxiety, relieve symptoms of mild depression and insomnia, regulate blood flow, relieve headaches, reduce swelling in your feet and legs and much more.
When you first start doing tis exercise, it may be difficult to stay there for 8 minutes, and that's completely okay. Over time, your body will adjust to it and it'll become easier and you'll learn to get into a stress-free zone nice and quickly.
Workout
When I say workout, I don't just mean going to the gym and smashing yourself. Sure, if you enjoy it, you can do a high intensity HITT workout. But something more gentle on the body (like yoga or Pilates) can also be as effective, if not more effective. Countless studies show the benefits of physical activity on mental health. Regular exercise can have a positive impact on depression, anxiety, and ADHD, and can also relieve stress, improve memory, sleep quality and mood. In fact, physically active people have up to a 30% reduced risk of becoming depressed, and staying active helps those who are depressed recover.
Being Kind To Yourself- Method Of Expelling Negative Thoughts
Being kind to yourself is one of the most important things of all when it comes to mental health. It's also one of the hardest things to learn and successfully practice. I understand that it's so much easier said than done, but please try not to constantly fill your mind with negative, hateful comments. These thoughts are unproductive, and will often adversely affect your mental health. In summary, negative attitudes and hateful thoughts can create chronic stress, which upsets the body's hormone balance, depletes the brain chemicals required for happiness, damages the immune system and shortens one's lifespan.
There's a difference between not being satisfied with yourself in some way and outright putting yourself down. For example, consider the following scenario:
'You consistently make spelling and grammatical errors when writing, which has led to your fair share of embarrassment over the years'
Let's consider two separate ways of dealing with that scenario:
- You aren't satisfied with your skill level in this area and deem it to be a problem that needs to be rectified. So you go about working on improving your writing skills by taking an online course and having a friend give you feedback on some things that you have written.
- You constantly tell yourself things like: "I'm so dumb", "I suck at everything", "I'm never going to get a job as a journalist", "everyone is probably laughing at me", "nothing is ever going to change" etc. This constant cycle of hate gets you nowhere, you avoid writing at all costs, and you aren't active trying to improve.
Reaction number 1 involves actively working on improving your skills and is an example of not being satisfied with yourself in a certain area. I would argue that such thoughts can actually be productive (in some cases), providing it's something that can actually be changed and that you're taking the necessary action to improve yourself in that area. Reaction number 2 involves no such things, and instead includes consistent negative thoughts that will ultimately get you no where. Unfortunately, reactions like number 2 are way too common, and it's one of the key reasons why suicide rates are at an all time high.
So, if you're having negative thoughts like this, what can you do to turn your thoughts around into something more productive and positive, like in reaction number 1?
Well, first, it's extremely important to actively call yourself out whenever something hateful and negative pops into your mind. DO NOT IGNORE IT. Instead, recognise it and do your best to reshape the thought into something that's constructive and that you can actually improve upon. For example, let's say you have the negative thought: "I really suck at writing". First, catch yourself thinking it, and then rephrase it to something along the lines of: "I'm not a great writer.... YET". The inclusion of the word 'yet' changes it from a negative, unproductive thought, to more positive thought that you can act on.
It's then important to actually take action and follow through with this, so you don't keep having the same negative thoughts. However, the important thing is that it has to happen in your mind first before you can manifest it in real life. You have to believe that you can legitimately improve, before you actually do; and any hateful, negative comments certainly won't help you get there. Like they say, "what the body believes, the mind achieves."
The following is a good rule of thumb when it comes to determining whether or not a particular thought is okay to constantly be thinking about:
If you wouldn't say it to your best friend, then why are constantly saying it to yourself
So do your utmost best to treat yourself like your own best friend, and work on turning any negative thoughts into more positive, productive thoughts.
Final Thoughts
With the constant force of technology, and the stresses of everyday life, it can be hard to switch off and practice self love. So it's important to do your best to schedule in just a few minutes every day to actively take care of your mind. I know it's tough, but if you implement some of the techniques shared within this post, then you're likely to see some amazing results. And please remember, if you're ever facing tough times and need someone to speak with, please don't hesitate to reach out to me via my socials or email (you should find the links to all of these things above this post). I'm always happy to chat!
Also, if you enjoyed this post, then check out my post on how you can stop overeating and binge eating for good. This is super important to ensure you develop a healthy relationship with food and lose weight in a sustainable manner.