6 Therapist-Backed Ways to Manage Your Mental Health
Most people report feeling a decline in their mental health over time. This is due in large part to the cumulative effect of daily micro-stressors along with the increasing ineffectiveness of mediocre coping mechanisms over time.
Without the necessary tools and resources required to update coping mechanisms as needed, it can be very difficult to restore and renew yourself to being the person you want to be.
Consider the following 6 ways to update your coping skills and build the resilience and confidence needed to live your best life!
1. Talk About How You Feel
Giving voice to your feelings can offer instant relief. Start with someone safe; someone you trust to listen and not judge. This could be a therapist or a trusted friend.
2. Schedule it, then Forget it!
Scheduling the events that you do on a daily or weekly basis frees you up to focus on the things that are not able to be scheduled. The more events your nervous system can predict, the more relaxed you will feel. So consider what you do on a daily basis and create a routine around it that will eventually allow you to forget about it once it becomes second nature.
Some areas to create routines around include:
Morning and evening routines
Working out
Work hours
Extracurricular activities
Date nights/social time
Laundry day
Grocery shopping
Cleaning
3. Unplug and Relax
The idea of vegging in front of the TV at the end of a long, stressful day may feel inviting, but studies show that screen time of any kind contributes to feelings of dissatisfaction and unworthiness. Conversely, the more present you are in the moment, the more your nervous system is able to relax. So set a timer and challenge yourself to not look at a screen for the allotted time.
During this time you can:
meditate
read
go for a walk
talk to a friend
Focus on one of your 5 senses at a time (site, smell, sound, taste, touch)
Listen to music
Day dream about something pleasant
4. Practice Daily Gratitudes
For better or worse, humans are wired to survive, which means we are prone to look for what is going wrong rather than what is going right. Overlooking the things that are going well in order to address real or imagined problem areas leaves our nervous system in a state of constant anxiety and stress. So be intentional about finding the areas that are going well and let yourself hyper focus on it until you start to feel hope, contentment and motivation return to your body and mind.
Try:
Making a list of all the things you are grateful for and read through it at the beginning of each day. This builds resilience and optimism which is needed to get through the areas of your life that aren’t going so well.
5. Create a list of Affirmations
Your brain believes what you tell it is true. If you tell yourself you’re ugly, your brain will believe it and will respond accordingly by feeling lousy as a result. But when you tell yourself that you’re beautiful, your body responds by standing up straighter, cracking a smile or feeling stronger.
Try the following:
Create a list of affirmations (i.e. beliefs and attributes that you want to ideally believe about yourself).
Place your list in an easily accessible or visible place.
Create a routine to read your list every day. Up the effectiveness of this tool and read it to yourself in the mirror!
6. Challenge Negativity
Stopping to check the quality of your thoughts is a very useful activity when trying to get to the bottom of why you feel so crummy. External factors usually get most of the blame for our distress, when more often than not it's the way in which we talk to ourselves about those external factors that are the real culprit.
Try:
Checking your own self talk the next time you feel stressed. Ask yourself: Am I speaking to myself in a way that is loving, patient, and understanding or harsh, critical and impatient? Challenge yourself to find a loving, supportive way to approach yourself and see how you feel.
So there you have it! Try implementing one strategy per week so as not to get overwhelmed, keeping track of how each one of them makes you feel as you go along.
If you need help customizing, implementing or processing resistances that come up, feel free to reach out to one of our compassionate therapists!
