Mental Health Matters
Mental Health has been a huge talking point in 2019 with more and more celebrities openly disclosing their mental illness and depression + anxiety statistics being at an all time high. There is no two ways around this conversation, if you don’t prioritize your mental health today, you’re going to have a great deal of recovery to prioritize tomorrow.
But how does one prioritize their mental health everyday? Is it possible to live a life devoid of any suffering? When do we know when to call it a day and just sleep off a bad day? I’m going to unpack this for you.
It is very possible and important to prioritize your mental health, daily. In fact, doing so puts you a step ahead in the self-care game. Here are a few tips to prioritize your mental health daily:
Be honest about what you can and cannot do each day.
Choose to stay in the present moment
Set boundaries and hold them.
These three tips are easy to deploy daily and work wonders for your mental wellbeing.
Does doing the above mean you won’t encounter challenges that could possibly bring you pain? No. But doing the above helps keep you from suffering. Suffering unlike other negative emotions, is both optional and incredibly unnecessary. Suffering is detrimental to our mental health because it keeps us stuck in a loop of pain that doesn’t allow us to move forward. Suffering breeds pity and resentment. The more we rest comfortably in unending pain, the more attached we grow to it thus disabling us from being able to see our reality for what it really is. We suffer because we refuse to be present.
When you find yourself in a constant state of unhappiness ask yourself:
“Am I still feeling _________ because the situation or have I grown attached to this feeling?”
We may not always have the will to follow the steps and check-in with ourselves. Sometimes, despondency hits like a 10t truck and all you want to do, is call it a day and rather try again tomorrow. On those bad days, affirmations need to come into play to remind yourself that “a bad day is not a bad life” and it’s okay to not be able to show up sometimes.
Sometimes, we really just need to crawl into bed and just sleep. Maybe you miss out on an event you were really looking forward to but cannot sum up the energy to attend anymore. Maybe you lose out on a day of follower gains that day. Maybe, just maybe, when you stop acting like you’re superhuman you will be able to just be human. Maybe, by calling it a day, you’ll be able to give yourself enough time to calm your mind, clear your thoughts and ease the emotions that have had you feeling ready to implode.
When caring for ourselves, we must remember that our mental and emotional wellbeing set the tone for our experiences and how we will respond to the events of our lives.
The world will go on without you and that’s fine. By giving ourselves permission to prioritize mental health, we offer ourselves the thought that we too, are work the time, effort and care.
You can follow me on Twitter & Instagram @PhemiSegoe for more personal development content.