How To Prepare Your Mental Health For 2021
Kristyn Meyer is on a journey to make herself the best human that she can be. These posts are a reflection of that. She welcomes your support via reading and through commissioned affiliate links within her posts! To stay up to date on all of her shenanigans, please subscribe to her email list! (psst…there’s a free gift involved)
Let’s be honest.
2020 has been a bit of a shithole.
And if we are still on the honesty train…
we don’t know what 2021 has in store for us either.
Therefore, we need to start preparing ourselves stat for whatever may come our way. And not in the way of external forces or things, but emotionally.
We have to put ourselves in the best place possible, mental health-wise, to make 2021 the best that we can despite what challenges may be thrown our way.
How To Prepare Your Mental Health For 2021
And what better time to get a plan in place than right after Mental Health Awareness Day?
I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and these are ten of the most important things I can think of that we should all work to get in place or to make a habit before 2021 hits.
“We are not preparing for the world we live in – we are preparing for the world we find ourselves in.”
Michael Mabee
How To Prepare Your Mental Health For 2021
Make yourself healthy from the inside out. I think this one goes without saying, but just in case it doesn’t – we need to focus on making ourselves as healthy as we can. And this doesn’t just include using a mask and hand sanitizer. Those don’t boost our immune systems. We need to get our physicals done, find out what we are deficient in, and implement new things to get our bodies where they need to be. Not only because physically that will serve us well if we were to get sick, but mentally it will also benefit us. When we feel good physically, our mental health is better. When we are ill, our mental health spirals downward.
Take the time to make yourself as healthy as possible on the inside so your brains can be at their best too.
“Chance favours the prepared mind.”
Louis Pasteur
Bullet journal. Okay, you know how I was once on the hunt for the perfect planner, which I then found. I have since found like 6 other planners as well, but that’s not the point. The point is that I have recently jumped into the bullet journal world. And it’s so much fun. It sounds stupid, but it’s literally a notebook of dots, and you can input the information you want in any design that you want.
I bought this journal and this set of colored pens, and I use it every morning to plot out my goals for the day. I’m geekily excited every morning to make a new design and check off my progress from the day before. The nerd that I am, I also randomly pick which colors I am going to use for the day. Why? I don’t know. There is no rhyme or reason to it. But it has helped me to consistently document the important things that I want to accomplish. I know that going into 2021, there will be a lot of things that I want to achieve, and I am developing the habit now to benefit me even more then.
“Each Bullet Journal becomes another volume in the story of your life. Does it represent the life you want to live? If not, then leverage the lessons you’ve learned to change the narrative in the next volume.”
Ryder Carroll
How To Prepare Your Mental Health For 2021
Fresh air, no matter the weather. So during our lengthy stay at home order, the only place we could go sometimes was outside. Whether it be our own yard or the nature trail, that was about it. We couldn’t go to parks or playgrounds. Just the non-touch areas of outside, basically. What this did was provide a bit of a sanity break from all of the time that we were spending indoors.
And now that things have loosened a bit and we can go to more outdoor areas, I am itching to experience them to their full potential. Parks, walking trails, playgrounds. I want it all. And it’s beneficial in so many ways. Being outside, no matter the weather, affords you so many advantages. It can boost your Vitamin D, for instance. Which can in turn help to raise your happiness level. Even in the dead of winter, you can bundle up to take five minutes outside to get the mail. It provides a change of scenery, albeit brief, and affords you fresh air into your lungs.
Take the opportunity to be in nature when you can.
“I believe depression is legitimate. But I also believe that if you don’t exercise, eat nutritious food, get sunlight, get enough sleep, consume positive material, surround yourself with support, then you aren’t giving yourself a fighting chance.”
Jim Carrey
How To Prepare Your Mental Health For 2021
Diffuser. As you know, I’m a late arrival to the essential oils game. I just recently got on board with them. Don’t be like me. Google them, try them out, get yourself a diffuser. I found this one on sale not long ago and it does the trick! It’s amazing the difference that it brings to you, especially during periods of anxiety. Lavender does wonders to calm me down during those times. Anyone get themselves so worked up that they get a headache from the worry and stress? I do. Peppermint helps with that too. Seriously, don’t be a Kristyn in this subject.
Get on board the essential oils train sooner rather than later.
Therapist. Guys, it’s about to be 2021. Do we really need to have a conversation about why a therapist is critical to life? Marriages are dissolving left and right. Even KELLY CLARKSON got a divorce over quarantine! Nobody is safe anymore. Moments like this take a huge toll on our relationships, as well as just our individual selves. Suicide rates have risen due to so many different reasons. Don’t let yourself fall into those categories. Search out someone who can fine-tune your emotional needs where they need to be fine-tuned. And don’t settle for doing it yourself. Although that is always beneficial to put the work in any way that you can, you also benefit in a different way by going through a third party that is trained to look for certain things and has experience navigating areas of trouble and concern. You can even do text therapy these days.
There’s literally no excuse!
“Make yourself strong, so you don’t break.”
Bert McCoy
Gratitude journal. In the days that feel like there is nothing to be happy about, there is actually always something. As part of the Last 90 Days challenge, I have been pushing myself to document five things every day that brings me gratitude. It’s crazy how even on the bad days my brain is able to turn out five things, and pretty quickly at that. What’s more is that once I turn them out, it sets a different tone for me. I personally write them out and do it first thing in the morning. Maybe due to it being one of the very first thoughts of my day is why, but once I write them out I am able to see things in a brighter light than I was before.
And more often than not, this carries me through the bulk of the day.
“Because you never know when the day before … Is the day before. Prepare for tomorrow.”
Bobby Akart
Water intake. Just like I said earlier on, taking care of your physical self helps your mental well-being. And drinking the correct amount of water is part of this. Not only can it allow you to be more relaxed, but it’s also been shown to reduce anxiety when you drink enough of it. They say to drink half of your body weigh in ounces. So if you weigh 150 pounds, try to drink at least 75 ounces per day. Try it out and up it little by little each day. I guarantee you will notice a difference in more ways than one. And don’t think that you have to limit yourself to just your generic, old-fashioned H2O either. You can fancy it up with tea, lemon, or even water enhancers like Mio. I really like the Orange Vanilla one myself. Black Cherry is really good too!
Reading. I’ve talked before about how reading has gotten me through many difficult times. The reason being is that it transports me elsewhere, somewhere that isn’t my current reality. My current reality might be stressful or sad, but the world inside my book is different. Maybe it’s a sad world in there too, but it’s not my world. I’m an observer there, not here in my actual life. But it provides a break from whatever it is that I am going through. I can easily pour through several books in a week when I’m struggling.
For the sense of calmness that it gives me, it’s worth its weight in gold.
Implement a self-care regimen. Kids, kids, kids. Another broken record here. But really, when are we going to learn that to take care of others we must first take care of ourselves? We can’t optimally parent our children or pursue our careers unless we are taken care of. Running on empty isn’t going to make that happen. But that’s exactly what occurs when we don’t take care of us first. Schedule the massage, and while you’re at it – schedule future ones. Been a while since you went to dinner with a friend? Do it. Do you have a bathtub? Then pour in the bubbles and the wine! Don’t actually put the wine in the tub, that has no benefit whatsoever. But have it nearby.
Bottom line is, take care of yourself and your happiness. Put your oxygen mask on before the kid’s masks!
You are no good to others if you are depleted. Write this down as a must-do for “How To Prepare Your Mental Health”!
“Tomorrow’s unknown crisis is not something to avoid in fear. It requires our attention and deliberation. We just need to have the courage to face the truth of our future’s uncertainty. We just need to be prepared.”
Christopher Manske
Sleep. Seriously, go to bed. Quit staying up and watching Dateline episodes. Okay, maybe that’s just me. But you have got to get yourself on a better sleep schedule. They say the best way is to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, even on the weekends. Afraid you are going to miss out on catching up on sleep on your days off? Then go to bed earlier or take a nap. Just be careful not to take too long of one or take it late in the day. You don’t want it to mess with your actual sleep routine.
It’s really not a minor thing, you will find that it benefits you in many ways. Primarily that of your mental health. Anxiety, stress, depression – all of it gets better when we have the proper amount of sleep. The less we get the more difficult it is to control those emotions. Our brains don’t even think correctly on limited sleep. Talk to the mother of a newborn, she will tell you this! If you don’t have a newborn, your excuses are limited for not getting adequate slumber. Get in the habit of going to sleep and waking up at certain times.
You will see the changes in a short period of time, and it will benefit you greatly when it comes to How To Prepare Your Mental Health.
https://www.healthyhorns.utexas.edu/HT/HT_sleep.html
So now that you know what you know, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to implement? What’s your next step?
Don’t stand back and let 2021 do its own thing, take control of it by taking control of yourself! Once you do that, anything that comes your way will be water under the bridge.
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