MENTAL HEALTH..HOW DO YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR MENTAL HEALTH.

Mental health and emotional well being can cover many different areas. It’s a complex subject and as I am not a medical practitioner it is not something I can even begin to describe or define in any great detail. However, having been a counsellor for over twenty years, I am aware of how much mental health and emotional wellbeing issues can affect us as individuals, and the importance of taking care of our mental health and emotional wellbeing.
When our mental health and emotional wellbeing is impacted this can impact our lives and relationships. What I have learnt in my years as a counsellor and from my own experiences is that it’s not always easy to recognise when our mental health is being impacted. Sometimes life situations and relationships can pile up and it can be difficult to see when we might be struggling with our mental health.

One of the keys to maintaining good emotional health is being aware of what’s happening in life and relationships and recognising when situations and circumstances impact you, knock you down, and leave you struggling. As a counsellor, I have heard the phrase ‘it’s not a big problem, others have got bigger problems than me’. I will be honest with you when I have had counselling in the past, I have sometimes felt the same way. So, I would like to share something with you, and it is this. Counselling doesn’t have to be about the big stuff in life, it can be about whatever you need support with, no matter how small it might appear or seem. If it’s important to you, then IT MATTERS! YOU MATTER!

One of the things I sometimes suggest to people is to have a CHECK IN with yourself. A simple, HOW AM I TODAY? WHAT’S GOING ON FOR ME? WHAT DO I NEED SUPPORT WITH?

Checking in with ourselves and how we are doing is an important part of taking care of ourselves, our mental health and emotional wellbeing. Perhaps you are one of life’s copers who gets on with it all, or maybe you just don’t feel you have time. I do understand, sometimes, I admit, I can be guilty of not checking in with myself sometimes. However, I want to share with you something that I often say to my clients. It is this;

Each week or every two weeks, we put out our, household rubbish we want to get rid of out for the refuse collectors. All that unpleasant stuff that builds up in our house that we just don’t want anymore. WE GET RID OF! The refuse collectors come and take it away, so we never need to see it again! We are then left with a nice empty bin or bin liner. Now imagine that you didn’t have bin day. What would happen? The rubbish would build up? Get smelly, mouldy, and take up space in your house? Possibly your health could be impacted?
What I want to say here is, our homes regularly have bin day where we can get rid of our rubbish. Yet, what happens to the stuff that builds up in our heads?? What do we do with it and how do we get rid of it? This is the reason I believe passionately that taking care of our mental health and emotional wellbeing is so important. We all have the ability to do small things to take care of mental health.

Sometimes a good place to start when looking at your mental health and emotional wellbeing and how it is affected can be identifying WHAT is impacting your MENTAL HEALTH.
Here are just a few factors that can impact your mental health. Although you might think of some others too.

• Family
• Relationships
• Health
• Work
• Childhood Issues
• Trauma
• Social Situations

When we are struggling with our mental health this can impact us both physically and emotionally this can come out in different ways through:

• Heightened emotions
• Feeling depressed
• Feelings of isolation, sadness, anger, stress, anxiety, or loneliness
• Sleep issues
• Comfort eating
• Feeling lethargic
• Lack of confidence/self esteem
• Not feeling good enough
• Struggling with relationships/social situations

I would suggest that at some point in our lives many of us might have struggled with our mental health at some point. I want to reassure you that if you have, it’s okay to feel the way you have however this has impacted you. YOUR FEELINGS ARE VALID. No matter what we experience and how our mental health is impacted. THINGS CAN AND DO GET BETTER.
It all starts with that first step, and sometimes talking to someone, really can make a difference. There are also things you can that will help give your mental health a boost.

ACTIVITY:

Here is something, I sometimes invite my clients to do; it’s to rate out of 10 how much particular situations are impacting your mental health and emotional wellbeing.

iF you imagine a scale between 1 and 10. 1 you feel AMAZING and 10 you are feeling at your lowest point. Where would you place yourself? (Just also to say here that all because you feel at this point currently, this isn’t permanent)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Then think about what factors are making it that number. It can help to write them down. For example, is there a situation, relationship or event impacting your mental health? If so, and these circumstances weren’t there, would your mental health improve?

When you have done this take some time to think about what YOU can do to improve your mental health and reduce the factors impacting it. This might not be easy to do, but I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what small step or steps you can put in place improve your mental health. In case you are wondering what small steps might be. They can be as simple as talking to someone, reducing one thing on your to do list, having an extra 5 minutes in bed! It’s whatever works for you.

This activity can help identify the factors impacting our mental health. Once we understand the cause of a situation, it becomes easier to address the impact. By doing so we can put the steps in place we need to improve our mental health and boost our emotional wellbeing.
Here are some things that you can do to maintain and take care of your mental health and emotional wellbeing.

1. Check in with yourself. How are YOU feeling today?
2. Talk to someone
3. If you are struggling speak to a health professional. It’s okay to ask for help
4. Focus on your breathing. Take some deep breaths in and out. Release and let go of any stress or tension you are holding onto.
5. Spend some time outside
6. Get active- You don’t have to be sporty to get active. Walking, dancing, yoga, swimming and tai chai are all ways you can be active
7. Keep a journal. Write a journal, paint, draw or doodle your feelings
8. Do something creative
9. Most importantly; TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND BE KIND TO YOURSELF