Our past few posts have been about various mental health topics, from compassion fatigue to major depressive disorder and more. While those were all more specialized posts, there is also a need to consider why it’s important to focus on overall mental health. Not everyone has a diagnosable mental health disorder but everyone should be taking steps to care for their mental health in order to have the best quality of life.
Of course, there are things you can do to take care of yourself when you’re experiencing extra stress or something distressing. Going to therapy, joining support groups, and reaching out to other sources of support, like a spiritual or religious leader, are all great options for everyone, along with medication when needed. But what about dealing with everyday stressors or concerns, like a bad few days at work or a fight with a loved one?
Importance of Self-Care for Mental Health
Keeping ourselves healthy physically is something we hear about all the time. Eating well, moving often, and resting when needed are all pieces of that puzzle. Mental health is also part of that puzzle. Self-care is something we talked about more in-depth in the compassion fatigue and clinician mental health post, it’s also something the other posts have mentioned here and there.
It can be difficult to make time for things like self-care. Sometimes even 5 minutes can feel impossible to find. But any attempt to add any kind of self-care you can manage is important. The social media version of self-care makes us believe that we need to do something super involved, possibly expensive, and often time-consuming. We think of spa days, lengthy skin-care routines, going on vacations, or any other number of big things that we’re told to do to “take care of ourselves”. Of course, all of these things are nice, and taking vacations can be important, but self-care can be much more manageable and doable on an everyday basis. Self-care can look like face masks and skin care, or it can look like just having a cup of tea or coffee by yourself while you just take time to sit quietly and unwind.
Types of Self-Care
Self-care can also look like watching your favorite TV show or movie, reading a few pages in a book, eating a delicious meal, or even just lighting a candle or using a diffuser to set a calming atmosphere in your home. It can also include cleaning your home and making sure you have a safe, healthy space to live in. Self-care is incredibly customizable and can be done in so many little ways or big ways that can add to our quality of life and help support our overall mental health.
While there is often a push that self-care is something that we do alone, and that is absolutely a valid option, the importance of social support shouldn’t be overlooked. Reach out to friends, family, or even join community groups. Volunteering can also be something that can help support our mental health, as helping others can help us to feel good and give us meaning, two important components of mental health.
Half of mental health care is preventative care, much like with physical health. Being able to have these habits and routines in place can help us get through some of the more stressful moments in our lives before we reach a crisis point. It can also be added to a more traditional mental health treatment program, such as therapy or medication, to help increase the effectiveness of the treatment.
Reminders and Wrap-up
It also cannot be understated how much physical health can affect mental health. Exercising regularly, even if it’s just a short walk outside, can help with stress and other everyday mental health needs we all have. Eating balanced, nutritious meals along with our favorite, comfort foods is a great way to keep ourselves healthy both physically and mentally. Cutting out entire food groups or types is not recommended unless under the supervision of a medical doctor.
Taking a few extra minutes every day can go a long way to supporting your overall mental health. While there is no expectation that you could, or would want to, try everything listed in this post, we hope that it may have given you a starting point for how to add a little extra care for yourself everyday.