Everyday Ginger

Over the past year I have become more and more conscious and diligent about how my daily routines effect my mental health. I’ve made it my number one priority to take care of my mental health and be more aware of it, because the year prior I wasn’t nearly as diligent and it suffered as a result. For a bit of backstory, I have suffered with anxiety and depression ever since I was a young teen, and luckily it has been pretty manageable for the majority of the time. I’m also incredibly lucky to have an amazing support system of friends and family who I can talk to about my mental health without feeling shame or like their’s a stigma around my condition.

After I graduated college two and a half years ago, I was going through a particularly rocky transition of not knowing what I wanted to do, which for someone like me, who is a planner and a high-achiever was an incredibly hard pill to swallow and my mental health plummeted as a result. About 8 months after graduation I realized I couldn’t deal with this all on my own and I needed to seek professional help to manage my stress and anxiety. Going to therapy has been the best thing I have done for my mental health by a long-shot, however, if there’s one thing my therapist has taught me, it’s that doing the hard work in therapy is ultimately on YOU not your therapist. That means that the in-between time between sessions are the periods where you will progress and see the most change because you are putting all of those tools from therapy into practice in your real life.

While therapy has been such an integral role in my mental health improving, there are so many small adjustments I’ve made in my day-to-day life that have improved my mental health and the consistency of me feeling well emotionally. Here’s a list of some of those things, it is by no means exhaustive and these aren’t necessarily things I do every single day, but I do them as frequently as possible.

~ Spend quality time completely by myself - I am an introvert by nature and that means I need a good chunk of time during the week to be on my own but also have that time be spent in a productive and present way (i.e. not vegging out on the couch watching Netflix all day).

~ Journaling regularly - This is something I need to do more often and I’m thinking about committing to journaling every day to some degree in the new year. Journalling is such a great tool for consciously checking in with your emotions on a daily basis and especially when paired with a daily gratitude reminder or affirmation it can really help to lift my mood during stressful periods.

~ Getting enough sleep & waking up early - I can pretty much track my stress levels by my quality of sleep. If I had it my way, I’d be in bed by 8:30 most nights and then up around 5:30, what can I say I’m a granny! Ever since I was little I’ve always needed a lot of sleep, but I’ve also always preferred to be early to bed and early to rise. When I go to bed too late and don’t get enough hours of sleep in a night it negatively affects my mood and my handle on my anxiety. Luckily I have a job that I don’t take home too much so I can be quite strict with myself about not responding to emails or doing other work-related tasks and I don’t have to stay up at all hours of the night finishing up work.

~ Exercising & playing outdoors - Being outside I think is the number one thing that will instantly lift my mood if I’m in the midst of a particularly anxious period. Incorporating activities like hiking and rock climbing into my weekly routine have been such game changers with my mental health

~ Making plans with the people I love - As much as I am an introvert, sometimes when I’m feeling my worst mental health-wise and I want to just be on my own, are the times that I need to reach out and be with my friends and family most. I’m lucky enough to have the most amazing fiancé (omg that’s the first time I’m referring to Brad as my fiancé in writing!), friends, and family to support me and lift me up when I’m feeling like garbage. Something my therapist told me early on, that has really stuck with me, is that even when I’m feeling my most introverted and want to spend time on my own, spending time with loved ones won’t pull from my social stores as much as I think it will. Being with other people and talking with others is such a good distraction from whatever is going on in my head and can serve as a good dose of perspective.

Let me know what you do to take care of your mental health in the comments below!