Month: September 2017

While many of us may never experience a severe mental illness that requires medication or therapy but, all of us at times experience less than optimal mental health. It’s part of the human condition.  Here are five of my favorite and easy tips to help improve your Mental Health.

1. Let go of what isn’t serving you. That includes the stories you tell yourself (i.e., I’ll never accomplish anything), situations, ideals and toxic people. Holding on to these things are bad for your mental health because they hold you back, make you unhappy and don’t allow you to live the life you were meant to live. This type of detachment isn’t about giving up, it’s about moving forward. One of the biggest things I’ve found that hold people back are when they become so attached to something that even when it’s no longer beneficial to them, they won’t let it go.
2. Stop waiting for the perfect time to do something, or until you feel like it. Do it today and do it wholeheartedly. Tomorrow is not promised. Appreciate what you have right now, right in front of you. People are here today and gone today. Stop waiting until you climb to the top of the cooperate ladder to finally take that vacation, or wait until you find the perfect partner before going on a cruise. Stop showing up at work and in your life, just going through the motions. Live each day with passion and you may find yourself excited to do everyday tasks that once felt like a drag.
3. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone, at least a little each day. Being too comfortable can hold you back from living your best life. Being comfortable can suffocate you and lull you into stagnation for personal and financial growth. Some of the best things in life are on the other side of fear and I’m not saying you have to jump out of an airplane to have that experience, but do something that scares you at least a little, like having that tough conversation, saying no when you normally would say yes or applying for that job that kind of scares you, yet gets you excited each time you think about it.
4. Don’t be afraid of failure. This links to number three. We all fail sometimes and it’s okay. As long as you learn from it, you never truly fail. Fail forward is a saying that I love because in each mistake there is something that you can take away that will make you wiser, stronger and better than you were before. Learn from your mistakes and move forward, they don’t define you unless you let them. Use your failures for motivation.
5. Maintain your inner peace by staying away from toxic people and situations.The only people we can control are ourselves, but there will always be people, situations and drama that will try to steal our inner peace. If we get caught up with negative situations, we’ll find ourselves full of unnecessary stress, worry and even anger. Back to number one, that may mean letting go of certain people, not taking things so personal or even limiting the amount of news we watch on TV if it’s causing us stress.

There are countless ways to improve your mental health. I like to go to the gym, to draw or go running to clear my mind. I have a friend who loves yoga and another who uses jujitsu as his therapy. What are some of your #MyTipsForMentalHealth?