Does your current life support your mental health? Do you feel you have the time, strategies, support systems and resources to help support your mental health so you can thrive instead of just survive? Do you have the energy to give yourself what you need?
Most of us would answer “no” to these questions. We don’t make the time. We feel overwhelmed or alone. We become stuck in our routine and are afraid of the changes we know we need to make in order to thrive. Our energy all goes to everything except our mental health and our own health. The life we are living simply doesn’t support our mental health. It doesn’t support the healing we need to do. We don’t make the time, or we don’t have the time, to take care of our brain and body the way we need to in order to achieve our ultimate functioning level.
It took me way too many years to realize that instead of trying to force my mental health to support my life, I needed to create a life that supports my mental health. For me that was my depression. We try to conform to what the world expects of us, even if that is detrimental to our health. The life I had was not helping to my depression but increasing my difficult times.
A few years ago, I realized I needed to make some big changes. I reflected on my current life and slowly began to change what wasn’t working, removing individuals from my life who were causing stress and negatively affecting my mental health, and assessed what changes I wanted to make.
I decided I needed to start working towards a career that gave me the flexibility to create my own hours. This would allow me to take time for exercise, sleeping in when I need to, have the energy to make healthy food and anything else I need to do in order to strengthen my mental health.
One thing I did was downsized from a 3000sqft house to a 1200sqft condo. This created less time having to keep up with a house which left me more time to nurture my mental health and decrease my depression. I moved to Florida because I do better in warm weather.
I switched from eating a standard American diet and now eat a whole food plant based diet. This has had incredible impacts on both my physical and mental health.
I got rid of stuff I no longer needed. Less is more when it comes to living with depression. Less stuff to keep up with means more time to keep up with yourself. I find purging things I no longer need or the items that no longer serve me in a positive way. It brings a feeling of lightness.
Slowly, I was able to free up time in order to exercise, rest to take care of my mental health My stress level went down. I was able to eat healthy meals because I had the time to prepare the food. I switched careers becoming a realtor in 2021.
I still have a few more things to do, but it has made life a lot more supportive of my mental health.
To truly manage your mental health, you need to do more than simply go to a therapist and take anti-depressant. I do both of these too, but taking a whole life approach is what has really helped. Each day, just do a little something to work towards creating a life that supports your mental health. It won’t happen overnight. Focus on just small changes.
James Clear, the author of the book, Atomic Habits, states, “Getting 1% better every day counts for a lot in the long run.” Just 1%! Small steps. Otherwise, you will become overwhelmed and if you are like me, you will shut down! So focus on small movements forward each day.
What changes have you made to your life in order to better support your mental health? What changes do you think you need to make?
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