One-time gift
The Signature Box
Our curated Elevate Box, sent once for a moment that matters.
- 4–6 full-size wellness and self-care items
- A personal growth book or guided journal
- A custom gift note from your company
There’s such a stigma around mental health that people don’t even know when they need help mentally. You wouldn’t have a deep wound in your chest and just breathe through it or walk it off. You’d rush to the nearest hospital for immediate quality care.
But it’s different with mental health. We’re always trying to reel in our feelings because society wouldn’t entertain us speaking up about our mental health. Enough of that. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health — if not more important — so you must prioritize it.
Here’s how.
Prioritize your Mental Health with these 10 Tips
It takes intentionality to prioritize your mental health. It might feel weird at first, but we look at it as a journey, not a destination. These tips will guide help your journey .
Tip #1: Set Those Boundaries
Boundaries keep you from pleasing yourself to please others. They let people know your limits and respect your wishes and protect you from getting hurt by others. When you set your boundaries, you let people know what is acceptable to you and what isn’t.
So, don’t swallow ill-treatment. Speak up about your concerns and how you want to be treated, and be firm about it. When you don’t set boundaries, people will treat you how they deem fit. The result? Fear, hurt, pain, and other negative emotions. By setting boundaries, you feel secure and safe, promoting good mental health.
Tip #2: Eliminate the need to be a Perfectionist
According to Hewit, the co-author of Perfectionism: A Relational Approach to Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment, “Perfectionism is a broad personality style characterized by a hypercritical relationship with one’s self.” It makes you beat yourself up when you fall below the standards you set for yourself and is an unhealthy trait.
Most times, our family and society can make us feel anything less than perfect is terrible, and failure is just unacceptable. But, failure teaches us what works and what doesn’t. When met with failure, it’s normal to feel bad, but don’t dwell on it. Instead, get your journal, document your process and how it failed, then craft a different method and work towards it.
See failure as an opportunity to improve on your craft and personal development. It will do wonders for your mental health.
Tip #3: Move Your Body
Living a sedentary life can negatively impact your mental health. There’s evidence to believe that a sedentary lifestyle is strongly linked to poor mental health. Over time, it can lead to chronic stress, depression, and anxiety.
Want to get the best out of your mental health? You have to sweat it out. Research shows that exercise significantly improves mental health by promoting cognitive function and reducing anxiety and depression. The beautiful thing is, you don’t have to go all out — less is more.
- get a step counting app and gradually increase your daily steps
- lightly jog around your house
- show up every day
- get a journal and record each physical activity for the day to keep yourself accountable
Tip #4: Read Personal Growth Books
Personal development books are a great way to get to understand yourself. Reading through them, you are able to explore strategies and techniques that can help you develop a healthy and sound mental and overall health.
Tip #5: Quiet Your Mind
Everyone has a tiny voice in their heads that either talks them up or brings them down. If you want to care for your mental health, you have to watch how you talk to and think about yourself. Words — internal and voiced — are powerful and can impact your mental health.
Sometimes, your mind can be so noisy and filled with negative thoughts that you can barely think. You keep hearing you’re not good enough or qualified to be happy, and that’s a complete lie. Once you find your mind talking you down, shut it up with positive affirmations:
- I am enough
- I am qualified
- I deserve to live the best life
And slowly but surely, you’ll find your mind conditioning itself to the positivity of your words.
Tip #6: Rest and Restore
To prioritize your mental health, you have to learn to take breaks and rest. Yes, there’s so much to do in so little time. But, if you notice, you work better and faster after resting. Sleep experts encourage quality rest and sleep because it helps the brain function efficiently and prevents the development of mental health conditions. After a hectic day or week, take enough time to rest up — sleep or take a power nap. This will help your body recharge and heal from the environmental stressors you encountered throughout the day or week.
Tip #7: Practice Mindfulness and Meditation
According to Webster, Mindfulness is “the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.” Taking the time to be present can have a huge impact on our day to day lives. Meditation is a great practice that helps to calm the mind, provide clarity, and create the space to be present.
Tip #9: Understand it’s okay, not to be okay
Adulting can be hard. Life can be hard. And that’s Okay. Everyone’s experiences in life are different. Everyones challenges are different. Understanding that everything will not always be perfect and that we will have good days and bad days can actually help your mental health, when you find healthy ways to acknowledge this and get through those bad days.
Tip #10: See a Professional
Last but certainly not least, see a professional. As someone that has experienced the benefits of therapy myself, It is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.
What do you do when you feel hurt or some other deep emotion? Do you keep it to yourself and nurse it for years till it grows to resentment? If you do, that’s one way to develop poor mental health. Learn to be expressive. The more you express yourself, the more you can protect and improve your mental wellness.
You don’t have to go through life keeping to yourself; you’re not alone. Sometimes, the people in our lives are too busy to listen to us pour out our deepest concerns and fears. Luckily, we have people who do this for a living — psychologists, mindset coaches, psychiatrists, counselors, are a few of the professionals available to guide and work with you on your mental health journey.