Nov. 1: When you're having a bad day with your mental
health, what do you do to help yourself?
I am in a place with my life where I don’t have a lot of
options when I am feeling this way. My toddler depends on me, my husband
depends on me, my job and my employees also depend on me. I am often told, “I
don’t know how you do it”. My response is always, “It’s amazing what you can do
when you don’t have a choice”. Then I flash them a great, big grin to indicate
that the discussion is over. To be honest, my real response should be, “I don’t”
because I’m certainly not doing it all.
When I am feeling overwhelmed and not in a good mental
space, it means other things will not get done in order to find the time to take
care of myself. So, I try to find my balance again through small actions. That
might mean that I decide to work from home one day so I can catch 30 extra
minutes of sleep or that I ask my husband to take our daughter out so that I
can sit and think by myself for a moment. I have found that spending time alone,
whether it’s to take a bath or just sit on my front porch can usually help
clear up my feelings. (Unless the neighbors want to talk, then it kind of defeats
the purpose).
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| Natural anti-depressants (if you can catch them) Image via Pixabay |
These days, it can be hard to do a lot of my own basic care;
I get so wrapped up in doing for others that there never seems to be any time.
(If only we didn’t need to sleep, amirite ladies?) So, something as small as
getting my haircut at a salon can feel incredibly restorative. I’ve learned to
appreciate the little things that can bring me any measure of peace. I find that
I don’t have time to spare for anything “big”, because as I turn my focus onto
myself, other things are piling up and not getting done, which will only add to
my stress later.
Now that I am in a place in my life where I am a wife,
mother, and supervisor I am probably most the stressed out and challenged I
have ever been, but I have found that I feel the best I ever have mentally. My
life is very purpose driven and even though the time feels tight, it is also
filled with my daughter, my husband, and meaningful interactions through my
job. That may be another reason why I hesitate to press pause to handle my
feelings, the very things that can cause me to feel unwell at times are also
what makes me feel whole.
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This is a very insightful post. Sounds to me like you're doing it all :) Want something done? Ask a busy person.
ReplyDeleteFound your blog on the NaBloPoMo blogroll.