Table of Contents
Intro – The Basis To Improve Your Mental Health
In a world that is so fast-paced and complex, most of us are just trying to get by. It can be so hard to keep up sometimes that getting by is all we can really do. This can often cause us to ignore our mental health. You shouldn’t ignore it though, you should improve it.
However, there are those who don’t want to just get by. There are those who want to live life to the fullest and experience everything it has to offer. There are also those who want to settle down and be happy. In order to do these things, you need to improve your mental health.
The mental health problem has escalated significantly in recent times, thanks in no small part to social media. However, it’s also because of social media that more awareness has been created about the problem. Social media is often like a double-edged sword. However, the awareness doesn’t change the severity of the issue at hand. Countless people across the whole planet have extremely poor mental health, which manifests itself through poor mindsets, negative attitudes, and many other problems.
How can life even be remotely fulfilling when you’re sad and mopey all the time? That’s not the person you’re meant to be after all. That’s what saddens me most about mental health issues, it reduces people to mere shells of the people that they could be, and it’s for this reason that I want to help as many people as possible overcome their mental health issues, so they can live their life how they choose, not how their mental health forces them to.
Remember that your mind is the one and only thing you can truly have control over in this world is your mind. You need to make sure that you gain control over it. If you don’t, you’ll never achieve your dreams. Now let’s dive into exactly how to gain control of your mind.
Assessing Your Mental Health
Before you embark on your journey of self improvement/mental health improvement, you first need to figure out exactly what is wrong with your mental health. It’s really important to do this as without it, you’ll have no personal direction or guidance. It’s super important that you assess your mental health so that you can set goals for yourself, for without them you’ll be lost.
Although I’m kind of asking a lot, since facing your feelings and assessing your mental health can often be extremely uncomfortable. You’ll be facing many uncomfortable feelings and realizations and I understand that it’s never easy to face those sorts of feelings. Despite all that, you should still face these feelings anyway. It’s like I always say: If you spend your life trying to avoid danger, you’ll never move forward. You have to face these feelings eventually or they will catch up with you.
In order to help you face these feelings, I’ll give you a few ways you can go about assessing your feelings. Now let’s do this
Self-Reflection
Self-reflection is an extremely valuable skill and I highly suggest you do it from time to time since it an boost your mental health condition. Self-reflection is taking the time to analyze your own thoughts and actions. This will ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of oneself. This deeper understanding can really help you out when it comes to your mental health as you’ll have a better idea of what mental issues you need to tackle.
If you want to get good at self-reflection, you’ll have to take time out of your day to do it. You must place yourself in a location without any distractions or anything that could interfere with your thoughts. Something I’ve noticed about self-reflection is that it’s sometimes extremely hard to come up with a topic to think of on the spot. To counteract this, I usually document things I want to think of beforehand in my notes app or somewhere similar.
Another thing to note is that you may get bored while doing it, but I urge you not to stop reflecting until you’ve reached a satisfying conclusion for the topic at hand. You also shouldn’t gloss over it and trick yourself into spending too little time because you’ll get bored otherwise and you want to go off and do a more stimulating activity. You’ll never get anywhere with things if you do that.
Journaling
Out of all the ways that you can use to assess your mental health and understand yourself better, I have to say that journaling is my favorite one. It’s just such a good thing to get into, especially since it also improves your mental health quite a bit. The reason that I like journaling so much is because it’s such a good way to sort through your thoughts. This effect doubles if you’re feeling lost as sometimes writing all your feelings down can help you reach a solution, at at least come closer to reaching one.
Once again though, you can’t half-ass journaling. You can’t just write one paragraph and call it quits for the day. You need to properly journal and write down all your feelings. A good way to do this is to just write about your day, every day. Make sure you write about what happened that day, both good and bad things; also write about how you feel about those events as well as just any worries or things on your mind; also write about any ideas you have to solve your problems or any other thing you feel like you need to let out.
Not only does journaling help you sort through your thoughts and improve your mental health, but it also makes each day of your life have more meaning. Since you’re documenting each day, it naturally gives it more meaning and makes the day more memorable. Journaling also just gives you a stronger sense of belonging, due to how much better you understand yourself.
Feedback From Others
As humans, we often have a tendency to go easy on ourselves and often downplay our flaws and issues to not be as serious as they actually are. Who can blame us though? Who would want to admit there’s something wrong with them? Regardless of that, it’s still a very self destructive thing to do. It’ll lead to you not paying as much attention to your flaws as you should. Luckily though, other people won’t be so easy on you.
A lot of the time, some tough love or valuable feedback from someone you trust can really go a long way. Especially since most of us are biased towards ourselves. There’s also the fact that you can only see so much from one perspective, so another perspective on your mental health and well being can often be really valuable. This is even more true when you factor in how hard it is to understand yourself sometimes, since a lack of understanding can often be remedied by a fresh perspective.
There’s one thing you need to keep in mind if you want to ask for feedback though. You can’t get mad at the person giving you the feedback if they say something you don’t like. As I said before, facing yourself is a scary thing and many of us struggle to accept our darker aspects. This is why we get so uncomfortable when we’re confronted by these aspects, and is also why many people get mad when someone calls them out on something they’re doing wrong. However, you shouldn’t do the same. What they said struck a chord in your for a reason, and that reason may very well be because what they said is the truth.
Now that I think about it, this last point actually leads nicely into the last tip for this section.
Look For Emotional Triggers
The truth can often be an uncomfortable thing to face, especially when it comes to our mental health. This discomfort can often manifest itself through emotions usually anger in this case. When we’re emotional, we can’t think about things properly or logically. This usually leads to us making excuses and genuinely just doing everything we can to not accept the truth. I have a quote that sums it up pretty well.
“If it comforts to hear, look for the lie in it. If it hurts to hear, look for the truth in it.”
A comforting lie is considered superior by many to the actual truth. These lies don’t change the truth though. That simple fact only makes the truth more uncomfortable. This will lead to even greater emotional triggers. Next time something someone says triggers you, instead of getting mad, I want you to analyze exactly what bothers you so much about what they said. It could lead to some important self reflection you know.
Coping Strategies
Now that you’ve identified what’s exactly wrong with your mental health, you need to learn how to healthily cope with the problem so it won’t get in the way of you trying to get rid of it all together. Without a healthy coping strategy, you’ll just be consumed by your mental health problems before you even begin to face them. A healthy strategy is the foundation for what will later get rid of your mental health issues completely. Before I show you some strategies though, there’s something we need to clear up.
Unhealthy Coping Habits
Those with an eye for detail probably noticed a little something in the previous paragraph. I kept on specifying coping strategies as healthy coping strategies. That is because there are many unhealthy coping strategies that will only serve to make your mental health issues worse. These issues are all pretty well known and discussed but I know I can’t ignore them in a section like this. So let’s quickly go over them and why they’re so bad for you.
Alcoholism
Many people simply refuse to confront the reality of their situation. Their situation can often make them feel extremely uncomfortable and worn out. It can also fill them with despair. In order to avoid these feelings, these people all turn to alcohol to solve their problems for them. They use it as an escape, as a way to feel feelings that they are incapable of feeling themselves (those feelings usually being happiness).
I’ve seen first hand how bad alcoholism can affect people. I know of someone who downs entire cans of Jack Daniels in one go like it’s nothing. This person does it because they’re that addicted to alcohol. Any normal person would have trouble walking after that, not this person though. The only reason that this person isn’t affected by this is because they’re so used to this kind of alcohol consumption that they’ve become numb to the effects. It’s crazy honestly.
Apart from that, it’s just such a sad way to live. Imagine having to rely on intoxication just to feel some sense of happiness. It’s one of the most depressing lifestyles you can possibly, although our next section only gets even worse.
Smoking/Vaping/Substance Abuse
I decided to lump all of these in the same category because otherwise I would just be repeating points. It’s no secret that all of these are terribly bad for you, but many people still use each and every one of these on the daily. The main reason that they’re used is because they provide an escape from reality, and allow you to feel happiness and other feelings. Let’s quickly go over all of them.
First up is smoking and vaping. Both of them are pretty similar and they apparently provide similar sensations. That sensation is a buzz of pleasure. It quickly wears away though, which leaves you wanting that sensation again and taking another hit. This simple process of wanting that sensation again starts a dangerous addiction. That buzz is so desirable since it provides a sensation of happiness that the user can’t feel by themself.
Now we dive deeper into the rabbit hole, and boy does it go deep. Now we talk about the stronger substances. Not many people use these compared to the incredibly high amount of smokers and vapers, but there are still a lot of people who do use them, and it’s sad. Most people who use more dangerous substances need a stronger buzz since their life has essentially hit rock bottom. Instead of trying to improve though, they turn to drugs as an escape.
Binge Eating
Eating disorders are something we hear way too much about in modern society. Way too many young people have them and they’re ruining many lives. Despite that, many people are unable to overcome or move past them. This is because many eating disorders start as an unhealthy coping mechanism and later turn into a full fledged eating disorder.
Yeah that’s right, many people start eating an extremely unhealthy amount of food as a coping mechanism. They’re usually trying to cope with stress or a panic attack or something similar when it comes to binge eating. Whatever they’re trying to cope with though, it doesn’t change how bad it is for their physical and mental health.
Spending Too Much Time Online
Another thing that’s used as an escape is the internet. Many people with mental health issues tend to spend a lot of time online as a way to escape their problems. This carries the effect of them getting addicted to the dopamine boosts that social media provides. Soon enough, they’ll become what I call a dopamine zombie. Dopamine zombies have had their attention spans shortened to basically nothing thanks to social media apps and they can’t do anything that isn’t stimulating enough for their brain. The thing is though, they don’t find many activities stimulating because they have become numb to the effects of dopamine. Being numb makes everything seem boring, so they won’t find much interesting as a result.
There’s also the fact that spending time online won’t actually fix the mental health issue at hand. Sure it’ll take your mind off it for a little bit, but it won’t actually solve anything. That part is up to you and only you. You can’t just expect it to go away either, you have to be willing to put in the work required to get rid of it. Spending time on social media is nothing more than a distraction that will put you off doing the work, so be wary not to spend all day on it.
Healthy Coping Strategies
Now that that’s out of the way, we can finally move on to actual healthy coping strategies. Sure there are many other unhealthy coping strategies out there, but you should be able to notice whether or not you have one. If you can’t tell, I have a way to find out if your coping strategy is healthy or unhealthy. Simply put, healthy coping strategies help you move towards overcoming your issues, while unhealthy ones make your issues worse. Make of that what you will. Now, let’s go over some of my personal favorite coping strategies.
Mindfulness
Until the day I leave this world, I’ll continue to sing the praises of mindfulness and how great it is for your mental health. If you don’t know what mindfulness is, it’s basically a form of meditation. It’s the act of focusing on the present and living in the moment rather than being hung up on the past or being distracted by uncomfortable thoughts. It brings you true peace of mind and allows you to live in the moment and enjoy life.
Another great thing about mindfulness is how easy it is to get into and start. All you need to do to be more mindful is pay more attention to your surroundings. Use all 5 senses and see what you notice with each one. This will pull your mind into the present moment and give you better focus. Another great way to draw your mind into the present is by spending less time on screens. The digital world often distracts us from enjoying the present. Instead, it stimulates our minds and provides an addicting dopamine boost. If you spend less time on it, your mind will be more at peace.
If you wanna learn more about mindfulness I suggest you check out this post or this post, both by yours truly.
Music Therapy
When I used to suffer from anxiety, this was one of my go-to coping strategies. Sometimes a little bit of music can really go a long way. Listening to music to calm you down works so well because music has the power to make you feel. A good song resonates well with your emotions and makes you feel the way the artist wants you to feel when listening.
You’ll have to pick the right music for the job though, as I doubt heavy metal will do you many favors during an anxiety attack. The kind of music that’s best for a situation like that is some kind of relaxing music. There are loads of playlists and videos on youtube so I’m sure you’ll find something that will help you relax. You could try a video game relaxing music mix, a Lofi mix, or maybe even some relaxing piano. I would personally go with a video game mix, they’re honestly great to listen to.
Relaxing music that resonates with you can easily put your mind at ease and quell any kind of anxiety that may be welling up from within, so I highly suggest you try music therapy.
Engage in Flow Activities
I know, you’re probably thinking “Dude what the hell is a flow activity?”, I’ve got you covered though so don’t worry. A flow activity is an activity where you have to completely absorb yourself in the activity in order to do it. There are many different kind of flow activities so I’ll name a few examples. Activities like painting, writing, dancing or playing a musical instrument are all examples of flow activities. Other examples include DIY, coding, or even deep conversations.
Flow activities are also helpful when it comes to coping with mental health issues. This is because you must absorb yourself completely in the activity to do well at it. This can put your focus on the activity and not on whatever your mind is caught up on. This can allow you to dispel any anxiety that may be welling up from within. Flow activities can also be a good way to just let your feelings out, especially since most flow activities give a great opportunity for expression. They just allow you to be… you.
Limited Exposure
If your mental health issue relates to an addiction or something similar, then this strategy is a good way to start getting over those kinds of addictions. Limited exposure is exactly what it sounds like, you limit your exposure to your addictions. Over time, this will really help out in you getting over your addiction. It isn’t the only thing you should do to overcome it, but it’s a good start.
There’s something you should note about this one though. It will seem almost impossible at first, so be ready to expect the worse. It will only seem so impossible because you’re so addicted to that one thing that your mind will convince you that you need it. It will be really hard to let it go because of this. But you still have to persist through this. Because it will get easier.
The more you practice limited exposure, the easier it will get. Just remember that when you start practicing it and things will go way better for you.
Practice Acceptance
When someone is in an anxious or panicked state, they tend to take part in a lot of self-pity. They tend to think thoughts like “Why me? Why do I have to go through this?”. At that moment, they would do anything to feel normal again. However, these kinds of thoughts almost never work and tend to make the issue even worse due to the increased focus that is placed on their mental health issue. If you often find yourself thinking similar thoughts, then there’s one key mistake you’re making.
The mistake you’re making is not accepting how you feel, it’s as simple as that. You’re definitely acknowledging it that’s for sure, but you’re not accepting it. Instead, you’re just wanting to feel normal the whole time. This is placing more emphasis on how you feel, which will result in the problem becoming worse due to the effect your mind has on your mental health issues. Our brains are incredibly powerful, they can make almost anything we feel seem real. This is especially true for those who suffer from panic attacks, which is why they’re so scary for some people in the first place.
However, by accepting the way you feel, you’re not giving in to it and escalating the problem. That last part is especially important. The reason it’s so important is because the #1 most important thing you have to do when suffering from your mental health issues is remain calm. Acceptance is definitely the best thing you can do to remain calm in a situation like this It can also help you move towards dispelling the situation altogether.
It’s really easy to do as well. All you have to do is tell yourself something along the lines of “I may want to feel normal, but I don’t. I feel this way, and I’m just going to have to deal with it.” If you keep repeating these thoughts to yourself, you’ll notice how much more calm you’ll become. Accepting how you feel is always the way to go.
Start Improving – Habits To Get Into
While coping strategies are great, they’re not exactly made to improve your mental health condition. They’re just for what their name suggests, coping. They do lay a strong foundation for improving your mental health though, a foundation that many habits can build on. In this section we’re gonna go over some of these habits and how to implement them into your day to day life. But before that, let’s address something.
Stay Consistent
Everything I’m about to list will be totally useless for your mental health without consistency. I did call them habits after all, not one-and-done scenarios. You have to do these things pretty much every day regardless of how you feel for them to start having an impact. That’s why it’s so important to stay consistent, so that your mental health issues don’t win the battle against you.
Without consistency, everything you do to overcome your issues will be meaningless so make sure to stick to the habits. It doesn’t matter if you’re having a bad day or you don’t feel like doing it, that’s just not an excuse. Because success is all about choosing between what you want now and what you want the most, and you have to make the right choice here or these mental health issues will never leave you alone.
Now that that’s out of the way let’s get on with the habits.
Count What You’re Grateful For
I’m 99% sure that your morning routine involves you waking up and scrolling on your phone for an hour. If this does apply to you, then you might wanna change that. If it doesn’t apply to you, you’ll still wanna read this. How about instead of scrolling in bed and wasting time for an hour, you get up immediately instead? Once you do that, you should take a few minutes to look out your window and count everything you’re grateful for. Literally anything you can think of counts by the way, even the fact that you’re still alive and well should be something to be grateful for.
If you do this every day, you’ll soon start to notice how good this is for your mental health. It makes you realize how much you still have to live for and further strengthens your resolve to overcome your issues and become better. It will also just make you a more appreciative person, someone who focuses less on what they don’t have and more on what they do have. It’s honestly amazing how much good just a few minutes a day can do.
Go On Daily Walks
This is one of my favorite ones, one that I try my best to do every single day. This only takes up around 30-60 minutes of your day and can do you so much good. Not only will you be kept physically fit to some extent but your mind also be kept in check too. This is because many studies have shown a correlation between exposure to sunlight and an overall happier mood. Not only that, but going on daily walks allows you to embrace the beauty of the world around you, which will make you an even more grateful person.
Going on a walk can also help you sort through your thoughts and feelings. It’s a great chance to address anything that’s been affecting your mental health or that has just been bothering you. It’s also a good chance for self reflection, which will help you understand yourself better too. You’ll notice how much you’ll grow from these walks the more you do them, and you’ll come to appreciate the world around you that much more.
I have a good tip for your daily walks too. That tip is to find yourself a good thinking spot. A thinking spot is exactly what it sounds like, a place where you can sit down and think, a place where you can relax and find peace. An ideal thinking spot should be pretty isolated, it should have a good view and it should feel peaceful there.Oh, and it also should have somewhere to sit. The view part is especially important to me. If you find a spot that meets this criteria, you’re set.
Take Up a New Hobby
A lot of people who suffer from mental health issues like depression don’t have a lot of interesting stuff going on in their life. If you wanna get over your issues, then you’re gonna need a life worth living. In order to be truly happy, you need to find meaning in life and one of the ways you can find meaning is through hobbies. Taking up a new hobby may be just what you need to start living a brighter and happier life.
Taking up a new hobby is seriously a great thing for anyone who does it. Not only does it allow you to express yourself and potentially sort through your emotions using that hobby, but it also keeps the creative part of your mind functioning. Keeping that part of your mind in check is beyond important. If you don’t keep it in check, your creativity will diminish, leaving you with less happiness and no creative desires. That’s where this new hobby can come in clutch.
This new hobby can be anything you want, as long as it isn’t self-destructive. So don’t be afraid to get out there and explore your more creative side, or learn something you have wanted to learn for a while now. If you wanna take up something new but don’t know what, then take a moment to reflect on what you value and what you’re passionate about. This should lead to some insight on what kind of thing you want to get into. If you have nothing you’re passionate about, then you better get searching.
End of Day Reflection
Since we started off this section with a habit you’re meant to do at the start of the day, we might as well end this with a habit that you’re meant to do at the end of the day. This habit is especially good if you’re someone who is looking to get more out of every day. End-of-day reflection is pretty simple to do as well. It should ideally be done just before you go to sleep. All you have to do is look back on the past day and try and learn some valuable lessons from it.
The way I personally do it is by asking myself questions about the day that has just passed. I ask myself questions like “What did I do today? Was I productive? Can I learn anything from the things I did?” or “What lesson has today taught me? How can I apply this to my life from now on?”. You don’t have to ask yourself those exact questions, but they should be more or less similar.
Just make sure that you look for lessons you can learn from the interactions and events that have happened across the day. It may be small, but an accumulation of little things over a long period of time adds up to be a lot. In this case that “lot” is personal growth and an improvement in your mental health.
The Importance of Physical Health
I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard the saying by now:
“A healthy body means a healthy mind.”
People seem to be pretty divided on whether or not this quote has any truth behind it. In my case, I do believe that improving your physical health does improve your mental health and I’m gonna tell you why.
Everyone knows that being too overweight or too underweight is unhealthy. For people who are underweight or overweight, they’re constantly aware of that fact in the back of their minds and it really eats at them. This results in a huge decrease in their mental health. It’s all because of how unhappy they are with themselves. However, when you start going to the gym and getting in shape, all that unhappiness with yourself will turn into determination to change. Over time, you’ll start to notice the change and this will make you feel better and better about yourself. This will result in huge changes in your mental health, and good changes they will be.
Going to the gym and getting in shape is an amazing journey that will boost your confidence and mental health significantly, it’s so worth it. That’s why I believe that the quote is true.
There are also many other mental health benefits that exercise provides, so let’s go over them.
Stress Reduction
Engaging in physical activity is a great way to reduce stress. This is because it helps lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone responsible for stress response, and high levels of it can result in high levels of stress. When you exercise, the levels of cortisol decrease across your whole body which will reduce your stress levels and leave you in a better mood overall.
Exercise is also a great way to let out any pent-up emotions. Holding in all your emotions without doing anything to address them can lead to you getting severely stressed. Exercise is a great way to let out those pent-up emotions and turn them into fuel for success. However, make sure that those emotions don’t get the better of you while you’re exercising, that’ll only make you more angry. So make sure you harness them as you let them out so you don’t lose control of your emotions. That wouldn’t be too good for your mental health.
Improved Resilience
Exercising will improve both your physical and mental resilience, let’s go over both and see how it does it. The physical side should be obvious. Since you’re getting more active and using more energy, this will have a positive effect on your stamina over time. This will result in you becoming more tolerant to all kinds of physical activity.
There’s a way to notice how tolerant you’ve become to tougher physical activities. If you ever take a break from the gym for like a week or so for whatever reason (usually a holiday or illness), after you come back, you’ll get way more tired from doing the same routine you always do. This alone proves how effective exercise is at improving resilience. It also shows that you need to stay consistent to keep up that resilience.
The mental side is a little deeper. Sometimes, you don’t feel like going to the gym. You also sometimes take rest periods that are way too long or don’t go up in weight because you can’t be bothered. These things happen to all of us, and they’re what I refer to as the mental challenges that every gym bro faces. They limit our growth in the gym and trade it for comfort and safety.
However, by ignoring those thoughts that tell us to rest for a bit long or to not do another rep, our mind grows stronger. We become more resistant to our impulsive thoughts that only favor instant gratification and keep pushing through regardless of how we feel. That is how your mind grows more resilient at the gym, by overcoming mental challenges. This will do wonders for your mental health.
Leads to Other Positive Habits and Traits
When you take up the gym or want to get in shape, you often need to do quite a few things other than just exercise. Getting in shape requires you to eat well, stay hydrated, and sleep well. These 3 things are all great habits for your mental health that you should do regardless. Although many do tend to struggle with these habits. Since exercise kind of forces you to do these things in order to see results, they’re now easier to get into.
On the traits side, going to the gym and exercising will make you into a more disciplined person. This is due to a point that I brought up in the previous section about resilience. There will be days where you don’t feel like going to the gym, happens to all of us. We get tired and don’t wanna go. However, if we go regardless, it shows true discipline and strength. True strength is giving up what you want right now for what you want the most, so if you ant to get in shape, you have to go regardless of how you feel.
Another trait you’ll gain is bravery. Let’s face it, it takes serious balls to even show up to the gym for the first time. It’s intimidating since almost everyone around you is way stronger and more experienced than you. I know many people who want to go but are too scared to go. They mainly fear getting judged or just messing up in general. However, if you go regardless of all that, you’re pretty brave. By continuously showing up, you’re overcoming that fear, you’re becoming more and more courageous.
All these habits and traits will do wonders for your mental health. For that reason, I like to say that going to a gym causes a butterfly effect of positivity that spreads to many other areas of your life. This effect helps you improve your mental health significantly and can turn your life around.
Improved Mood
Regular exercise has been shown to influence certain neurotransmitters like dopamine. These days, dopamine is a topic that’s become all too common thanks to social media usage. Many of us are addicted to the unnatural dopamine source, social media. Scrolling on social media will make your dopamine levels shoot through the roof. Getting used to these high levels of dopamine poses a great risk for you as it will get you addicted to social media. That’s why regulating your usage and finding more natural sources of dopamine is key for your mental health.
One of the best natural sources of dopamine comes in the form of exercise. Sure it is tiring, but nothing can replace the feeling you feel after finishing a tough workout. It makes you feel good. It feels good to know you’re getting active and working hard towards your goals. It also feels even better when you see the results finally starting to show. That is what dopamine is meant to do to you. It inspires you to keep on going instead of getting you dangerously addicted to something.
Final Thoughts
I’m sure you see now why I believe that quote to be true. Yeah, it may be old and a little cheesy (just a little), but if it’s true and it helps people, then why does it matter? Your physical health and mental health are undoubtedly connected, there’s no way they’re not. That’s why so many people who aren’t in their best shape tend to suffer from mental health issues .
One important thing to note though is that getting in shape isn’t a total remedy for your mental health problems, it won’t instantly get rid of them. However, it’s a great way to fight them. The personal growth you achieve from working out is invaluable, it’s basically a journey of self improvement (we all know how much I love a bit of self improvement by now). This growth will make your mind stronger, which will in turn make you more resistant to your mental health issues, that’s why working out is a great way to fight your problems.
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to tackle the most important part of the whole post.
Facing Yourself
I touched on this briefly earlier so you can have it in mind when reading the post, but it’s time to address this issue directly.
This has to be the single thing that people struggle with the most, and it’s no surprise why. Everyone always says the phrase “No one is perfect”, this is very true. We are all flawed individuals, each and every one of us. Facing these flaws can often pose a great challenge, as we are exposing ourselves to uncomfortable truths that we would rather not know. However, if you don’t face this, you may never rover from your mental health issues, so let’s first see why it’s so important to face yourself.
The Importance of Facing Yourself
Pretty much everyone is aware of their darker side. Most of us choose to ignore it or pretend it doesn’t exist since it isn’t affecting us at this very moment. Either that, or we’re too scared to face ourselves in that moment and pretend it isn’t there. Writing this down, I feel like it’s more a mixture of both. As a result, we cloud our eyes from our darker selves for our own comfort. However, remember that no matter how hard you try to hard that side of you, you can’t it hidden forever. It will catch up to you sooner or later.
When hard times hit, that’s when it will catch up. I always say that your true character can be shown through what you do and how you handle hardships, and I will stand by those words. A lot of our darker aspects tend to come out when things don’t get tough or our way. This may turn your more subtle rejection of your flaws into a more direct rejection of them. You’ll probably tell yourself stuff like “This isn’t me, I’m not like this.” or “There’s no way this is who I am!”. However, you know deep down you’re lying to yourself. This is why rejecting your flaws will only make them grow and give them more power over you.
For example, an addict who says he isn’t addicted is way less likely to give up the addiction than an addict who knows damn well they’re addicted. They’re also way more likely to become even more addicted. It shows how dangerous rejecting your darker side is for your mental health. Although, if the addict acknowledges the fact that they’re addicted, they’ve accepted their flaw and have taken the first step needed to start getting over the addiction.
Your problem may not be an addiction, but the exact same philosophy applies to facing any flaws. You reject the problem, the problem grows and you’ve officially taken the easy way out. You accept the problem, and you’ve taken a huge step toward healing. You’ve been courageous, you took the hard path, the right path.
That’s why it’s so important to face yourself, to avoid your problems getting worse. It’s not an easy thing to do as you may not like what your darker self is like, but you’ll be alright. To truly be happy with yourself, you have to accept and improve upon every part of yourself, both good and bad.
How To Face Yourself
Now that you realize why you must fully accept every part of yourself, let’s go over how exactly you can go about facing yourself. At first, you may think it’ll be a straightforward thing since all you have to do is identify the problem, address it, then solve it. If only it were so simple. There’s quite a few issues here. The first issue is that it’s not always easy to identify the problem. You may know deep down that there’s something up but you might not know what is even wrong with you. Or if you do know, you may not understand why this happens. This can easily make you feel lost.
Thankfully though, there is one time when your darker side can be spotted easier, and I’ve already mentioned when that is. That’s right, it’s during tough times. Earlier I mentioned that our darker side tends to have a stronger influence over us during hardships and we tend to rely more on impulses than rational thinking. You can use this to your advantage, but you have to remain calm and collected to do so. If you do remain calm, you’ll be able to spot impulsive thoughts. These thoughts will give you valuable insight into what kind of problem you may have, where that problem comes from, and what triggers it.
Thanks to this, you’ll be able to understand yourself a lot better, which is something a lot of people struggle with. A lack of understanding of oneself is a common reason why people can’t really figure out what’s wrong with them. It’s also the reason why facing yourself can be so scary, which ties into my next point.
I’ve said it over and over again, facing yourself can be pretty scary. I mean, who wants to admit that they have something wrong with them? Admitting that creates uncomfortably, which is something the human mind is programmed to avoid. However, you must do it anyways, for your own sake. I’m sure you’re anticipating some kind of hack or trick to make this process easier by now, but that’s not the case here. There’s no way to make facing yourself easier. You just have to swallow your pride and do it, so you can finally start to heal. If you’re seriously struggling with this, just remember this one quote:
“Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the triumph over it.”
Now go, face your darker self, and accept every aspect of yourself even if you don’t like it. It’s the only way to improve. Do it for yourself, for those who care for you, and for your future.
The End? – Where To Go and What To Do After Reaching Your Goals
I’m guessing that you have a set goal in your mind as to where you want your mental health to be. When your mental health reaches that spot, then you’ll be satisfied. What then though?
Where To Go
Many people tend to stop self improvement after they reach a point where they’re happy with themselves. Then they just go about their life as normal. However, why should this be the end of your journey? If you end it after one milestone, you are taking a huge risk. You’re taking a risk of falling back into old habits. This is often seen in the gym community. Many people get in shape, then they stop going and proceed to gain all the weight they just lost (or vice versa). The same thing applies to mental health issues. You could stop trying to improve your mental health, then all your issues come flooding back.
Instead of quitting, why not set new goals and keep going? Surely you have a big dream you wanna achieve, so why stop improving after one goal is achieved? There’s still so much more to be done. Plus, climbing one mountain and sitting up there forever will get boring. So why not go and climb an even taller one? Chasing dreams is what gives life meaning after all. Without dreams, you’ll become complacent in life and complacency will only lead to your issues coming back to bite you.
Another thing to note is that you should start doing this immediately. If you don’t, you’ll run the risk of never actually starting. A common habit that many people get into is constantly saying that they’ll start doing self improvement stuff “tomorrow”. By the time tomorrow actually rolls around, they’ll make up an excuse and say the same thing. This cycle is one of the biggest time wastes ever and is truly a dream killer. It’s choosing immediate comfort over long-term satisfaction. So make sure you start immediately to prevent this becoming an issue.
Long story short, make sure you always have a dream to chase, and always have some goal you’re striving for. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing all the growth you have earned so far.
What To Do
I’m sure many of you really want to carry on going but aren’t actually sure what to do from here. It can be really tough to figure out exactly what you wanna do in life sometimes so I don’t blame you at all. The endless possibilities can get pretty overwhelming, so let’s go over a few ways you can use to find out what kind of dreams you want to pursue.
The first one is actually pretty simple. Our mental health issues often prevent us from doing things that we really want to do in life. Once these issues are taken care of, we are free to go and do the things that we have always wanted to try out in life. By doing the things that your mental health issues previously prevented you from doing, you might find new purpose and new dreams in life.
You should try out all sorts of things in life, since it’s the only way to find out what you’re passionate about. Only by experimenting combined with trial and error will a new path open up for you. You can’t just expect those paths to show themselves to you, so you go out and find them yourself. With new doors open to you, the possibilities are endless.
Conclusion – Wrapping It Up and Some Things To Note
To put it simply, don’t ignore your mental health. You don’t want to lose control over the one thing you have control over in your life – your mind. Suffering from mental health issues is exactly that, losing control of your mind. You have to fight for that control back. It’s an unfair fight though, no one deserves to suffer from mental health issues. The fight should never even be happening. Although it is happening, nothing can change that. That’s why you need to make the most out of a bad situation. So much personal growth can be achieved from taking down your mental health issues.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to others about your mental health issues either. The people you care for in life also care for you, they can listen to you. Seeking professional help for your mental health problems is a good idea too. It can really be useful. Just be mindful that whatever way you chose to overcome your mental health issues, you give it your all using that method. If you half-ass it, you won’t make any progress. Always ask yourself if you’re doing enough, and always give it your all.
I know your can overcome your mental illness, I know you can improve your mental health. All that’s left is for you to believe you can.
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