Quick Practices For Mental Health and Wellness You Can Do At Home This Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we all recognize the challenge to mental health right now.

The struggle is real regardless of who you are.

So this year it’s more important than ever to recognize the cause and notice how the circumstances of our outer world and inner turmoil are impacting us and have been for the last year.

Anxiety rates are higher than ever and so is substance abuse. Feelings of loneliness are spreading like wildfire.

We’re still in and out of situations of being told to stay home to reduce the spread of COVID and so today let’s look at some of the healthy and safe ways we can contribute positively to our own mental health and the well-being of those around us while at home.

Have Positive Conversations

Turning to the support of people close to you is important but are you having conversations with your loved ones that are actually supporting your mental health and theirs as well?

It feels great to sometimes rant and get those feelings off of your chest when something is bothering you. You want to go on and on about the things that upset you like that jerk that cut you off in traffic or the rude comment your coworker made to you at work the other day that you're still thinking about.

And the people you turn to for these conversations are often the most empathetic. They listen with patience until you're blue in the face and you feel good for a little while. But it turns out that reliving events in this way doesn't help you to work through them. What actually helps is sharing the emotion but also receiving some sort of guidance on what your next steps should be.

You don't have to go around telling all of your friends and family that you need a solution to the problems that you are ruminating on, but start to do this yourself for others and over time hopefully, they will recognize the value of doing the same for you. (Or share this article with them to nudge a subtle hint).

How to calm anxiety (when you’re freaking out). Read more in this article.

Get Outside

Spring is a truly wonderful time to get outside more and there are many mental health benefits to getting outside more often.

Nature acts as an anxiety and depression reliever in a number of ways. You've got the fresh air which our bodies crave, and the extra exposure to sunlight when it isn't raining for days on end helps with Vitamin D production in our bodies. Vitamin D also helps to boost our mood and immune system so that we can feel our best and stay healthy.

Natural surroundings can also help to create a sense of calm in our minds and to reduce the ruminating thoughts and endless internal chatter. Even if you have to go for a bit of a drive to get into more natural surroundings or away from crowded parks, it's worth it to schedule some time in nature each week or as often as you can.

Find Stillness

Social media can help us a lot with staying connected to our friends and family when we're in lockdown and facing restrictions with visiting in-person but it can also be mentally draining to constantly refresh our feeds and compare ourselves to other people.

Try taking a Tech Sabbath or digital detox. On the weekend, or one day a week when you don’t have to be at the demands of your phone for work, turn off all devices and go tech-free. Plan ahead so that this isn’t too hard to do and if you find that a full day isn’t possible right now, start with a morning or afternoon and go from there.

You’ll find this is also a great opportunity to accomplish some of the other beneficial actions like getting outside and you can even pair it with having in-person conversations with people in your bubble while you go for a walk together.

Spring Wellness At Home Guide

Making changes of any sort to your lifestyle and routine can be hard.

Download this free guide to making healthy and sustainable changes at home this spring.

You’ll get additional tips not covered in this article as well as printable habit trackers and worksheets to help you stay on track and accountable to your own goals.