Besides your typical sleep, exercise, and diet routine, here are five self-care practices I promote with my clients. In order for us to actually hold ourselves accountable, we first turn them into accountability goals so that we can check in and measure how we are doing. When we set goals, it’s often in the follow-through when we fall apart, so having an accountability partner is very useful.
Five Self-Care practices to improve your Overall Mental Wellness
Create Quiet Moments
Stop the noise in your day and reflect or meditate in a consistent way. It is recommended to do it in the morning so it sets you up for success and keeps you in the flow for the rest of the day.
Incorporate Transition Times
Incorporate transition times, especially for those working remotely, when you have back-to-back meetings or Zoom calls, to build in some transition time from one task to another. The purpose is not to take away from the momentum of the day but actually to streamline it, so that you can reset. Instead of coming in hot from whatever was going on in your previous meeting or task you were working on, you want to end that and take a breath for yourself. This will allow you to be more present in the next meeting or task going forward.
Reflect by Journaling
Journaling provides an opportunity to think through what worked and what didn’t work for you on a given day and express your emotions; how you felt. By writing it down, your journal becomes the place where it compartmentalizes so you can let it go. If you can journal three to four times a week, you will find yourself in much better mental health.
Train Your Brain to Relax 3-second Exercise
Another useful practice is to notify your brain that it’s time to relax when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed. Throughout the day when you’re feeling overwhelmed or that sense of frustration growing, stop and use a 3- second technique to trigger you to relax, to let it go.
A simple 3-second exercise, a countdown from three- two- one.
Stop what you are doing. Start from the top of your head and work your way down to just let it go as you countdown three, two, one. By the time you get to one, let your brain take a rest before you re-engage in whatever you’re doing at that particular moment. This is a little bit different than using a transition time between calls or tasks, this is a technique to use in the spur of the moment.
Change the Perception of Your Work
“Love is the reality of your work”. When you have the idea that the work that you do is difficult, that it’s something that has to get done, that it’s a task, it can set you up for a lot of undue stress and pressure. By changing your perception, by feeling love while performing those menial tasks, you change how you feel. The perception of the work turns to more of a “work of love or love of work”, to feel pride and enjoyment in what you do. When the perception of your work changes it can also create more happiness and a sense of fulfillment. This has a direct relation to your mental health on a daily basis and helps you keep a positive attitude and mindset.
These five strategies will help you improve your overall mental wellness and stay in a positive mental framework so that you can handle all of the stressors as you accomplish different tasks and overcome challenges throughout the day.
Michelle Raz, is a career specialist & coach, owner of Razcoaching.com, author of Happiness+Passion+Purpose and Co-founder of Thrivister.com, an academic coaching company for high school and college students. As a Board-Certified Coach, she uses her expertise with executive functioning challenges to help people find their purpose and success in the workplace through the lens of ADHD. She has been contributing her knowledge and expertise in this field since 2010.
