Baby steps to improve your mental health
Here are my top four tips for transcending your mental health and building resilience and success going into the new year.
Therapy
Whether you have a mental health condition or not, therapy is an option to improve your mental well-being. If you think therapy is a weakness, you don’t have big enough problems or think you have nothing to talk about. Think again. There are so many reasons to try therapy, whether it’s for relationship problems, improving your communication skills, life transitions, and many more. We all have a story, past or present. Happy, sad, angry, frustrated, overwhelmed… there is always help in navigating these emotions. You don’t have to bottle everything up or deal with it on your own. I know what that feels like. I was raised to not express these emotions, but I’m working every day to express myself and change the way I used to think.
Identifying Emotions
Knowing what you are feeling is so important in being able to communicate with yourself and others. I’m not a medical expert, but identifying and recognizing my own emotions is beneficial in everyday situations. For example, with my daughter, naming her emotions helps her to co-regulate (I actually learned this in therapy). This means with the help of a caregiver, she is able to self-soothe herself in times of stress. It starts early in childhood, and even as an adult. Reflection Counseling provides four steps to identifying emotions:
- What am I feeling?
- Where do I feel it?
- Why am I feeling it?
- What do I need?
Using all five of your senses in identifying your emotions helps you pinpoint what you are feeling. This can help in your relationships. This all leads to improving your own mental health when you feel in control and when you take your negative thoughts and turn them into positive thoughts.
Identity
I’m personally working on my identity in therapy sessions and I’ve found that when you are intentional about what you want your life to look like. It leads to small changes in your life. Making small changes and building good habits is the result of knowing your identity. Knowing yourself and who you are as a person can set you up for success in the future. Identity can align you with like-minded people. When dealing with your mental health and identity, it takes time and perseverance to not see yourself as your diagnosis or mental health concerns.
Healing Trauma
Both of my manic episodes were traumatizing and changed the course of my life. Healing from these life events definitely took time. All of the tips for improving your mental health are a step in healing your trauma. I know I felt stuck when I didn’t take the time to heal from past wounds. Trauma can be from anything resulting in an emotional response from a terrible event. Healing trauma is something we all can work on to manage and improve our mental health and have a healthier outlook on life.
If you related or learned anything from this blog post, I encourage you to comment on your own personal strategies for overcoming your mental health challenges. Stay tuned for more but in the meantime stay strong and healthy.