Self Care Ideas for Mental Health — The Most Effective 17 Activity
When we feel stressed out or overwhelmed, we often forget about taking good enough time to focus on ourselves, including eating properly, sleeping, getting exercise, and simply enjoying being around people who love us. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, improve your fitness level, get organized, or just enjoy life again, this article can help.
What is Self-care?
Self care ideas for mental health include activities that help you manage your own emotions and thoughts in order to feel better about yourself. These can be things like taking time out to relax, doing something enjoyable, talking to someone who cares about you, eating well, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, managing stress, and so on.
If you are feeling low or anxious, it is important to talk to a professional such as a counsellor or therapist. They will be able to give you advice and support. You may also find that some of the self-care ideas below could help.
Different Types of Self-Care
Self-care isn’t just about finding new hobbies or relaxing activities. It’s also about taking care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and financially. To take good care of yourself, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and practice self-love. You can do this by balancing out your priorities and focusing on what matters most to you. Sometimes you may need to focus on self-care in one particular area in order to regain balance or relieve stressors in your daily routine.
Physical Self-Care
If you want your brain to function at its best, then you must take good care of your physical health. Your mental state will improve when you’re taking proper care of yourself.
Good physical health means attending medical visits, taking your medications as prescribed, and managing any chronic conditions you may have. It also involves looking after yourself physically by exercising regularly, eating nutritious foods, drinking plenty of water, and sleeping enough.
To determine if there are any aspects of your physical health that could use improvement, consider asking yourself these three simple but important question:
- Do you get enough sleep?
- Are your meals feeding your body properly?
- Do you take care of yourself?
- Do you get enough exercise?
Social Self-Care
Self-care is important, but so is socializing. It’s difficult to make time for friendships, however, and it’s easy to forget them when life becomes busy.
It’s important to nurture and maintain close connections with people. One of the best ways to do so is by putting time and effort into developing them.
You don’t need to set yourself up for failure by setting arbitrary numbers of hours you must spend with your friends or at work. Instead, determine what your social requirements are and then build enough free hours into your schedule so that you can meet them.
To assess your social well-being, think about these questions:
- Do you get enough face-to-facial time with your friends?
- What are you trying to do to improve your relationship with friends and family?
Mental Self-Care
Your thoughts and the things that you fill your mind with greatly affect your psychological health.
Self-care means taking care of yourself by engaging in activities that help you stay mentally healthy, including playing games, learning new skills, or watching movies that inspire and motivate you.
Self-care also includes practicing self-compasion and accepting yourself. For example, practicing self-compasison and acceptance helps you maintain a healthier internal dialog.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when thinking about your mental health:
- Do you spend enough mental energy stimulating yourself?
- Do you take proactive steps to keep yourself mentally fit?
Spiritual Self-Care
Studies show that people who practice religion or spirituality tend to be healthier than others.
Nurturing your soul doesn’t necessarily mean going to church every Sunday. It could be any activity that helps you cultivate a deeper sense of meaning or understanding of the world.
Spiritual care is important regardless of whether you meditate, attend a religious service, or pray.
When considering your spiritual development, ask yourself:
What questions do you think about when you’re thinking about your life and experiences?
Do you engage in spiritual practices that you feel fulfilled by?
Emotional Self-Care
It’s important to develop healthy ways to cope with difficult emotions, like anger, fear, and anxiety. Self-help techniques might include things that help you recognize and communicate your emotions, and activities that help you feel better physically and emotionally.
If you want to take some time out to think about how you’re feeling, whether you speak to someone who knows you well, or if you dedicate some time to doing something else that helps you relax, it’s important to include emotional self-caring into your daily routine.
When assessing your emotional health, ask yourself these questions:
- Are there healthy methods for processing your emotions?
- Do you include things in your daily routine that recharge you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc.?
Self-Care Ideas for Mental Health
1. Don’t look at your phone in the morning
We live in an age where technology has taken over every aspect of our lives. From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep, we are constantly connected to our smartphones. This constant connection can cause us to neglect important things such as eating healthy food, exercising, spending quality time with family and friends, and taking care of ourselves mentally. When we start our days off with a distraction, we set ourselves up for failure throughout the entire remainder of the week.
If you add the WhatsApp conversations, email notifications, and other notifications you receive daily, it’s a sure fire way to disrupt a calm mindset. You might not realize it at first, but it’s doing more harm to your productivity and overall well-being than you think.
The only notifications I’ve enabled are messages. So in mornings, I quickly scan through to see if anyone needs something urgent. I don’t unlock the phone unless I have to, then I leave my phone in the room and go about my day, usually getting two to three hours of uninterrupted work in before I check my phone again.
If you don’t wish to leave your mobile phone in another location, at least put it out of sight. While you can view your phone, you’re more likely to reach for it and check it. It’s like an itch, just lying there itching to be scratched. Get rid of the temptation and hide it somewhere else, or cross the other side of the house.
2. Eat raw food
There’s a good reason why this section exists! Raw foods are not only rich in nutrients, they require less preparation than cooked foods.
Eating healthfully doesn’t just help your physical health; it can also improve your mental well-being.
3. Cleanse your body/face using a cleansing wipe
If bathing/showering is too much right now, just take a cleansing wipe to your skin. Feeling dirty is a horrible feeling and this will help to alleviate it.
This can also give you a cooling sensation, which can be grounding in times of high stress or panic!
4. Do a brain dump
A brain-dumping session is just a way for you to write down your thoughts and feelings as you think them. Don’t censor yourself; just write everything down.
It’s a good idea to get rid of old papers once they’re no longer useful. Burning them or shredding them can be quite cathartic.
5. Stroke an animal
It depends on whether you own an animal.
If you do have any pets, give them a hug or a stroke — they’re definitely good for your mental health.
If you don’t, stroke a textured fabric, try stroking a calm object. It may be similar but it’s definitely calming.
6. Declutter your closet
Have you ever heard the phrase “less is more”? You don’t need to get rid of everything you own if you’re not happy with some of them.
There must be some items in your closet that you’ve never worn before. Ditch them..!
7. Stargaze
Not only are the constellations beautiful to look at, they can also be used to get a better understanding of our place in space.
How important do your problems seem when you look at them objectively? Even better than looking out your windows, go outside and see the stars for yourself!
8. Visit a cafe alone or with a friend
Whether you’re meeting someone for coffee or having a cup of tea on your own, cafes are a really nice way to relax.
Try experimenting with finding your favourite coffee shop. There are lots of them out there that each have different qualities.
9. Write poetry
Writing poetry is an amazing way of communicating your thoughts and feelings. You don’t need any rules when writing poetry. Just write straight from the heart.
10. Digital detox
We could all use some of these occasionally. It’s so easy to get sucked into social media or TV, but sometimes we need to take time out for ourselves to stop!
It can help calm your mind and give you time for yourself to explore new things and find inner peace.
Digital Detox Guide | You Need To Be Unreachable — Click and read more!
Social Media Detox: Guide to Quit Scrolling — Click and read more!
11. Create art
Create whatever you want to create regardless of whether it’s drawing, paint, knitting, crocheting, etc.
You shouldn’t be thinking about the results or whether they’re good or bad; just go with the flow and see where things take you.
12. Essential oils and candles
Scented candles and essential oil diffusers have an incredibly relaxing influence on us. Apart from their smell, they affect the limbic (nervous) systems when we breathe them in. These systems regulate our nervous systems and are also associated with our emotional and behavioral responses.
These beautiful scents actually have a really real mental and physical benefit too. You now have an excellent reason to buy some candles and diffusers — they’re good for your mind and body.
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13. Unfollow anyone who doesn’t make you feel good on social media
It’s important to keep an eye out for people who consistently post photos of themselves looking amazing. If they’re posting too many photos of them looking amazing, then it might be time to unfollow them.
You can either unfollow people or block them from seeing your posts. Either way, take back control of your social feeds and consume content that makes you feel good.
14. Find a good skincare routine
A lot of people consider skincares routines as a bit of an ordeal. However, if you shift your perspective on skincares routines as something that needs to be done regularly, then it can actually be quite enjoyable. First off, make sure you’re choosing skincares that are suitable for your particular type of face. For example, if you have dry or oily skins, then you’ll want to pick skincares that suit those types of faces. Secondly, make sure you’re picking skincares that are gentle on your face. You don’t want to end up with irritated or damaged pores. Lastly, make sure you’re taking the time to do your skincares routine every day. That way, you’ll get the maximum benefits out of them.
When it comes to applying makeup, don’t just slap it on your face. Instead, take the time to massage it into your skin using upward circular movements. You could also use an electric toothbrush or a gua sha (or jade) roller.
15. Have a monthly “treat” budget
Put aside a monthly ‘treatment’ budget. Massages and facial therapies are the old-fashioned ways to take good health into one’s own hands. If you have a treatment budget in place, you’ll not only avoid feeling guilty about treating yourself, but also because you’ll know exactly how much you’re allowed to spend each month. You shouldn’t ever worry about being too extravagant with your personal finances, but if you do find yourself having trouble sticking to a budget, try setting aside a certain amount every month to cover your expenses.
16. Volunteer in Your Area
Even if someone doesn’t share the same religion as you may, anyone can engage in these activities regardless of their religious beliefs. Volunteering helps connect people who might otherwise never get to know each other.
17. Listen to a Podcast
This is an exercise in mindfulness, and it can be practiced simultaneously with physical exercises. Listening to podcasts is one way to practice being mindful. If you aren’t interested in doing so, consider playing a board game, taking a walk, or studying something new.
