SIMPLE DAILY TASKS TO IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH
START INTEGRATING THESE TACTICS INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE TO HELP REDUCE YOUR STRESS LEVELS, AND IMPROVE YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE.
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Note: I am not, nor do I claim to be a mental health professional. The information in this article should not be used to replace that of a professional, and by acting on anything suggested in this article the reader assumes full responsibility for any outcomes. Always seek the advice of your trusted doctor or mental health provider in regard to your personal situation. NEVER use any information read on this site in replacement of professional advice.
Aside from the obvious, one of the significant consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic is that is showed us there is a massive issue with mental health in our society.
According to KFF.org, researchers discovered a 30% increase in the average number of adults dealing with anxiety or depressive disorders during the year of 2020. They also saw a huge increase in substance abuse disorders due to these increased levels of anxiety and depression.
If you’re anything like me, the Pandemic took a direct impact on your mental health. Abrupt changes in daily routines, constant negativity surrounding the spread of the virus and its threat to our wellbeing, and the overall feeling of complete helplessness began to permeate every day of my life. From one day to the next, our lifestyles had to change completely, and everything that used to be “normal” was thrown out the window.
I won’t pretend that I didn’t experience some of my lowest days during 2020.
I graduated from the University of Georgia in 2019, and had big plans to travel, start a career, and begin building my new life. When all of this came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic, I found myself feeling hopeless, stuck and overwhelmed.
Luckily I have an incredible support group, and I started taking small steps every day to help improve my mental health even though everything around me was going to shit (Excuse my French, but it’s the truth).
I FOUND SEVERAL SMALL TASKS I COULD DO EACH DAY TO GET ME OUT OF MY FUNK, AND BY REPEATING THEM OFTEN I SAW A MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT IN MY OUTLOOK AND MY GENERAL STATE OF BEING.
I found several small things I could do each day to improve my mental health and well being, and noticed quickly that they greatly impacted the outlook I had on my life.
Want to know what these simple tasks were, and how you can incorporate them into your life? Keep reading to find out!
1: SPEND AT LEAST 30 MINUTES OUTDOORS EVERY DAY.
This simple change in routine had a massive impact on how I felt emotionally, which is why it is at the top of my list.
Before graduating college, I worked on a horse farm and spent over 6 hours a day outdoors. At the time I took these outdoor hours for granted, but once I lost that time outside I saw how much it had actually benefited me.
So when I realized that most of my days were being spent indoors, watching TV or scrolling through TikTok (is anyone else addicted to that app?) I decided that I needed to supplement that time with at least 30 minutes of outdoor activity.
My trips out of the house were focused on just that: getting out of the house.
Some days I went for a walk, either alone or with my boyfriend Alex.
Some days I simply sat on the patio and read a book, or listened to a podcast.
Some days I took my dogs to the park and let them play around in the mud (RIP my backseat. It will probably never be truly clean again).
And sometimes I got in my car, rolled the windows down, and drove a few laps around my small town.
I know people have probably told you a million times to “just got outside and you’ll feel better!” But there is never an explanation of what to do once you take that step out of your front door. The secret is that there is no secret.
According to various scientific research studies, simply being outdoors can greatly improve your health.
Stepping outside and into the sun increases the level of Vitamin D in your body, which in turn improves your mental and physical processing.
Time spent outdoors can greatly benefit your short-term memory, and help clear “brain-fog” (that feeling when you are trying so hard to focus but it just feels like there is a cloud in your mind.)
Talking a walk in a green space helps to boost endorphins (much like exercise), which in turn can improve your mood and outlook.
So step one is easy: try to go outside for at least 30 minutes a day, even if that means standing in your backyard and watching two squirrels fight over an acorn.
2: DO ONE THING EVERY DAY THAT YOU ARE PROUD OF.
Now, this may seem like it is much harder to accomplish, but it’s actually not! However, it is important to change your perspective on your idea of success. You can and you SHOULD be proud of little things you do throughout the day. By acknowledging the smaller accomplishments, you directly boost your confidence and your courage when it comes to tackling larger tasks.
For me, these small tasks centered around my creativity. I was an art major for 2 years before switching paths, and stopped creating completely once I left UGA.
I realized that I missed the joy I got out of painting and drawing, so I made it a goal to do one creative task each day that I could be proud of.
I started painting again. To take pressure off of my shoulders, I kept it simple by following Bob Ross tutorials on Youtube rather than trying to create original work.
I picked up my sketchbook and began drawing on new pieces. Sometimes I did this while I watched TV or listened to music, and I noticed right away that starting and finishing a painting or drawing helped me to feel like I accomplished something for that day.
Some examples of my lockdown artworkNow I know not everyone loves to draw, paint, craft, etc., so don’t feel like this is your only option.
Think of a task you can complete in a relatively small time frame, that gives you a sense of relief and makes you feel proud of the work you’ve accomplished.
Is it cleaning a part of your house? Re-organizing one of your book shelves? Watching a YouTube video to learn a new skill?
Whatever you choose, keep it simple, and don’t feel forced into doing something other people will be impressed by.
Keep your focus on making yourself proud. If other people are impressed, great! If not, WHO CARES! You are doing work to improve your own wellbeing, not to get approval from those around you.
3: KEEP A SIMPLE DAILY JOURNAL.
I know, I know, everyone seems to be pushing journaling these days. Social media is filled with people who make elaborate bullet journals with 30 pages of beautifully designed trackers, goal lists, etcetera etcetera. That’s what I thought journaling had to look like too.
But you can actually successfully journal in just 2 minutes a day.
“But Ines! Everything I’ve ever seen about journals includes a person sitting in on a window sill, gazing longingly into a field of horses and trees with a little pond in the middle, and meticulously writing out all of the things that happened that day! I don’t want to do that!”
Me. Either.
So I figured out a way to capture my thoughts for the day without feeling the need to write long, detailed journal entries.
I developed a daily check-in worksheet, where I could quickly list the most important parts of my day (like what I was proud of, something good that happened, and my mood), as well as set up a plan for the following day.
This list was a game changer for me. I realized that I could find something positive in every day, and it took me under 2 minutes to complete so I never felt like I was forcing myself into another time consuming task. Also, by writing out my goal for the next day I fell asleep feeling motivated and focused, rather than dreading another day of boredom.
This is what it looks like!
You can download your own copy of my daily self care check in sheet when you subscribe to my email list!
Once I gathered several days worth of check-ins and looked back on them, I began to realize that I was actually getting a lot more accomplished than I originally gave myself credit for, and I began seeing how my actions positively or negatively affected my mood.
4: STOP DRINKING ALCOHOL
I know. If you’re a regular drinker this one sounds pretty fuckkin awful. Especially because alcohol consumption is so normalized and praised in our society
But at least let me tell you why you should consider reducing (or completely eliminating) your alcohol intake to improve your mental health.
Alcohol is a depressant. This means that is causes your bodily functions to slow down, including reducing your heart rate, slowing neurological communication between your brain and your body, and directly impacts activity within your frontal lobe (the part of your brain responsible for managing your emotions, storing long term memories, and making judgement calls. (Source)
Not only does alcohol affect you physically, but it also has a significant impact on your mental health.
Have you ever experienced hangover anxiety? Hangover anxiety occurs when you wake up after a day or night of drinking and begin obsessing over what you may have done, said, or caused while drinking. Repeated bouts of hangover anxiety can lead to reduced self-esteem, impact your social relationships, and heighten existing anxiety.
Furthermore, alcohol has been proven to increase the risk of new or worsening depression. JAMA Psychiatry released a study which found that:
“Alcohol can not only lead to depressive symptoms, it may also worsen depressive symptoms in people who already experience depressive symptoms or in those who may be genetically vulnerable to depressive disorders.” (Source)
Listen, I get it. I enjoy going out, drinking, and partying with my friends as much as any other 24 year old. I feel great when I drink, and I know that it is fun.
But after seeing how much drinking impacted my life after the alcohol wore off, I started to re-examine my relationship with alcohol, and realized that I needed to cut back on my intake (sorry, tequila, still love u tho).
When it comes to determining how much or how often you should be drinking, only you can make that call. There is no magic number, no “one size fits all,” no secret cure to suddenly make you never feel bad after a night out again.
I saw a huge change in my outlook and mindset when I cut back my alcohol consumption to once or twice a week. I got rid of my daily cocktail habit, and instead allowed myself 2–4 drinks during the weekends.
I noticed right away how well my mental health reacted to this change. Rather than waking up groggy or hungover on weekdays, I started waking up feeling refreshed and energized. The guilt I often felt after drinking was gone. I stopped feeling like I needed alcohol to enjoy life, and started finding new confidence in myself and my social skills.
The best part about reducing my alcohol intake hasn’t only shown itself in my mental health, but in my physical health as well.
I’m able to push myself harder in the gym. I don’t get bloated, have headaches, or feel exhausted as often. To put it bluntly: I feel like I have my life together way more than I did when I was drinking. And this directly improved my mental health as well.
If you’re looking for a great resource to help you figure out how much (or how little) you should be drinking, check out Sober as F**K: The Workbook by Sarah Ordo. This 28 day workbook really helped me look at why I felt compelled to drink and how my drinking habits were affecting my life.
If you feel like your drinking habits have severely impacted your life and you no longer have control over alcohol, please IMMEDIATELY contact The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration to get the help you need. Alcoholism is not something you should feel ashamed of, but it can lead to life-threatening illness or death if not treated quickly and properly.
5: GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO RECOVER
Your mind and body do not run on unlimited resources. Just like your phone, they need a chance to recharge and recuperate to continue functioning properly.
There is a myth, particularly in American society, that we should always be working harder. We live in a culture where setting aside personal needs for career gain, or working overtime, or taking on multiple tasks at once are considered trademarks of the societal “elite.” Burnout is so common in the United States workforce that it has become an expected part of a career.
I’ve fallen victim to this ideology myself! In 2019 while I was working on the farm, I spent so many hours on my feet, and lifting heavy buckets or wheelbarrows full of shavings, that I developed severe joint pain in both of my knees, and tendonitis in my right wrist and elbow. Did I take the time to let my body heal when my injuries started to get worse?
No.
I took on more hours, worked harder, and put myself in more pain.
Luckily I LOVED my job, and in no way was I being threatened by my superiors in regards to taking time off. But I was convinced that unless it was LIFE THREATENING, calling out of work made me weak and lazy.
Of course, all of my hours caught up with me, and I ended up having to take 2 weeks off due to severe illness because my body just couldn’t keep going after all I put it through.
So allow yourself the time to rest.
Take a day, an afternoon, 3 hours during your week and do nothing. Binge watch your favorite T.V. show. Curl up with a good book. Listen to an audio book and stare at the wall. DON’T try to multitask by watching T.V. and working. That doesn’t count as rest!
Let yourself recharge the same way you let your technology recharge when it starts to run low on battery life.
Taking time for yourself does not make you lazy, or unmotivated, or unreliable. It shows that you have enough self-recognition to realize when you need a break.
Most likely, you’ll find that after giving yourself a day of rest you will return to your work feeling refreshed, energized, and even more motivated than before.
There are so many resources out there to help you manage your mental health, and these suggestions only reflect those that have worked well for me.
Improving your mindset will take a lot of trial and error. You will not see changes over night, but if you stick with it you WILL see a positive change!
Keep working on yourself every day. You already have all the power within yourself to heal, you just need to find the right tools to unleash that power.
If you have any questions or would like further details about anything mentioned in this post, please don’t hesitate to email me at
Ines@aninquiryintoadulting.com
Or reach out to me via my Instagram.
