One in 5 people have a mental illness. Five in 5 people have mental health.
Mental illness is a diagnosis that interferes with your mental health and overall wellbeing: just like a physical illness interferes with your physical health and overall wellbeing.
Mental health is how you care for yourself as it relates to your mind: just like physical health is how you care for yourself in relations to your physical body.
For physical health, we eat, sleep, engage in movement, visit the doctor for checkups, etc.
For mental health, the same can keep us mentally healthy along with self-care, rest, attending to our emotions, and keeping our “cup” filled up.
“Keeping our cup filled” is a phrase often used when talking about mental health and self-care (which is not selfish). This phrase means tending toour physical, and mental health. This phrase means finding joy, contentment, rest, and fulfillment in many ways.
Some ways to keep your cup filled and your mental health healthy include:
- Go on adventures: Try something new. When we are trying new things our minds tend to stay in the present moment more so than when we are repeating tasks. Going for a walk, starting a new project like bullet journaling, or listening to a new podcast…
- Unplug from electronics for a while, and while you are at it, unfollow accounts that do not serve your cup! Taking away negativity gives space for positivity to come into your awareness.
- Set one intention for the day: Setting one intention for the day allows you to set time away from the business of life to tend to yourself. Please remember that self-care is not selfish. In order to show up for whatever the day brings us, we must show up for ourselves!
- Write down things you are grateful for: The power of writing! There’s a therapeutic value in putting pen to paper. When we write down what we are grateful for we are easily reminded of our gratitude when we see them written “out loud.” Start your day off by writing three or more things you are grateful for, and notice how your day proceeds.
- Do something creative: Draw, color, doodle, create a mind map. A mind map is a map of what is in your mind, or what you would like to be in your mind. My mind map has a lake in it near a garden of tomato plants. It has a safe place that only positive thoughts can come into and a boat to take away the negativity I encounter throughout the day.
- Hug someone you love: Whether it be a person or an animal, hug them. Hugs are proven to increase happiness, sense of belonging, and feelings of being loved. Hugs are a simple way to give and take in kindness and care at the same time.
Fill your cup up!
