“Not to brag but I haven’t had a mood swing in the last 10 minutes.”
Life seems to be ‘lifiing’ so bad right now. From managing your work (which is like the gift that keeps on giving) to doing your chores at home, on top of having a social and personal life, you also have to take care of your mental well-being as well. Like, what?
Yes, we know it is all about hydration, a good sleep schedule, a balanced diet and journaling, among a plethora of other tips and tricks, but who has the time for all that, when you can barely spare a thought for your mental health?
To ease off this dilemma for you, allow me to provide one realistic way of getting started on your mental health journey. Just track it! Yes, TRACK YOUR MENTAL HEALTH!
We’ve all got to begin from somewhere, because it’s never really about the destination, but the process.
Also Read : Popcorn Brain
Why should you track your mental health progress?
Starting Point :
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, states that unlike physical health where there are clear numbers to help track progress, monitoring emotional health can be more ambiguous.
Tracking it individually can provide a starting point to deeply gauge into your mental health.
Self awareness:
You’ll slowly become attuned to your emotional responses and coping mechanisms.
I started to sense a visible pattern when I tracked my mental health. On the days I slept very little, my mental health rating was less than a 2.
Accountability:
We’ve been taught the principle of consistency over intensity. We cannot expect our bodies to cope with a roller coaster of intense burnouts and periods of recuperations.
Keeping tabs on our mental health journey increases our accountability of having a balanced approach to our work and health.
As I started to trace my mental health, even on the days when I didn’t feel like it, I was able to put myself first, just so that I could rate my day a 10/10.
Now that we have talked about the why, let’s discuss the how. You need the following ✨ingredients to start tracking your mental health :
Willingness: The will to be mentally healthy is important, even if your willpower is as small as a mustard seed currently.
Physical Planner. Make sure the one you use or make is right in front of your desk, or wherever you spend time the most (Yes, it can be your bed too, no shame in that). This will ensure that you don't have an ‘out of sight out of mind’ approach to tracking.
Marker : To track your progress, of course.
Now,
Establish your mental health goals in the columns, like rating it on a scale of 10 or drinking x amount of water in a day. Essential goals can be as basic as reading that book for 10 minutes, or even showing up for yourself, like making your bed or cooking up your favourite packet of ramen.
Track your goals daily!
It’s okay if you don’t rate your mental health a 10/10 on day 1; this system is just meant as a motivation to work on being mentally healthy step-by-step. In the beginning, we suggest sticking to the basics and then adding things slowly, to avoid being overwhelmed.
✨ Remember, consistency is key in marking your planner.
The inspiration behind this was an amalgamation of advice from people on the internet who faced similar issues: revenge procrastinations, lack of REM sleep, unable to create boundaries when it came to work and life, while being mentally and emotionally unhappy. Just by starting to track my mental health, I could finally see on paper how I wasn’t putting myself first.
Slowly, I started to get excited about drinking my 3 litres of water everyday just to scribble a check on my planner, crazy right? Nope, it’s just a realistic fruit of me working on my mental health :)
References
Golia, V. [WhyBhanshu]. (2020, September 19). Fixing headspace in 11 minutes [Video].
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care .(n.d.).How to Find Success in Your Mental Health Journey.
Retrieved May 19, 2024 from
https://www.harvardpilgrim.org/hapiguide/how-to-find-success-in-your-mental-health-journey/#:~:text=You%20can%20also%20track%20progress,friend%20or%20mental%20health%20professional.
留言