October is National Bully Prevention Month and Emotional Wellness Month, so we’re going to be talking a lot about bullying, as well as mental health in tribute to Emotional Wellness Month.
Emotional wellness is incredibly important — it allows you to handle your life with less stress and a positive outlook.
If you’ve been feeling like you haven’t focused much on your emotional wellbeing lately, read on.
Five self-care activities you can do right now to improve your mental wellbeing.
Exercise. You don’t even have to work up a sweat, just move your body for 30 minutes right now. Then, do it every day. Simply moving more helps release much-needed endorphins and gets your heart pumping. Plus, it gets your body into better shape, resulting in you feeling better. Exercise also helps reduce anxiety and ups your serotonin, so get moving!
Meditate. If you have never tried it, it’s a lot easier than you may think. Sit down, breathe in, breathe out and clear your mind for a few minutes. Do it with me right now. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Clear your thoughts on that breath. Inhale. See what thoughts come back. Repeat, it is that easy.
Practice the Three 10s. Learn how to hold your breath and breath deeper to get oxygen flowing through your blood. Breathe in for 10 seconds. Hold your breath for 10 seconds. Breathe out for 10 seconds. Taking a few minutes to do this gets you out of the moment you’re in and gives you pause to just breathe and do something for you and only you.
Present your best self. Take a moment and present yourself in a way you want to be seen. I always say to people if you feel good about you — both inside and out — then you will treat yourself better. Pull yourself together and present yourself with care and pride; it changes your attitude and how others view and treat you.
Love yourself. The most important thing you can do for self care is to love yourself. Seriously. If you don’t love yourself, it makes it hard for others to love you. I know it isn’t always easy and at times, it’s downright hard. But, you can do it. If you’re stuck, make a list of things that make you feel like you’re not loveable and then make a list that counters that. For example, let’s say you write “no one loves me because no one want to have lunch with me.” Then, make a list of the people you have had lunch with in the last month and you prove yourself wrong. You can change that storyline and the first way to do that is to love yourself.
What happens if you don’t take time for self care?
Self care is incredibly important for your mental wellbeing so if you ignore it, things can quickly spiral out of control. If you don’t take care of yourself, people look at you and think you’re not worthy of their caring or attention because you’re not worthy of your own. Lacking in self care means you lose your ability to have people in your life that care about you and want to care about you.
Ignoring self care also is a gateway for feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. If you practice being positive, you can actually be positive. And, if you’re stuck, seek someone to talk to, whether it’s a friend, life coach or therapis
