Mental Health Awareness Month: When Taking Care of Your Mental Health Is More Important Than Ever

The month of May brings us Mental Health Awareness Month, a month where mental health professionals and organizations devote these next few weeks to addressing the importance of managing one’s mental well-being. This May, life is certainly looking a bit different. Our stressors include managing a global pandemic, financial concerns, being socially isolated from our loved ones, and major changes to our jobs, schools and daily routines. Mental health experts are now predicting that the next major crisis coming down the road will be a mental health crisis. As a mental health counselor, I want to start supporting you and your mental health now, not just when life may start to feel out of control. 

While some individuals may benefit from receiving professional support in managing their mental health, this doesn’t apply to everyone. We can all benefit from taking action to care for our own emotional well-being. It’s so important to take care of yourself, and take charge of your life. This action does not have to involve big change, in fact, there are several small things you can do every day to get the most out of life, and reduce the impact of stress on your mental health. Here are a few ideas to get started:

· Talk about your feelings: Take some time to talk about how you are doing and what has been going on for you with loved ones, friends, mentors, or even a professional. No matter what emotions you are experiencing, it’s so important to feel heard and understood by others. 

· Focus on what you can control, and let go of what you can’t control: We can easily get stuck worrying about the future, or feeling stuck on things that have happened in the past. See if you can bring your focus back to today, this hour, this moment. We call this the “here and now”. If you are feeling overwhelmed or stuck, ask yourself what is one thing you can control in this moment. If the answer to that question is nothing, this is usually an indication that this is a thought or issue to try to let go of. 

· Stay active: Continue to move your body, go outside, stretch, or do anything that will safely increase your heart rate. Physical activity helps to boost self-confidence, improves concentration, and reduces anxiety! 

· Take breaks: Give yourself permission to slow down and check-out for a few minutes throughout the day. Try taking a 5-minute break from chores, or a half-hour lunch break without distractions. Just a few minutes of alone time allows us to reset and recharge. 

· Try to accept yourself where you are: We are all different. See if you can hold yourself accountable to stop comparing yourself to others. If you notice you are being critical towards yourself, see if you can stop punishing and start being kinder. Being hard on ourselves rarely provides long term motivation, or makes us feel better. Try saying something compassionate to yourself like “I choose to release fear and beliefs that don’t do me any good today.”