Cat Meffan

LOOKING AFTER OUR MENTAL HEALTH

When we talk about mental health care we often associate it with negativity, like someone being deeply depressed, suffering with anxiety and panic attacks or having an eating disorder (to name just a few), but what about just looking at those two words and what they stand for. The health of our mind, something that even when not dealing with any of the above issues, is crucial to a happy and healthy life.

We ALL, and I stress ALL, need to look after our mental health whether we think we have an issue or not. The health of our mind is something we work on every day with choices the we make, the situations we put ourselves into and the way in which we react to situations.

So many amazing people got in touch with me after my recent blog post about my mental health journey and my video all about mental health care and not everyone related in terms of having a past eating disorder or depression. A lot of people just said that they get the odd down day and it’s nice to know they’re not alone. Here are a few things that you can do to improve your mental health on a weekly basis, or maybe we’ll just call it general wellbeing because that’s exactly what it is.

  1. LEARN TO SAY NO – We’re a nation of people pleasers, it’s what we do, it’s how we’ve been brought up, especially in England. But have you ever noticed how saying yes to everything doesn’t always make you happy because it’s not what YOU want to do. Sure, people pleasing makes us feel good on a surface level, but it’s not always what we truly want to do, if we were being 100% honest with ourselves. I challenge you to be more honest with what you want and just kindly say no to things that aren’t in line with your authentic self.
  2. SILENCE – If living life at 100mph sounds normal to you, then I urge you to take a step back and slow down. A lot of the time when we keep ourselves super busy it’s because we don’t want to face something that might be going on a deeper and more emotional level. You might not even be able to see that yet and think I’m talking nonsense, but try to take 5 minutes each day to just be silent in quiet surroundings with nothing to distract you and see what comes up.
  3. ME TIME – Find time for the things you love. We all make excuses and say we’re too busy WAY too often, which leads us to not spending time doing things that make us happy. Plan at least one thing each week that really makes you happy and enjoy every second of it. My thing currently is bouldering. It takes me away from technology and challenges me to use both my body and mind all at once.
  4. TALK ABOUT IT – Like I said before, mental health doesn’t have to be about having a deeply rooted issue, it could just be that you’re having a rubbish day, so rather than bottle it up, chat to a friend or loved one and get it out in the open. I also love to journal as a way of getting my feelings out there.
  5. CREATE A MINDFUL HOME – I did a video about this very recently, which I really recommend you have a watch of if this blog post has been interesting for you. It’s all about creating a more mindful home, a place that you love to be and can feel safe, happy and calm in. Basically a place in which you can practice your mental health care. Watch the video here.

So there you have, a few little tips to help you with each passing day. Don’t forget that mental health means SO much more than you might think, it’s the general wellbeing of our mind & soul, so make sure you look after yours.

Love, Cat x

 

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