7 Questions to Ask Yourself to Improve Your Mental Health

No matter where you are with your mental health, maybe you’re struggling or maybe you’re doing well, it is important to check in with yourself from time to time. So have a seat, grab yourself some tea or coffee, and answer these 7 questions to see if there is anything you can be doing to improve your mental state.

Am I Getting Enough Sleep?

Getting enough sleep is crucial to your mental health. Do you even know how much sleep your body needs anymore? Being able to survive on 5 hours sleep in college isn’t going to cut it in your 30s, 40s, and beyond. If you are always feeling tired or worn down then no, you aren’t getting enough sleep. Every night you throw yourself into bed and pass out from exhaustion within two minutes, you aren’t getting enough sleep. You lay in bed for 30 minutes or even hours thinking about all the things you need to get done…you guessed it, you aren’t getting enough sleep.

 

Is there a Task I’m Putting Off?

When there is a difficult task to complete or one that for whatever reason you find overwhelming, there is a tendency to put it off. Put it off until the last minute when you have to stretch yourself thin to get it done or risk it not being done at all. It’s something that all people do. But putting that task off actually does more harm than good. It doesn’t go away when you put it off, it just gets shoved into a corner of your mind where it can constantly remind you it needs doing and make other tasks difficult to do.

 

Did I Have Any Fun Conversations Today?

Talking to people is all well and good. We talk to our coworkers about a job in work and we tell our kids to get ready for bed every night. But these aren’t conversations that are just for fun. They’re just more chores. It isn’t enough for our mental health just to talk about things that are work, we need to give our minds time for fun too. That might be talking to someone about a show you both watch or even just making plans to get your families together on the weekend for a BBQ.

 

 

Have I Gone Outside for My Mental Health Today?

Going outside is one of the most underrated things for your mental health and it is something I will always talk about alongside talking about mental health. Getting fresh air, getting sunlight, getting our hands and feet on nature…all of these things have been scientifically proven to improve your mental health, even just a little. Even if all you can do is stand in your backyard for 10 minutes after the kids have gone to bed, you’re still helping!

 

Have I Destressed Today?

Have you done any destressing exercises today? This might be writing in a journal, meditation, yoga, having a bubble bath, or doing a quick 15 minute breathing exercise from an app. If you haven’t tried any of these yet I encourage you to try them all and see which one works best for you.

 

How Am I Feeling Physically?

Often your mental health can have an impact on your physical health. You might experience a stiff jaw from holding it tightly all day or sore muscles for similar reasons. Equally, physical pain has a big impact on your mental health. Having to push through pain to get on with work or other tasks is damaging to your mental health. It wears you down slowly though so it isn’t as easy to take notice of.

 

 

How Am I Feeling Emotionally?

This is possibly the most difficult question to answer on the entire list, because it requires you to be completely honest with yourself. How are you feeling emotionally? Are you lonely? Overworked? In desperate need of a vacation? Be honest with yourself while you’re evaluating your emotional health.

 

What Next for Helping Your Mental Health?

Now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, it’s important to take the answers and do something with them. If you’re asking yourself these questions at the end of the day use them to plan tomorrow. Making improvements to your health, mental and physical is about little changes, making a little bit of progress each day. Even if you only improve things 1% every day, you’re still making some progress. Start by going outside right now for 10 minutes. In the sun if the sun is out. Go out and feel grass between your toes if you can. Or even just touch a bush if that’s all you’ve got. You can do this!

 

Further Reading on Mental Health

Want to learn a bit more about taking care of your mental health as well as the mental health of those you love? You might be interested in checking out these articles!

What is Self-Care?

What is Pandemic Depression?

4 Ways to Boost Your Mental Health Naturally

Learning Mental Health First Aid

If you need someone to talk to about your mental health concerns you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or chat with them online here.

 

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