This post is all about self care ideas for mental health.
Self care means a lot of things to different people. You always envision the model-like woman with her face mask on, lounging in the bubble-filled tub.
But, you don’t always see the person telling her friend that she can’t hang out at 8pm because she has to get some sleep for work tomorrow. Self care can be the stuff that doesn’t feel good even though it will be good for you in the long run.
So, check out this list of self care ideas for mental health to jumpstart your new routine or go-to tools that will help you feel better when you really need it. Remember, self care is something you should do when you feel good, too, so, enjoy and let’s talk about how to prioritize yourself.
This post is all about self care ideas for mental health.
BEST SELF CARE IDEAS:
1. Practice deep breathing exercises.
No matter where you are or how you’re feeling, you can benefit from a deep breathing exercise. This is one of the most accessible self care ideas for mental health because it resets your body and mind without forcing you to change your surroundings or position.
Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. With each breath, place a hand on your chest or stomach to feel the way you fill your torso with every breath. Breathe in slowly and exhale slowly.
This is the time to focus on how your body feels. Do your toes get tingly? Does your chest feel tight? Make note of what notice about your body. The more you notice the more you can learn about how your body reacts to stress around you and within your mind.
2. Take a walk in nature.
For this one, you’re going to need to get out of your space. Go walk around the neighborhood, walk down the street outside your office building for a cup of tea, or drive to a park near you and feel the wind on your face.
However you do it, go out in nature and experience it for a while. Take whatever break time you have to reset and feel the elements. Sunny, misty, overcast, or snowy, be safe and enjoy the natural landscape around you.
3. Meditate for a few minutes each day.
Meditation is a skill like basketball or crocheting. You need to practice it regularly to get good at it and rely on it as a self care tool. When you first try it, you’ll probably get distracted a lot and wonder why you even set aside time to sit in place and try not to think.
That’s what meditation is: noticing your thoughts and trying to build healthy habits around them. For instance, when you have negative thoughts enter your mind, take this opportunity to notice it’s negative and maybe even challenge it.
When you have a distracting thought about your to-do list or what happened two years ago, remind yourself that this time is for silence. Notice the thought and let it continue out of your mind.
We practice meditation as a way to build healthy skills around our thoughts and how we think about ourselves and the world around us. So, when we need to be compassionate to ourselves or shake ourselves out of an anxiety spiral, we have the tools and skills to do that.
4. Engage in regular physical exercise.
Exercise is anything from playing Wii to visiting your local ballet studio to running two miles. Move your body in ways that feel good to you and that get your blood pumping.
The goal is to get you to fall in love with making your body feel good rather than guilting yourself into doing something you hate. You deserve to move your body and moving your body is proven to make you feel better mentally.
So, get those endorphins pumping in your brain and move your body. Start with a goal of ten minutes a day, whether that’s a walk outside or strength training.
5. Write in a journal to express your thoughts and feelings.
Journaling is good for your mental health and it’s a cool idea. You’re writing down your day-to-day feelings, activities, and reactions for your future self or maybe even someone else down the line.
You’re basically creating a record of your life (beyond the ones created by social media). If nothing else, you have a way to go back and see what you were actually feeling a year, two years, or two days ago.
Rather than remembering and letting your memory tell you what you thought, you have a journal to tell you all of that. So, you can start with how your day is going. You can think about what went well and what made you grateful to be alive.
You can talk about what’s your on mind, too. Share it all in a place that makes you feel safe and heard—and yes, you count as someone who can hear your own story.
6. Try a new hobby or revisit an old one.
We all have that pile of stuff in our garage or closet from those hobbies we tried out for about two minutes and abandoned once we couldn’t get past the learning curve. This is your sign to revisit that hobby or get a new one.
Find that thing you’ve always wanted to try or re-try and do it. Learn, make mistakes, and enjoy yourself. Hobbies are unique in that you only do them to enjoy yourself and have fun at something.
For once in your life, you can do something not because of the money it will make you but the joy it’ll bring you. So, go have fun!
7. Disconnect from technology and have a digital detox.
Turn off that social media, leave your phone in another room, or turn off those notifications because we all know social media can be too much. It’s also made to be addicting. So, sometimes, we need to make the executive decision to stay off of it.
If this is something you value but you struggle to make it happen, try starting with a goal. Find an hour in your day when you’ll unplug. Or set the goal to quit your phone half an hour before you go to bed.
Try it for five days and see how it goes. Reflect on the process, if you feel any better for having made some progress, or if you need to dial down your goal to make it more attainable.
8. Get a good night’s sleep consistently.
Choose the time when you want to go to bed and wake up every day. Then, make plans to stick to it. Schedule your day around your sleep. Decide when you need to get ready for bed or start your nightly routine to get into bed at the time you chose.
Make sure you scheduled yourself enough sleep at night so that you’ll be able to wake up in the morning feeling good and rested. Think of a way to get yourself out of bed in the morning, which can be the hardest part for us night owls.
Maybe you’ll comfort yourself with tea in the morning or set your alarm clock on the other side of the room. Eventually, as you work on keeping a sleep schedule, you’ll wake up without having to worry about an alarm clock. Until then, try out some techniques to jumpstart yourself.
9. Listen to calming music or create a playlist of your favorite songs.
Jam out to that list. The one full of the best songs you’ve ever heard that get you moving and singing along and living your best life no matter where you are. The type of songs that make you get up wherever you are and start singing because they’re just that good.
Or you can opt for a calming playlist to relax to, to work to, or to workout to. Find the music that makes you happy and use that to practice some self care. You could go for a walk, read a book, or sit in the sun and listen to your favorite playlist.
10. Set boundaries and learn to say no when needed.
Self care includes the fun stuff like a bubble bath, massage, and face mask. But, it also includes the harder stuff like setting boundaries in your relationships. As important as they are, they always seem painful for everyone involved.
Instead of seeing them as a way to become a better friend or partner to someone, boundaries can feel like a punishment. They’re not.
Boundaries help relationships get even better. When you tell your mom, “We can’t talk about Dad anymore because I can’t be involved in your marriage,” you feel bad. It’s hard not to, especially when you want to be there for your mom.
But, you need to feel good too and you have every right to notice those negative feelings you don’t need to experience and figure out ways to stop them from happening.
Discomfort in relationships can be an important tool for growth, so remember that you can make people feel uncomfortable by setting a boundary.
11. Practice gratitude by writing down things you are thankful for.
Back to that journaling we talked about earlier: identify three things in your day that you are grateful for. Get specific about it and include the details about what happened and why you were grateful for it.
Over time, you’ll be surprised at how finding those three things in your day will help you to think more positively. Our brains are constantly changing in a process called neuroplasticity. While we sleep, our brains build pathways that strengthen the habits we worked on during the day.
Unfortunately, this means our bad habits are easier to access the next day. But, this also means that we can change how we think by working at it on a daily basis. By choosing positivity, we’re doing the work so that it will be easier tomorrow and the next day, and the next week.
12. Read a book or listen to an audiobook.
If you’re a slow reader, audiobooks will change your life. Or, even if you’re a fast reader, they might still change your life when you change the speed to 2X. There are tons of ways to get free books and audiobooks, including going to the library and checking one out.
However, if you don’t mind the digital format and you like audiobooks, download Libby. It’s a free library app that lets you access a bunch of digital books in Kindle or audiobook format. Then, you can work, go for a walk, or relax on your couch and read/listen to a new book.
13. Take breaks throughout the day to rest and recharge.
Rest. You need it. Go for a walk and reset your brain—maybe you’ll even work some nervous energy if your brain is working way too fast.
Schedule breaks into your workday or study schedule to make sure you’re giving your brain the chance to pause, recharge, and return energized to the task you’re tackling for the day.
14. Eat a balanced and nutritious diet to fuel your body and mind.
Meal prep some go-to nutritious foods. Get yourself one or two proteins, marinate them in some delicious sauce combo (we like to follow the salt, citrus, spice combo at Knockoff Therapy), and pop that into the fridge or sautee it for a meal later in the week.
Combine a delicious protein with a legume (beans, lentils, etc.), vegetable, and grain and you’re good to go with a filling, balanced meal that will keep you going.
You can make yourself a great meal anytime, meal-prepping or not. But, sometimes, you need that meal readily available so you don’t have to rely on your future self to have the energy when you’re studying, working, or just drained.
