Welcome back to the blog! As you may know, this month is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health awareness has a huge significance in my heart, so I'm so excited to kickstart this month with a blog post centered around it. The more that we can do as a community to inspire others to take care of their mental health, the better! A huge reason why I started my personal brand, Self-Care by Esha, was to inspire others to prioritize their mental wellbeing and to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health. From my experience and hardships with anxiety, I learned that it's okay to have these tough feelings. I've always wanted to help those going through what I did to know that they're not alone. So, if you've been feeling anxiety lately, or just a bit down, just know that there are so many other people in the same boat who understand what you're going through.
To be honest, I've been feeling some anxiety lately. It's just that kind of week and it's very normal to feel all different emotions. But this past year specifically, I've been really putting importance on taking care of my mental health when I do sense some anxiety and stress in both my mind and body. I've gathered a few different things that I do to help provide comfort to my mind.
First, I'd say that taking breaks and being gentler with myself have helped me so much with stress. After a long day of school, I give myself time to just unwind, have a snack, and just relax for a bit to signal to my brain that I need rest. Giving myself that time to not focus on work allows my brain to just pause from constantly working, and that's a crucial part of minimizing feelings of stress.
Also, I've been just being less hard on myself. And that's something that I definitely took away from my mental health journey. Because a lot of my anxiety came from putting a lot of pressure on myself that just wasn't serving me. If I get a grade that I'm not satisfied with, or if I don't get everything done that I wanted to do that day, then, it's OK. Providing myself with the grace I need, and being kind to myself when I'm just trying my best each day makes me feel so much better, and really does help alleviate stress.
To just boost my serotonin level, I really love to listen to some good music that instantly makes me feel so much better. In the mornings on my walk to school, I love to throw in some headphones and just have that alone time to wake me up for the day with the feel-good energy that I need. I was just reminded of this, but our spiritual energy is something that has the biggest impact on our wellbeing. So, surrounding yourself with better energy is super important. And upbeat music brings about those good vibes for me. I instantly feel the stress and anxiety go down and my happiness definitely goes up. Also, I feel that dancing to some of my favorite upbeat music is truly a form of therapy for me. It truly helps close the stressful tabs in my mind and helps increase the serotonin.
Something else that I have been loving to help take care of my mind is my nighttime routine to help me relax and feel calm. There's just something about a nice unwind routine that helps signal to my mind that it's time to decompress and shut off from the working zone. I love to take a nice warm shower, do my skincare routine, get into some comfy pajamas, watch my favorite comfort show, maybe write a blog post, and just mindfully scroll through my phone. This routine really helps my mind feel calmer from a day when I was feeling a little bit anxious and stressed.
Another thing that has been super helpful for my mental health is just practicing my hobbies and doing things that I enjoy. And honestly, my hobbies are what keep me motivated each day to just get up and do what I need to do. It's super important to find the things that decently bring you joy each day. Me, I absolutely love working on Self-Care by Esha and it's a passion project for me. Anytime I do something related to my personal brand, I feel a spark of happiness within myself. Whether it's content creation or blogging, I just feel more calm and relaxed because I'm doing something that again, comforts me. So find the things that descent make you feel good. Not what looks good or what makes your parents feel good, what brings you happiness. And just find time each day to do those things. It'll help your mental health so much and when you feel happier, the cortisol (stress hormone) will automatically come down.
And last, but not least, is to create more balance in your life. I'm sure that you've heard balance so much before and that you've seen it all over social media. But let me bring something to your attention. You are not designed to sit at a desk and work 24/7. You're just not. So by balance, I mean just that. You need to spend time doing the things you love apart from work. I'm still in high school, but somedays, the work can be a lot and I can feel overwhelmed. But what helps is just creating that time to not focus on the schoolwork, and honestly just living my life outside of the work I need to do. Creating that balance for yourself ensures that your mind is not always consumed with what's making you feel stressed, but rather with what makes you feel happy.
That's all for this week's post today, friends, but these tips are really what helps me so much with my mental health on a daily. I think that a healthy mind falls into your lifestyle. And by that, I mean that it's making the choice to not put all that pressure and just stress on yourself. This is something that I always remind myself, but it's that every day, you're trying your best, regardless of what that looks like. And just remember that.
Xo,
Esha
Comments