Managing my mental health is an ongoing process and I’m always trying to work on making better habits to make it a little easier. These are some of the things I’ve been doing lately that have been helping me. I hope this post will give you some ideas for new habits to improve your mental health.
Positive Thinking
I’ve been working on being aware of my thoughts and changing my negative thoughts to positive thoughts. Thinking optimistically helps me feel better throughout the day and keeps me from getting depressed or anxious. Last week my car broke and I had to take it to the shop to be repaired. My initial thoughts were “this sucks!” “this stuff always happens to me” and “I can’t afford this”. I made a conscious decision to change my thoughts about the situation and make myself feel good. I chose to think “I’m so grateful I have a car and the ability to get it fixed”, “I’m so lucky that my car didn’t break down and I can get it repaired before it’s an issue” and “things always work out for me, I’ll be able to make the money to pay for this”. It really helped me shift my feelings from being bummed out to feeling thankful for my situation.
Writing Affirmations
I recently started making sure I spend five minutes writing affirmations every day. I set some scary effing goals for the year and writing out affirmations helps me overcome my limiting beliefs and keep working towards my dreams. If you want to start using affirmations you can grab my free list of affirmations for badasses below for free. I write out the ones that are speaking to me and addressing any fear I have that morning.
Dreaming Big
Last year I decided to choose to believe that anything is possible in my life. When you’re managing depression and anxiety it can be easy to feel stuck. Letting myself dream really big helps me get excited for the future and get through the day to day grind. Let yourself daydream about your ultimate life. I’m talking dream house, dream relationship, dream job and dream anything else you want. If you’re feeling uninspired check out my Bad Ass Alter Ego 101 course for exercises to help you become the most badass version of yourself.
Reading Books
One of my goals is to read a book a week this year. I’m always trying to find new information I can share on my blog to help other people. Some of my favorite books I’ve read lately are You Are a Badass
Getting Healthy AF
This is an ongoing goal for me. My physical fitness is really closely linked to my mental health. When I’m on top of my fitness and eating healthy I am a lot less likely to struggle with depression and anxiety. My health goal right now is to try some new fitness classes at my gym. I get really nervous going to new classes I haven’t been to but I want to make myself get out of my comfort zone and try some new things at my gym. I’m also working on cutting out sugar but that seems to be a long process for me. I manage to cut it out for a week or two and then fall face first into a sugary cocktail or ice cream and have to start all over. I do feel better when I’m not eating sugar though so I’m going to keep trying to cut it out of my diet.
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