A lot of us can find ways to practice self-care for our minds very hard. Because we tend to forget that looking after your mind is as important as looking after our body.  

Caring for our bodies is much easier than caring for our minds and soul. The process can be hard, and to avoid being caught up in a hard situation, we often tend to avoid confrontation with our feelings, fears, and emotions.

If there was an answer as to why we do that, it is mostly because we might find ourselves in a very uncomfortable position trying to figure out our emotional and mental standing. Also, because running away from our core problems is easier than facing them and figuring out how to deal with them, and other times because we usually feel intimidated by them, and sometimes being left alone with nothing but our thoughts can leave some people terrified. Usually, we get so involved in our daily life that we are bound to get distracted and lost in all the noise around us.

And truth be told, it’s hard these days to fight your problems or even realize them. We live in such a fast-paced world where our lives just get by through hard and tiring days that even thinking about anything other than resting or sleeping can cause us stress. As we get drowned in deadlines, chores, life responsibilities, and more, convincing yourself to face things that you don’t want to can be tough.

Keeping all of these emotions bottled up is a form of defense. And no matter how strong a person thinks they are, all these pent-up emotions are bound to spill out. Everyone should make a note to themselves that when we start working on our yearly resolutions, we should give ourselves enough space to recognize our emotional and mental feelings and work in favor of them to live healthily.

We bring you some steps which can help you to do so:

1. BRAIN DUMPING & JOURNALING

Ever find your brain getting overloaded with information and confiding in someone is just way too much for you to take up? Journaling or brain dump is the best way to declutter that mess inside your brain. It is a very easy process and doesn’t require too much. All you need to do is to take a piece of paper or better yet, a book if you need to. You write down everything in your brain at the moment and with anything meaning “ANYTHING”. You don’t have to worry about it making sense or putting it into sentences with accurate vocabulary. But you should make sure to segregate the information into categories, be it school, work, friends, relationships, personal, or anything else.

The next step is to review and process your list and create a plan, schedule, and to-do list.

2. MENTAL EXERCISE

A lot of things change as we grow older, including our mental functions. Thorough research has shown that activities related to brain stimulation help to keep your brain “young” and moving by constantly stimulating new connections between brain cells. You can consider this as gymnastics but for the brain. And this includes any activity related to the brain. As of today, there are a wide variety of such activities you can get yourself into. Some examples are: cross puzzles, Sudoku, adult coloring books, jigsaw puzzles and so much more.

3. DO A MENTAL CLEANSE

Or commonly known as a mental “detox”, it relatively comes from the activity of the physical body detoxifying and getting rid of anything toxic or eliminating bad things. Things like limiting your beliefs, questioning yourself and your beliefs, negative emotions or habits, and things that do not serve you for the right purposes. But the thing is, mental cleansing takes more effort. Just as your lifestyle and the things you eat may either fuel or restrict your body, nourishing your mind with positive ideas and participating in good behaviors is crucial for keeping it healthy.

A mental cleansing might include:

• Brain dumping
• Changing or shifting your focus
• Setting up healthy boundaries concerning conserving your energy
• To welcome and feel the emotions that you experience, embrace stillness.
• To realize that “It’s okay to not be okay”

4. DEVOTE TIME TO STILLNESS

When there’s too much going on in your brain, being alone with your thoughts can be very intimidating and terrifying, and being still is probably the last thing you want to do. It’s not something we always enjoy, being alone with our thoughts and feelings because it’s easier to run away from it. So we look for distractions, get distracted ignoring them, and keep them hidden somewhere deep. But once we get over this fear and start embracing these feelings and the stillness, we are bound to be met with peace and clarity. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is by practicing meditation. Meditation can be a great help when it comes to finding peace within yourself and getting rid of the turmoil brewing in your brain. There are so many different types of meditation that you will end up liking the one you are comfortable with. There are a lot of yoga-related apps and websites that you can refer to. Guided meditation can be useful for beginners. 

5. DEVOTE A DAY TO MENTAL HEALTH

We probably can’t afford a whole day off, but a few hours from a day can be squeezed in for a mental health checkup point where you do things that make you feel at ease mentally, letting yourself heal slowly. It can be anything from journaling, riding a bicycle, coloring books, puzzles, cooking, going on a drive, simply staring at the sky, listening to the wind, feeling the sun on your skin, or anything else that helps and makes you feel good.

Whatever it is you decide to do, remember to stay away from your phone and disconnect from the busy world for a while. The best way to avoid a full-blown burnout is to realize when you need to break away from your daily routine and, rather than waiting for it to disturb your thoughts, take the small hints and give importance to your mental self-care. Don’t forget to remember that by running away from our feelings and emotions to avoid confrontation with ourselves, you are not helping but making things harder than they need to be. Take care of your mind just as you take care of your body. Treat yourself the same way you would treat someone you adore.