My April Mental Wellness Routine

I’ve been writing these recaps monthly since January and am officially entering the second quarter of the year feeling pretty proud of myself. Writing down my mental wellness routine is a new habit for me. I, like most people, got used to managing my mental health on a day-to-day basis and never put time aside to see the routines I was forming.

Comparing the last few months to each other has made it clear that I’ve been missing out on an opportunity to understand myself better. In January I was pretty locked in on growth and setting up a successful morning routine for myself, but if you jump to March’s wellness routine you can see just how much the winter months impacted me.

These posts are a reminder that our mental health fluctuates in response to our every day lives and that our mental wellness routines can do the same.

Now that spring is starting to creep into Portland’s weather forecast, it’s becoming easier for me to hold onto hope for longer periods of time. I don’t feel like I’m in survival mode as much, yet I’m still rebuilding trust in my mind and body after a few harder months.

So April’s mental wellness routine is focused on rebuilding trust.

Daily walks

I don’t like going on walks mostly because I never went on walks before 2020. Don’t get me wrong, I walked a ton in New York City because that’s what a normal commute includes, but leisurely walks are different. They are something I’m getting used to. Not having my New York City commute any more I realized two things — (1) I miss it so much (2) I need to replicate it if I want to keep my sanity. This month I’m focused on taking walks and attaching a purpose to them until I get more used to the habit. I’ve been quietly doing this all of last week. They don’t have to be a certain length or anything, I just need to practice getting out of the house more because it’s necessary for my mental health.

Birth control change

I am struggling the most with this change this month. I’ve been on the pill for years now and still am, but over the last few months I started noticing that my “emotionally all over the place days” started getting longer and longer. At first it would be a few days right around my period, but now it’s the entire third walk before I get my period plus some. I mentioned this in therapy and her response was both so simple and something that is especially hard to think of yourself when you’re in the deepest end of the pool - she suggested I talk to my OB/GYN to switch to a lower hormone dose if possible. I’m a week into a new birth control pack on the lower dose and it’s both helped and triggered my anxiety. I’m anxious that it’s going to make me feel worse, which is something I’ve been using facts to help manage (because it isn’t making me feel worse). It’s helped my anxiety because I feel more balanced than I have in a while. I won’t call it a win until I’ve gone through a whole pack or two, but I’m feeling hopeful.

Embracing minimalism

One of the bigger lessons I’ve learned over the last few months is that my anxiety likes to hoard, both feelings and things, in an effort to make me feel a false sense of safety. It’s subtle, but overwhelming once I noticed it. Two things I’m trying this month to continue to embrace minimalism is to par down what notebooks I need around me and give myself time between wanting something and actually purchasing it. I’m starting to use my iPad as my to-do list, content calendar, and general note taking device, so that I can have everything in a single place. I’m also being intentional about letting go of the “security” items I don’t actually need all the time, like leaving behind the water bottle if I’m only walking to the corner.

More alone time

Bringing this full circle as I wrap up my post — this is the larger umbrella the daily walks fall under. I want to start easing myself back into spending longer stretches of time alone. For the last year it’s been me, my boyfriend, and our dog, day in and day out. I love them so much, but I don’t want “real life” to catch me by surprise or become a trigger for my anxiety. This month I’m going to start baby stepping myself into more alone time. I want to work back up to having dedicated work blocks outside of our apartment. I know this will be the best for my mental health, but also all of ours.

My April mental wellness routines aren’t groundbreaking, they never really are. They are just responses to what is happening in my life at the current moment and how I can work to serve my greater good.

What are you adding to your mental wellness routine this month?