My August Mental Wellness Routine
It has been a while since I’ve worked on one of these and I’ll admit that it’s because my mental wellness routine went out the window with our move. Since April I’ve been pulled between feeling incredibly overwhelmed and encouraging myself to try my best. Some days were better than others. I know through it all I ended up having to work through a lot of grief and overwhelming feelings that came with moving back.
Since my life changed so much so did my mental wellness routines. Naturally I went from having a ton of time to dedicate to my routines to not having much at all. The last few months actually inspired what will be my first month long course (look out for more on IG!) which will focus on embracing minimalism in your mental wellness routine.
Too often we feel pushed to the do the most when it comes to self-care because in our eyes if we don’t then we’re not doing enough. For the sake of the same mental health we’re trying to protect it’s essential that we start structuring mental wellness routines as happy middles instead of operating in extremes. I’ll have more on the course in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here’s what I’m focusing on this month.
Talking to myself
I’ve gone through a lot of different transitions in the last quarter. Some I’m dealing with better than others. I have a tendency to dive into work or serving others whenever my life becomes this jumbled. This month I’m trying to not do that. To the best of my ability I’m going to be working on having more honest conversations with myself about where I am, how I’m feeling, and what I need.
HAVING FUN
The last few months have been an adrenaline rush, but each day hasn’t exactly been fun. Making time for fun felt secondary to needing to get things done. I want to start going back out on Artist’s dates because they were the highlight of my weeks. I want to start planning fun dates with my boyfriend again. I want to start incorporating more of the fun moments into my day to day, so that everything doesn’t feel so heavy.
Going to therapy
I had a moment a few weeks ago when I thought about taking a few weeks off therapy to reset (again, because life has just been a lot). I didn’t end up doing it and I’m thankful because I think I just wanted to run away from my life for a bit, which at this point wouldn’t have been productive for me. Instead, I’m going to start elevating my therapy experience. We’re pretty settled in our new place now and there’s a corner of our bedroom where I “go to therapy”. I’m going to get a little side table, a rug, and some candles and start to make it into my cozy zen area.
YOGA, WATER, + VITAMINS
These are three small things that I was so good at doing every day and that made a difference in my mood. Right now I’m in the stage of waking up from a down episode that makes it really hard to do even the smallest things. Getting out of bed is rough, so is walking to the fridge or the medicine cabinet. My goal is to hack it. I wake up earlier than I need to so that even though it takes me a while to get out of bed, I’m still earlier than I needed to be. I’m going to start placing my vitamins on the kitchen counter so that it’s easier to take them. I can’t really hack walking to the fridge, so it’s one of those things that I’ll push through and maybe dance as I go there to make it happier.
I know how hard it is to both start and continue doing things that make you feel good about yourself on a daily basis. It’s especially hard if you’re going through a time of transition. I hope you find solace in knowing that for all the cool things I try and share on IG, my actual self-care routine is quite simple and reflective of my life (not just consumer trends).
What’s on your August mental wellness routine?