Tag: Self Care for Mental Health

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The Knock-On Effects Of Mental Health Issues You Should Address

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Whether you’re dealing with depression, and anxiety disorder, PTSD, or something else, it’s important to be aware of the multi-faceted effects that mental health troubles can have on your life. Here, we’re going to look at some of the risks you should be keeping an eye on, and what you can do to prevent more damage than necessary.

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Lack of self-care

When you’re feeling down on yourself, or you’re simply feeling like you are lacking in energy, then it’s all too easy to let even simple self-care habits slip. This can include taking care of your hygiene, grooming, getting dressed, cleaning your environment, eating proper meals, or staying indoors all day. Sometimes, even a little reminder or incentive can help you take that step to take care of yourself, which can help you feel better like yourself, and apps like Aloe Bud can offer the gentle reminders that you might need.

Self-isolation

You might feel like you wouldn’t be very good company or maybe concerned about burdening others with your problems, but self-isolation is one of the single worst things you can do for your mental health in both the short-term and long term. Having people to talk to and to share with is not just important for your immediate mood, but even plays a role in preventing issues like dementia. If you’re having trouble reaching out to people around you, there are services like 7 Cups that can help you get talking to someone, at least.

Self-medication as a coping mechanism

If you have started using any mood-altering substances to address your mental state, even as simple as alcohol or cigarettes, then this is a problem that needs to be addressed. While it may feel like an immediate fix, it will contribute to the root problem growing much, much larger over time, which is why centers like Sunshine Behavioral Health treat both the dependency and the mental health root causes at the same time. If you can recognize yourself going down this slope, even a little, it’s best to stop and ask for help.

Spending too much time on social media

Social media addiction is not a problem that solely affects those who are struggling, by any means. However, a lot of people will intentionally use it as a “mind-numbing” pastime to help them forget about their problems for a while. However, institutes like Intenet Addicts Anonymous have found that social media addiction can be a serious problem, leading to worsening mental health, as well as being all too effective at draining your time and preventing you from taking care of what responsibilities you might normally be on top of.

The above points are not there to make you feel bad about any mental health problems you might be dealing with, but a call to help you recognize some of the impacts it can have on your life. While you continue to treat and fight against the problem at the root of it, you should also consider what you can do to treat the surface-level effects, too.

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How To Stay Healthy as a Digital Nomad: Tips and Ideas

As a digital nomad, you are always on the go, which means it is more important than ever to take care of your health. You may not have access to medical facilities like doctors or hospitals, so you need to be prepared with knowledge and tools for staying healthy while traveling. This post will discuss some tips for how to stay healthy as a digital nomad!

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Ensure You Cook Whenever You Can

To stay healthy, it is essential to cook and eat nutritious food. For example, you can learn how to air fry garlic parmesan wings if you want a nutritious and exciting meal.

If you constantly eat out or rely on packaged foods for convenience, your diet will suffer tremendously. Also, when travelling from place to place in a foreign land, cooking can be tricky, so make sure you take time when staying at one location for longer than two days.

Finally, if the kitchen is not available and there’s no grocery store nearby, try ordering some online.

Work Out Whenever You Can

One of the best ways to maintain physical health when you’re a digital nomad is to work out. You may not have time for an hour-long workout, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find five minutes here and there throughout your day. So find a park bench or other place with shade and do some pushups, squats, lunges, stretches—whatever exercises are comfortable in that environment.

Put your headphones on and go for a run, or find the nearest park with some stairs to climb. If you can’t exercise outside due to climate considerations like extreme heat or cold weather, finding space in an air-conditioned gym is fine. The good news about staying active as a digital nomad is that many gyms offer day passes – so give it a shot!

Eat Healthy Nutritious Food Like Fruits and Vegetables From the Local Market

A lot of people assume that travelling means eating out all the time. While this might be true in some places, you will not find healthy food or vegetables at every restaurant and grocery store. And when they say “fresh” veggies, it’s usually never the case.

You cannot overstate the benefits of buying fresh fruits and vegetables from local markets:

– You will have access to more nutritious foods than what you get back home because most imported fruits are unripe to survive long-distance shipping with minimal bruising.

– Buying fresh produce also means you will have access to a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than what is available in your home country.

– You don’t have to worry about spoilage or food poisoning because the produce has been refrigerated, so all that’s left for you to do is wash it.

Conclusion

The tips and ideas above are just a few ways to maintain your health as a digital nomad. In addition, remember to take time out for rest and recovery, eat healthy food with nutritious fruits and vegetables, work out whenever possible, and cook to avoid unhealthy eating habits.

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Self-Care is More Than a Pause

Self Care for Mental Health

As I continue to struggle with hypertension and figure out what causes me such stress I’m learning more about self-care and what this concept truly means.

I’m a work from home mom of three. I started working from home in 2006 when I had one child and was pregnant with the second. By the end of 2008, I had three children of the ages newborn, two, and six all the while trying to make money from my home computer.

Can you imagine the stress involved in raising two boys in diapers, a child in school, and running an online business?

I don’t know if I ever ran around saying I was stressed out, but I’m confident I was. You see, during this time I also got married, then divorced, and eventually lost the home I purchased on my own before the marriage.

Quite clearly my world was chaotic and stressful, this is around the time when my blood pressure went into hypertension stage 1, or perhaps it was prehypertension at that time. Either way, this was the time in my life when hypertension became a big battle in my life.

I’ve learned over the years what works for me and what doesn’t work for me. I’m now reunited with the father of my sons’, that one I married and divorced within a short timeframe and can relax a bit more.

I’m now able to put self-care on the front burner and start doing things to help lower my blood pressure. I’m in the trial and error stage right now, because I simply put – refuse to be on medication for the rest of my life to keep my blood pressure down {if I can help it}.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned about self-care is that it’s something that you can duplicate each day as part of your normal routine. This is something that can slow your racing thoughts, heart, and body as you simmer from a busy lifestyle of doing this, that, and the other thing.

Create a Relaxation Space

The first step towards making sure you’re tending to your mental and physical health needs regularly is to create a space to relax. Consider getting a lounge chair from https://www.sunpan.com/can/products/living/lounge-chairs and plants to place in a room or special space in the home.

This space should be a location where no one will distract you, such as family or electronics. The relaxation space you develop will make you feel at ease the moment you walk into it.

Delegate Other Tasks

Learn to say no to tasks that cause you stress. If you’re an online business owner, like me, then start weeding out the work that causes tremendous stress. Once you’ve done that, start delegating other tasks in your life that you feel causes stress.

This means using a service like Stemmler Meats to get your meat delivered so you can avoid the chaotic grocery store. It could also mean you delegate chores and meal prep to your teenagers, they’re old enough.

Consider a Pet Cat

I’m a huge dog fan, but cats have a purpose too. I mean they’re cute, cuddly and have quite the personality that could entertain you for hours. A pet cat also requires less from you because you only need to get food, water and a litter box.

When you’re feeling it’s time for a break, head to your relaxation room and grab the best cat grooming tools to groom your cat. This process of combing your cat as you sit in your relaxation room will help calm you.

Develop a Stress-Free Routine

Another way to make self-care more about a duplicated process than something you do when stress is simply too high is to develop a stress-free routine. I know we can’t have zero stress in our life, well we *can* but that’s a tip for another day.

Jot down what you do every day and find new ways to morph it into a daily routine that feels right. This could mean letting go of clients, re-focusing effort on what you do love, and pausing for family time more.

Paying attention to your reactions to stressful events during the day and what your triggers are can help you to focus on an effective strategy to reduce your stress levels and how you react to different triggers. Giving yourself time to relax and reduce anxieties is vital and using remedies that are known to help alleviate stress and anxiety can be beneficial to you such as CBD and Delta-10. Lavender is great for helping people to relax and using this in various areas of your home including toiletries can have a calming influence. Avoid products that will increase your anxiety such as alcohol and caffeine especially close to bedtime.

Trust Your Gut

Many people called me crazy throughout my life when I made decisions that felt right. I’ve learned to trust my gut over the years, and while I did have a 2.5-year period where I ignored my gut, I know my gut is the best thing to listen to when making decisions and won’t ignore it again!

This means when you feel fatigued, take a break in your relaxation room. When you start to feel hungry, listen to your body, and have a glass of water and healthy treat. This is the simplest form of self-care out there.

In conclusion, all I’m trying to tell you is that self-care is different for each of us, but it is always duplicatable. True self-care will be something that’s built into your daily life as a means to lower blood pressure, feel happier, and be healthier every single day of your life.

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5 Tips to Protect your Mental Health While Working on Social Media

For many of us freelancers and bloggers it can be difficult to protect our mental health from the negativity and arguments on social media. You see, we have to work on social media as part of our job! This means that we’re constantly thrown into Facebook where the newsfeed pops up there for you to see what everyone’s arguing about today.

While on any social media platform these days, it’s challenging to keep your eyes from reading negativity. Sadly, it’s getting worse as each day goes on. This makes it more difficult for people in the social media industry to protect themselves from the horrible results of being shown negativity regularly.

Today I’m sharing some of my own tips and tricks to help you protect your mental health while working on social media. As with most “solutions”, this isn’t a one size fits all blog post, but I’m confident it will help lead you in a positive direction.

5 Tips to Protect your Mental Your Mental Health

Detox Every So Often

Make sure you’re taking the time to just shut down social media for a couple of days a week. You must find a balance between protecting your mental health and getting work done. Thankfully, most social media platforms have a way to schedule content so that you can take a day or two to schedule everything. This will provide you the time necessary to detox from social media every weekend, or a couple of times per week.

Mute Push Notifications

Since you have to work on social media during your work at home days, you must do as little as possible while on there. This means you need to mute your push notifications during your workday, and after work hours. It’s simply not healthy to feel the constant need to check someone’s reply, tag, or conversation each time a notification pops up. Mute your push notifications whenever possible and be certain to keep push notifications muted when you’ve “signed off” from work hours.

Monitor Time Spent

My oldest will share her time spent on certain apps and her cell phone from time to time. It’s a fun conversation to have with a child who, much like me enjoys growing as an individual and monitor what she may be wasting her time on. You must keep a close eye on how much time you’re spending on social media for work and personal reasons. Try to limit your exposure with social media by only using it for work when necessary, and perhaps not using it for personal more than once a week.

Take Weekends Off

I used to be that workaholic that felt I had to keep busy working and always be doing something productive. Perhaps having two young boys who barely slept and had more needs than my firstborn crated my hyperactive mode. Being busy constantly isn’t healthy for anyone, trust me! My blood pressure starting creeping back up because I fell back into the ‘workaholic mode’, so I opted to take weekends off. I’ve said NO to people who need help more often, even though I want to help them, I have to put myself and my family first. Taking weekends off and saying no to extra work hours has been a very positive decision and I highly recommend others follow suit.

Remove and Block, or Mute

Lastly, since you spend so much time on social media for work you must remove and block anyone who leaves unnecessary rude comments. Some of the horrible name-calling I’ve seen among “professionals” lately has turned my stomach! There’s no need to have this type of commentary in your feed. Don’t feel bad blocking a mutual friend simply because their toxic commentary on your mutual friends’ posts happens to impact your mental health. You need to remove, mute, and/or block anyone on social media that makes you feel sad, anxious, or fearful so that you maintain healthy boundaries during work hours.

In conclusion, protecting your mental health is all about being fully aware of what’s dragging you down. We need to spend more quality time focused on the people under our roof when we’re not working. Your family should be the ultimate priority and prize for the ending to every workday.

Do your best to consider my tips and tricks so that you can have more time to focus on what truly matters in your own life without having some sort of mental breakdown due to anxiety and depression from too much exposure to negativity.

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