Mental health issues have emerged as a great concern all across the world. With more and more people falling into the clutches of stress and anxiety and many other mental illnesses, such issues are showing no signs of slowing down.
So it has become all the more necessary to keep track of your mental health so that you don’t fall prey to such conditions. That’s why we have come up with some ideas to keep track of your mental health.
Keep track of your habits
Mental health isn’t only about what goes on in your minds; it’s also about how our behaviors reflect what we feel and think. By adopting measures to track your habits, it’s quite simple to monitor the practices that we consciously or unconsciously indulge in and work on them in order to maintain our mental wellness.
For Students, if you are used to multitasking, you should look for ways so that the workload doesn’t affect your mental health. In all countries, it should be mandatory to take online assignment help through top-level experts so that every student gets high marks & feels free with the mentally strong.
Preparing a list of distractions and alternatives
In the case of maintaining and tracking your mental health, you can adopt this practice to avoid showing any behavioral patterns that are self-destructive or harmful.
Even if you’re are not suffering from conditions in which behaviors like self-harm, substance abuse, or an eating disorder, etc. are the prominent signs, there are times when you need to take charge of your situation, other than just accepting that you might have a problem that’s affecting your mind and heart.
Keep a journal
Maintaining a written account of your thought and feelings is extremely beneficial to your emotional and mental fitness. There are many things that we cannot articulate and cannot describe while conversing; this is why writing always works in favor of your mental health.
Writing acts as a perfect therapy to open up about your feelings and subsequently ward off whatever negativity you may have in your mind. Now when we say writing, we don’t mean it has to be beautiful prose or poetry. As long as you find peace indulging in it, that’s all that matters. Now in the case of writing, you may often find that your writing will change as per your mood and behaviors.
Keep track of the things you are grateful for
When faced with a mental health issue, people often get this persistent feeling of reaching “the end of the road”. This is when many people resort to self-harm.
But while life may present a lot of struggles, trials and tribulations, ups and downs and seem unfair on multiple occasions, but you need to train your mind to see the beauty in everything. You need to channel all your focus on beautiful things and people that surround you and make sure you appreciate them.
In order to do that you can take two minutes every day to think about the things or people, you are grateful for in life. It can be the simplest of things that remind us that as there are negative elements, there are many positive aspects of life as well. This allows you to think that troubles and negativity won’t last forever.
There’s joy in creativity
Indulging in creative pursuits is a fairly well-known and excellent way to keep track of your emotional and mental wellness. Even if you don’t feel particularly enthusiastic about art, you can even get creative with computer programming and gadgets. The point is you don’t have to be creative in the conventional sense.
As long you are doing something that you find interesting, you should be able to take charge of your emotions and behaviors.
Everybody should find a creative outlet. Whether it’s music, cooking, writing, singing, painting, dancing, baking, spend a certain amount of time at least once a week doing the thing you enjoy the most.
Do something that helps to channelize your creativity and then reflect on the progress after continuing the practice for a year. You will surely feel satisfied because it provides relaxation to your mind as well.
In fact, psychotherapists and psychiatrists encourage creative activities to treat many psychological disorders. So being creative is an efficient way to track your mental state.
Keeping a list of every emotion that you feel
Aside from creating a list of the things that you are grateful for, you can create a list for every emotion you feel and what triggers them. The list may include the following.
- A-List of the things that are working out perfectly for you
- A list of the things that aren’t exactly working out for you
- A list of the things that you are yet to accomplish
- A list of things that triggers happiness in you
- A list of things that make you sad or worried
- A list of the people you care for or who matter to you
- A list of wishes that have been fulfilled or not fulfilled.
- A list of the places that you have or haven’t been
Once you have created all these lists, you can start checking off the things you have done and the things that are to be done. Then focus on accomplishing them one at a time.
Start blogging
If you think writing is too tedious for you, you can start a blog as an alternative. You can choose to keep it private if you want to, but there are loads of people who may be going through the same mental health issues and feel the same way as you. So blogging provides an opportunity to reach out to those people.
If you are thinking about managing a blog of your own, you can try Tumblr or WordPress for managing a blogging site.
Talk about your thoughts and feelings to someone you’re close to
If you feel like you need help to cope up with any difficult situation or simply need someone to hear you out, you can always go to the person you’re close to. Leading a hectic life may often take a toll on your mental state, and you may find yourself in need of some support.
This is when you should find someone who can listen to your rants and offer a solution if possible. Interacting with someone close to you can be therapeutic, and is capable of providing instant relief.
Be realistic about the objectives you want to achieve to keep track of your mental well-being
You will find many motivational quotes that would tell you to “hustle harder” and push yourself until you achieve your goals in life. Now while it’s commendable that you want to pursue your dreams and turn them into reality. But if your mental wellness is at stake here, then it’s best to proceed with caution.
You need to understand that there is no point in working so hard if you can’t spare the time to reap the rewards of your efforts. So try to set smaller goals and learn to draw a line in terms of how far you would go to achieve them. Setting aside some time to reflect on your goals can help in tracking your mental well-being.
Use technology to keep track of your mental wellness
The technological innovations and the advent of social media have prompted lots of discussions about mental health issues of late. Such discussions have worked in favor of raising awareness in people, and have enabled many organizations to develop innovative applications through which you can keep track of your mental health.
Some of these apps are Stigma, IMoodJournal, Self-help for Anxiety Management, Calm, Headspace, Moodnotes to name a few. So use the technology at your disposal to stay on top of your mental health.
Be optimistic
Optimism is a virtue that not only helps to keep track of your mental well-being, but also helps in maintaining your overall health. Now many of you out there may argue that it’s extremely tough to maintain a positive outlook when you are disturbed. Well, it may be difficult, but not impossible. With a little optimism, you can sail through any difficult phase in your life.
Join a support group
Today people have grown to be more conscious about their mental well-being, and hence there is a surge of different support groups. Support groups consist of people that have been affected by any form of mental health issue. These people generally get together to discuss their condition and seek solutions from each other. So you can consider joining a group to track your mental health.
Practice meditation
Meditation allows you to calm your mind and helps you to get a grip on your emotions. Performing relaxation exercises and prayer can bring a calming effect on your mind and provide clarity on different aspects, and also allow you to have a different perspective of life. So that way it becomes easier to track the status of your mental wellness.
Pay attention to how you deal with stressful situations
Stress has become as inevitable as the Sun rising in the east. And as you move ahead in the course of life, you will find no dearth of stressful situations. Now, what’s crucial in this case is to be watchful of how you deal with these situations, and what your immediate reaction to such situations is. This way you can track your mental health and take measures when necessary.
See a therapist (even when you are not particularly disturbed)
Most people tend to go to a therapist only when there’s a problem. But there is no harm in seeking a therapist’s advice when you are trying to keep track of your mental health. So make sure to liaise with the experts so that you can get more ideas on how to track your mental health.
So with these effective ways, you can easily keep track of your mental health and ward off any persistent issues.
Author Bio
Isla Rose completed her Bachelors in Journalism from RMIT University, Australia. Presently, she works as an assignment helper at GotoAssignmentHelp and assists students with their academics. Event management and sound engineering have always been two of her interest areas.