How to Manage Your Mental Health Long-Term
By Genevieve Cunningham
So many times, people think of mental healthcare as a short-term project. They're feeling low or they need help, so they reach out. But once they start feeling better, all kinds of care stops. Why do we do this? Any kind of healthcare is better when it's an ongoing process. For some reason, we don't always take mental healthcare as seriously as we should. If you want to protect your mental health starting now and for the rest of your life, take a look at these tips.
Make a Plan
It's easier to follow a plan. If our plan is to simply "take care of our mental health," that's not good enough. We need an outline. We need specific steps. Maybe we'll do a self-reflection once per week. Maybe we'll meet with a therapist once per month. Maybe we'll journal every single day. It doesn't matter what's in our plan as long as we create one. Find one that works for you, and then stick with it.
Keep Going When You Feel Good
The key to making your plan last is to do it even when you're feeling good. All health -- especially mental health -- comes in waves. It might be really good for a while, and then we might hit a lull. We have to stick with the plan whether we're at the crest or in the valley. If we stick with it no matter what, we'll create the consistency we need to keep ourselves well.
Make It a Lifestyle
Good mental health often comes with a healthy lifestyle. What can you do to improve your lifestyle in general? Could you improve your diet? Your sleeping habits? Could you make more real life friends instead of relying on the online world? If we make efforts to improve our overall lifestyle, we often find everything about our health -- mental health included -- improves in big ways.
If we're going to focus on mental wellness, we should be doing it long-term. We should think about today, and then factor in tomorrow and a year from now and 10 years from now. The more consistent we are with our actions, the longer lasting the results, and the better health we'll have moving into the future.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Winter Springs, Fla.