After posting Keep Traditions Alive, I asked my IG followers what topics they would like to see going into 2021. I received great suggestions and this was one.. Preserving your Mental Health so here goes, has 2020 been a rough year for you, to say the least? If you struggled this past year, you’re not alone. I wouldn’t consider 2020 a complete fail but this year definitely threw us curve balls we did not see coming and tested our ability to adapt to unprecedented challenges. It’s understandable to feel negative or a little resentful about certain aspects of 2020. But as 2020 comes to a close, it’s best to look to the future and make a plan to preserve your mental health moving forward. Here are two things that can help you preserve your mental health after you’ve had a tough year:
Practice Gratitude
If you’ve had a particularly rough year and you haven’t been keeping up with self-care, it can be difficult to get into a positive mindset. Practicing gratitude is thinking deeply about the things in your life that bring you joy, give you meaning, sustain your life and connect you to a higher-self and then showing appreciation for those things. Gratitude is not about ignoring hardships but rather finding something to be grateful for. So, this year try to find one thing you’re grateful for a day, say it out loud or write it down and notice how this simple act can boost your mental health.
Practice Mindfulness
You might have heard of mindfulness or meditation at some point. Side note–go to YouTube and participate in a guided meditation by Alina Alive. So it’s become pretty popular in the mainstream and for good reason! It works. Mindfulness can be described as “waking up from a life on automatic and being sensitive to novelty in our everyday experiences. With mindful awareness, the flow of energy and information that is our mind enters our conscious attention and we can both appreciate its contents and also comes to regulate its flow in a new way.” Essentially, what this means is that you are becoming aware of your thoughts, surroundings, and senses moment to moment without judgment. Make an effort to take things as they come this year, appreciate the good moments, and let go of things you’re hanging on to that bring you down.
As we move into 2021, make a commitment to yourself that you will integrate small self-care practices into daily life and be kinder to future you!
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