A lot of my focus for the past few weeks has been on habits. I’ve written about habits before on My Brain’s Not Broken, but every time I revisit the topic I learn something new. Building healthy habits is an essential aspect of my mental health toolkit, but it doesn’t stop there. Maintaining healthy habits is just as important as building them; however, that’s easier said than done. Here are five reminders about building mentally healthy habits that can help keep us as healthy as we can be!
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A Reminder About Healthy Foundations
Earlier this week, I wrote about how everything we do serves a purpose when it comes to our health and wellness. I focused on physical exercise and my therapy sessions, but it applies to all areas of life. Each activity can serve a different purpose, and each moment can help us in a different way. Today, I want to elaborate further on that point because something else needs to be shared along with it. In the same way everything serves a purpose, there’s not one thing we need to do that will “solve” our mental health. There’s no magical elixir that will solve all our issues. It may sound obvious but it’s often forgotten, which is why that’s the reminder I want to share in this post.
Continue readingGetting to Know Ourselves Better
Getting to know ourselves is a lifelong journey – full of twists, turns, surprises and disappointments. What doesn’t matter to us one year could be monumentally important the next, and so on and so forth throughout our lives. I used to think that learning new things about myself was more cinematic. Time would slow down, and my moment of clarity would spring forward. But as with many things in life, perception and reality don’t always link up. We don’t always choose to learn new things about ourselves, and dealing with that can be tricky.
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Finding More Ways to Reset and Recharge
Recently, I noticed a lot of my posts this summer have focused on resting and recharging. This got me thinking about how this happened. I know people tend to focus on relaxing in the summer, which makes perfect sense. But all year, I’ve had a fixated interest in the concept of rest. At first, I wanted to unlearn the concept of rest that I’d practiced my entire life in favor of something new. But I learned something else invigorating about resting and recharging, and I’d like to share that today.
Continue readingReceiving Permission to Feel Tired
I was reflecting on my most recent therapy session when I realized that there was a recurring phrase I was using over and over again. No matter what the topic was or how I felt about it, everything came back to me saying “I’m tired.” Listen – at some point or another, we all get tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally, we are tired and need rest to prepare for what’s next. But the way I was saying it – the tone I was using, the way I thought about it – is what caught my attention, and it’s what I’d like to talk about today.
Continue readingWhy Do I Always Need to ‘Keep Going’?
There are many ways to combat mental health challenges, and one of them that I’ve been reflecting on recently is motivation. Using motivational techniques has been very helpful when it comes to my mental health. I’ll watch videos, listen to speeches, or find quotes that give me a boost. I want to find things that will give me the energy I need to get through this moment and on to the next. I was doing this recently when I came upon a phrase I’ve seen hundreds of times on the Internet: “keep going.” And I don’t know why, but this time it rubbed me the wrong way. Even though I understand the good intentions of the phrase, I want to challenge it. What does it really mean?
Continue readingBuilding a Foundation of Memories
Last week, I wrote about the summer and how it’s flying by. This weekend, everything I did reminded me of the classic phrase “time flies when you’re having fun.” While it might feel our lives are moving faster than we can handle, that can also mean we’re doing things we enjoy and are with people we love. And even though those feelings of enjoyment can be fleeting, being intentional about feeling them can actually go a long way toward long-term health and wellness.
Continue readingHow to Deal With Feeling Stagnant
Earlier this week, I wrote about feeling stagnant. Even though it’s pretty common and everyone experiences it at various points, I always find this feeling challenging to deal with. There’s a shock I experience that becomes more familiar every time it happens; it’s as though I’m surprised to be in this position again. Regardless of the circumstances of why I feel this way, there are many ways to deal with these feelings that could be helpful instead of harmful. Here are a few reminders for when you’re feeling stagnant, and what you can do about it!
Continue readingWhy I Can’t Stand Feeling Tired
It happens to all of us often – several times a week, I get stark reminders that I’m only human. Sometimes those are conscious reminders, but many times the reminders are because of my physical limitations. Like many people, one of the biggest reminder of my physical limitations is that I get tired. I push myself physically, mentally, emotionally, etc., and by the end of the day (or few days) I am exhausted. But because of my mental health challenges, I have a lot of negative connotations with feeling tired, and it’s something I’ve come to loathe. Here’s how I figured this out – and how to figure out what’s next.
Continue readingAre We Really Talking About Mental Health?
I am tired. Tired of a lot of things, but today I’m sharing one specific reason I’m tired. I’m tired of seeing mental illness get weaponized. Tired of seeing mental health being brought up in bad faith, in harmful, disingenuous and shameful ways that undo the work people have put in for decades to shrink the stigma surrounding mental health. And because I’m bouncing back between rage and sadness (which is just what it is right now) over this and have been for sometime, I just want to express those feelings today, because they need to get out.
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My Brain's Not Broken 