When I’m having a bad mental health day it is HARD for me to want to do things like deep breathing or journaling or reframe my thoughts or use any of the clinical/therapeutic skills that ARE effective. Sometimes they just don’t feel accessible when I’m really in the thick of it. So some of these might seem very simple, AND sometimes you don’t have to do the most on a day when you’re feeling the least.
Five ways I get through bad mental health days. When my mental health is not doing its best, my routine just goes out the window. Give my brain an hour break from feeling bad. Being outside for 10 minutes does help. Just shout, floating rock.
Five ways I get through bad mental health days. Number one, structure. When my mental health is not doing its best, my routine just completely goes out the window. So finding structure is a really, really good way for me to try and bring back some sense of stability. So when we're having bad mental health days, chances are we're having a bad sleep schedule, maybe our eating patterns have been off, and that can really impact a lot of other things in our life. So trying to just focus on bringing structure back into our life, whether that's sticking to a sleep routine, making sure to have three meals at the same time each day, can be incredibly helpful.
Another thing that I like to do is to just do a basic tidy of my home. This is not the time to do like a deep clean, but just simply like folding the laundry or making the bed and the dishes can help feel like there's a little bit more structure in our life. Number two is what I like to call taking a break from the brain pain. So sometimes when I'm in a really bad mental health state, it is very difficult for me to lean into the idea of feeling better. So something I like to do is give my brain, brain an hour break from feeling bad.
And for some reason, giving my brain an hour break from feeling bad and giving myself permission to feel good for one hour is a lot easier than for me trying to imagine to just feeling better all the time. And it gives my brain a break from that gloom, the doom, the anxiety, whatever's going on. And it's a tiny window for me to actually experience some joy without that sort of odd pressure that happens when we're not feeling well to automatically get better. Number three is the take something off your plate method.
So this essentially means take anything off your plate that is not necessary for your survival. So let's say I have a list of things that I need to do or want to do today, but I'm not having a good mental health day. If there are things that do not have to happen today, I take it off my plate. That way I can make sure that I'm doing things that I know I have to do, whether it's work or walk my dog, feed myself. But anything that is not necessary in these 24 hours, I, I take off my plate. And a lot of times that can alleviate some stress around not being able to get motivated or maybe being too anxious to try and do all these things and trusting that it's okay if I don't do them today and give myself permission to just do what I have to number four, go outside.
I know. I literally, I kid you not, when people used to tell me, just get outside, you'll feel better, I was like, that's not going to cure what's happening in my brain right now. And I can tell you that after 20 years of dealing with mental illness, being. Being outside for 10 minutes does help. And the reframe that I've used for this is not that being outside for 10 minutes is going to change my mood or my life completely, and it will change it this much. And sometimes that tiny bit is all we need to make the next tiny step.
So trying to remind myself it's not going to be an alleviation of all my pain, and it's something simple I can do to just be one building block towards feeling better. Number five, just shout, floating rock. Floating rock. Floating rock. So sometimes I just have to, like, get a little bit nihilistic and remind myself that literally I live on a floating rock and nobody knows what they're doing and none of this matters. And not in a way where nothing matters and therefore I give up. But in a way where, you know what?
Nobody knows what's going on. We literally are tiny specks of dust living on a floating rock in the middle of a universe. And at the end of the day, some of the things that I get super, super fixated on or really upset about are this big. So giving myself a chance to zoom out and go, you know what? Wait a minute, I'm a tiny being on a floating rock. So those are my five ways that I get through bad mental health days. And you don't have to do all five. Honestly, sometimes I just do one. And I hope that that was a little bit helpful.
And if you are struggling, please know you are not alone. This has been a very, very difficult mental health month for me that I am finally feeling like I'm getting out of. And these were things that I did to help me. So hopefully they help you.
