Unconventional Ways To Keep Your Mental Health In Check...and Be Happy

Life happens…work happens…family happens. You just find yourself in a vicious cycle of doing things that need to be done to get to the next thing and how to avoid this in order to save here and there and so it goes. It’s life…some say it’s a trap, some say it’s a journey of self-discovery and exploring warra warra whichever you look at it, it all comes down to us being part of a cycle to accomplish something.

So, I’m currently on a one-week annual leave because I need a break, because I need to recoup, re-look and refocus a bit. Whenever I take leave during the year, it’s normally to check myself or something in my life could be health, finances, or emotional check-in. Haven’t taken time out for a vacation in a while though but that will happen in winter, no worries.

Having spoken to some ex-colleagues of mine, I hear fatigue is making the rounds again and we still on the first quarter of the year. The downside of working from home…some people haven’t found the balance of overworking and knowing when to say no. Yes, we’re past that stage where we overworked ourselves to prove to our employers that we really are working while working from home and we would willingly take on more work. But like now it’s got to a point where the workload is a lot. Coming from a clinical environment, we are having more of pharma people trying to test their vaccines still, gosh!

But anyway, I thought to myself that surely there are unconventional ways to destress and take time out other than the daunting ways of reading a book and exercising. I mean you can’t be spending 9 hours on your laptop and still be expected to listen to a seminar on how to take it easy on the exact tool that is making you anxious and nervous. That’s not working corporate!

So let me be a bright spark and tell you the unconventional ways to destress, you’ll love it I promise.

·    Talk to yourself – not that “oh s**t, what now?” type of talk or “sorry I was thinking out loud”, no. You see those voices you have in your head when you are about to sleep. Whatever you thinking about at that moment, yes, say it out loud. Talk to yourself about it and have an actual conversation about those scenarios you keep playing in your head with yourself. It’s similar to when experts say you must cry and scream when things get too much. Buddy, I’m telling you to have an actual conversation with yourself. It works. I live alone I do it often. Hence you find people asking me “So is it not lonely leaving alone?”. No Bud’ I’m having higher level, out of this world, intellectual yet soothing conversation with thyself.

·     Sing more often – Obviously! Now that you’ve had a very deep inspiring conversation with yourself. Buddy lets sing. Whether it is Adele or Whitney. Sing and sing. It doesn’t matter the genre or what day of the week it is. Sing as often as you can and as loud as you want. Release those feel good hormones – oxytocin, dopamine, yeah those hormones…release those, feel good  and be happy.

·     Pay it forward – Geez! This one right here. I normally pay it forward when I get paid. Because since I got then we all are getting paid. Just kidding. But on the few occasions that I’ve done it, it really does feel good. Some people do this religiously that it becomes a norm and the impact of doing it isn’t there anymore. For example. Every December you clear your closet and give away clothes that don’t fit anymore or whatever the reason may be. You so use to doing the same thing every year and dropping your clothes off at the charity that you don’t feel that warm and fuzzy feeling anymore. Perhaps go to a different charity organization and see how they will appreciate your donation differently and see how you’ll feel and then go back to the "old" charity you use to give you clothes to again, it’ll be different now because you skipped a year and donated to a different organization. Buy a random street vendor or homeless person food and see how you’ll feel and please, no cameras.

·     Make a vision board – See here you don’t have to go all big and fancy. You could even right a list of things you want to accomplish and how you plan on getting there.  Look at it often and I promise you this will give you a sense of belonging and it will keep you routed somehow because during the midst of everything that will be happening when you look at your vision board or paper. It will center you and remind you that you are working towards something that you want, that you love and that will bring a sense of calm and make you smile a bit. Actually, you’ll be excited about what you are yet to accomplish and what you have accomplished.

·     Focus on being grateful – If you a cry baby, when you take on this exercise you might cry ay. Take a moment and think about all the things you are grateful for, you could even right some down. After acknowledging what you are grateful for you realize how much you have and you’ll see that you have more than the bare minimum to be happy and that the extra things that you want so much are just that, extra wants and not needs. You’ll then have a sense of gratitude and a sense of peace to some extent will come out of this exercise because you are grateful and happy for what you have and realize that the other things are bonuses.

Hope this helps. Peace and love and check yourself so that that you stay happy 😉