Most of us know what it feels like to wake up already exhausted, even though you purposely had an early night and you know that you had enough sleep. You snooze your alarm and see that your phone is full of notifications from reminders to emails about your upcoming rent payment, your to-do list that you made yesterday has already doubled, and even the smallest of tasks, such as brushing your teeth, feel overwhelming. You push through your day on autopilot, telling yourself that you can rest later when everything is done, when things calm down, but somehow they never do.
Mental health is one of the most important things in life as it plays a role in every aspect of life, from work to personal time. It shapes how you respond to stress, how you act in relationships and how productive you feel at work or at school. When you neglect your mental well-being, even simple responsibilities can feel unmanageable, and your life can feel like a chore.
Self-care has a reputation of being selfish, focusing on expensive spa days and indulgent treats, however it could be more the opposite. It’s about small, consistent auctions that help to protect your mind, energy and emotional balance. This guide aims to show you practical and realistic steps that you can take every day to strengthen your mental health, so you can transform your mindset and start living a fuller and freer life, starting with understanding where you are right now.
Understanding self-care and mental health
What is self-care?
Self-care is the act of caring for yourself and your well-being through intentional actions that can be as big or small as you would like in the general aim to support physical, emotional and mental well-being. These acts should not be seen as selfish or self-indulgent, but acts that make you feel happy at no cost to others.
Why should mental health be a daily thing?
Mental health is important in all aspects of life, from the moment that you get up to the moment that you fall asleep. It can even affect you whilst you’re sleeping, as stress can affect sleep quality and dreams. Productivity, clear decision making and even your physical health can all be greatly impacted by mental health, causing productivity to plummet, poor decision making and physical health effects such as heart conditions.
Implementing small habits into your day can help to improve your mental health and prevent burnout and emotional exhaustion, and you are making a conscious effort to look out for yourself. Preventing a mental health crisis from happening is far more effective than picking yourself up from a crisis, ensuring that you never get to that point.
Start with self-awareness
Check in with yourself daily
When starting your first steps into looking after your mental health, it’s first important to implement check-ins with yourself daily. This can be asking yourself: how am I feeling today? What do I need right now? You can do this through two methods, whether that be journaling in a notebook, writing down notes on your phones or simply just asking yourself when you’re alone in the morning.
Recognise early signs of stress
Recognising when you are starting to feel unhappy or stressed is also a key part of starting to look after yourself mentally. Feelings of irritability, fatigue, trouble sleeping or loss of motivation are all signs that you may need some self-care. Once you recognise these signs early, you can do something about them before they spiral into something more serious or enter your daily activities.
Build small, sustainable daily habits
Learning to implement habits that are firstly sustainable, but also applicable to you and your personal preferences, is the cornerstone of looking after and improving your mental health. For some, this may look like doing exercise, for others, this may look like putting on their lip gloss every day, to feel ready and confident. Here are a few common ways that you can build daily self-care habits:
Prioritise sleep
Sleep is a big factor in health, especially mental health. Through implementing a consistent sleep schedule, your body and brain learn when to wind down and when to wake up. This rhythm helps to regulate your mood and stabilise energy levels throughout the day. Also, going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day, even on weekends, can significantly improve your rest.
If completely overhauling your sleep schedule feels overwhelming, start small. Create a simple wind-down routine: dim the lights, limit screen time before bed or read a few pages of a book just before bed. It just matters that you’re consistent, rather than creating an exact ritual for every night.
Move your body
You don’t need to work out intensely or join a sports team to implement exercise into your day. In fact, general and regular activity can be just as powerful on your mental health. Activities such as a 20-minute walk, light streching or a short at-home workout can boost serotonin and improve your mood.
The key here is to try to focus on movements that you actually enjoy rather than forcing yourself to do an activity that you don’t find enjoyable. If you dislike running, then dancing and yoga are just as effective and beneficial for your mental health. When movement feels rewarding rather than a chore, you’re more likely to stick with it and reap the benefits.
Create your personal self-care plan
This routine doens’t always have to be kept at military standard when you are first emerging and creating a routine for yourself, as it can be trial and error, but here is a good guide to get you started:
- Start small by choosing 2-3 habits a day to realistically implement
- Schedule them into your day realistically
- Track progress weekly through notes or journaling
- Adjust depending on your day or your availability
- Make sure it’s personal to you and your needs
Final thoughts
Self-care is a daily practice to help you maintain and nurture your mental health, not a luxury. While a good skincare routine isn’t going to magically mend your mental health or fix something that has been like a dark cloud over you, it’s more the removal of it or the lack of self care and further intensifies, adds to and affects your mental health. It’s more of a small way to keep yourself floating above the water and help take yourself out of self-deprecatory behaviour and prevent spiralling to the darker depths of poor mental health.
So start your journey today with one small action, prioritise your mental health and start feeling better.