Ashly Brady

When it comes to mental health there are many different ways a person can maintain it. However, what works for you might not work for other people and vice versa. It’s good to try a bunch of different things out to see what will work best for you. With that being said, I thought I’d share a few of the ways I manage mine. I would like to note that even though I do these things I still have bad mental health days, honestly they are impossible to avoid.

Exercise

I enjoy all different types of exercise, any kind of movement makes me feel good. I am naturally a high energy person and when I don’t exert my energy, especially for an extended period of time I find myself falling into a slump. So, I do my best to exercise regularly. My go to form of exercise is weight training. Weight training is great for me because it makes me feel strong, it’s challenging, and burns a lot of my energy. When I’m not in the mood to lift, I like to switch it up by going for a walk in my neighborhood or going to the closest track to do sprint workouts or strength trainning. I also like to do yoga when I don’t want to leave my house. I have been interested in trying pilates or barre because I’ve heard good things and it’s a different style of workout than I’m use to, I’ll report back if I ever get around to trying it.

Reset Sundays

Sundays are my reset days, which help me prepare for the upcoming week. These are essential for me to feel organized, focused, and prepared, I try my best not to miss these because when I do I tend to feel all over the place and I don’t like that feeling. On my reset days I like to start my days with a trip to the coffee shop, then I straighten my room up, wash my bedding, clean my bathroom, and do any laundry that I have at the end of the previous week. While doing all this I like to slap my headphones on and listen to music or a podcast. If I listen to music this part takes me a bit longer because of the singing and dance breaks. The next stop on the list is groceries for the week and then home to clean the fridge out and prepare my lunches and breakfast if needed. After that I run any additional errands like dropping clothes off at goodwill and then get a workout in. Once I’ve done all that I shower and settled in for the night to relax. I like reset days because it’s the perfect combination of productive and chill, which is a great way in my opinion to start your week off strong.

Dancing and Car Concerts

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I LOVE to dance and sing. Am I good at either of those things? No, I’m turrible but I’m still going to live my best life. Both dancing and car concerts are also an essential part of my well being. I legit will break out in song or dance any time at any place but especially in the car by myself or in my room. I love listening to my favorite songs really loud on my way to and from work singing my heart out. I’m sure I get a lot of funny looks considering how into them I get. I find that in the morning it energizes me and gets me ready for the day and on the way home it’s a way for me to release the day of work I had.

Therapy

I wouldn’t say therapy changed my life but it has been very useful. Initially I was hesitant to do therapy because I didn’t have the best experience the first time I went a few year ago but as I mentioned in my birthday post it has been very helpful since I started going again a few months ago for working on my self-worth from within rather than it being determined by others and teaching myself I am enough for myself and others. I noticed my anxiety has gone down quite a bit since I’ve been actively going which is great for my mental health. My anxiety will never go away but it’s much more manageable so I’d call that a win.

Meditating/Journaling

I’ll be honest, I am not very good at being consitent when it comes to meditating or journaling but I do utilize it when I really need to, so I’d still consider it a helpful resource for me. When my anixety is really high I like to work towards calming my mind and meditation is perfect for this. I use the Calm App. The meditation is guided and last about 5-15 minutes long depending on what I pick. It doesn’t get rid of my anxiety but it forces me to be present and grounds me. Journaling has been benefical to because I can brain dump and I’m not holding in my emotions or thoughts. Once I brain dump it’s much easier for me to problem solve or work through those emotions or thoughts.

If you are interested in improving your mental health and doing things that make you feel good, I encourage you to find a few things that can help you achieve that goal and if that feels to overwhelming start with one thing that you think you’d be interested in and then go from there! I would love to hear the way others maintain their mental health so please feel free to share in the comments.