For those who know me, know I am a huge advocate for mental health. Yes, a lot of the content and posts that I do points in the direction of physical health and while that is just as important, it always coincides with mental health. I know many people who make the mistake of only working on their physical health, often neglecting their mental health and the importance of it. I always say that you can work on your physical health and fitness as much as you like, you can go to the gym 7 days a week and do cardio 5 times a week but if you aren’t addressing the demons you have going on in your mind, you’ll still be unhealthy. 

When I talk about mental health, I am talking about the WHOLE spectrum. You don’t necessarily need to be suffering from depression or be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, even things such as every day stress affects your mental health. The longer you leave it, the more detrimental it can become. That’s why from high school, I have always made a conscious effort to ensure that not only am I constantly working to improve my physical health and fitness, but my mental health too. 

Don’t get me wrong, the suggestions following below are not ways to cure mental health illnesses or the stresses you may experience from day to day. Regardless of the things you do, you will have days where you don’t feel so great and all you really want to do is lie in bed, eat ice cream and binge Spinning Out for the third time this year. And that is OK! But what I do wish to encourage you to do is be proactive, conscious and respectful towards yourself. Being sad and then purposefully watching something sad or listening to sad music will ultimately make you more sad. DUH. But don’t do that, don’t allow it to consume you and let you waste valuable time that you could be spending working on yourself. Our Egos are big ugly things that are typically the “Devil on your shoulder”. The Ego is something that is often spoken about in Psychology, I have recently been reading (and loving) Jen Sincero’s book “You are a badass” and she likes to refer to the Ego as the “Big Snooze” or “BS” (conveniently) because that is exactly what it is. She goes on further to state that the Ego is, “The shadow self, the false self or the self that makes us act like a weenie, it is the part of us that is driving the bus when we do things to sabotage our happiness”  It is what stops you from going out and doing things your better self wants to do, the self that has no fear and enjoys learning and experiencing new things regardless of the terrifying outcome. It stops you from GROWTH! You just need to have the self-discipline to push past the Devil’s words, and create the happiness and the life you know you can have.

I may seem like I am rambling but stick with me, it is all valid. All too often I see friends and family members, friends of family members, family members of friends allowing the negatives of their lives to consume them. Heck, even I have done it before. We all do. This is because it is easier to wallow in self pity than it is to go out and make a change. There is something intoxicating about feeling low because you feel like it gives you a sort of “leeway” to not do anything. It is assumed that it’s a valid excuse because you’re sad, you don’t have to make your bed because you’re sad or you don’t have to eat healthy today because you’re too busy and stressed. It gives you a reason to not move forward in a positive direction because it’ll take lots of hard work and practice.

I think us, as humans enjoy finding excuses to not deal with the internal struggles we have going on because it is easier. But if there is one thing I have learned over the past few months is that finding distractions, people to fill the voids and unhealthy habits to waste time is only going to extend your healing process and pain for a lot longer. You are only damaging yourself more.

“Feeling the need to be busy all the time is a trauma response and a fear-based distraction from what you’d be forced to acknowledge and feel if you slowed down”

What I am ultimately trying to get at is that as difficult as it is to face what hides below the triggers, you need to do it in order to allow yourself to heal and to grow. You need to have the discipline, respect and love for yourself to be able to face the ugly head on to work on and create the beautiful for yourself. (You can see this lockdown has given me time to think, lol!)

With that said, use these next 2 weeks as an opportunity for growth. Work on the parts of you that you have been so busy ignoring, do things that you’ve always found excuses to not complete and do it for you. That is what I am doing and I am so much happier for it. Let the pity parties stop here, let the Big Snooze sleep & stay sleeping and let yourself receive the things you deserve to receive. 

Here are 6 things I have recently added to my self-isolation routine to improve my mental health:

Reading self-development books 

You are never going to learn to grow if you don’t open yourself to new ideas, opinions and perspectives. Reading motivational, self-development, self-help books all offer you a new perspective on how to live a healthier, happier and more fulfilled life (if you follow what they say). For the past week I have been reading Jen Sincero’s “You are a Badass” self-development/help book and I love it. It is easy to follow, witty and all round helpful. 10/10 recommend. 

There are plenty of options online on what books to read. Decide where you are at in your life, what you want to work on and then narrow your options down to the books that relate and interest you currently. 

Look after myself more (Do more things for me)

I am definitely one of those people to put other people’s needs and wants ahead of mine, it is one of the traits I value in myself – especially when it comes to people I care about because heck, they deserve it. But often that leaves me forgetting about my needs and my wants, so I have really been practicing looking after myself even in the slightest ways which in turn makes the biggest difference to how I feel. Examples of this would be doing a face mask every Sunday, lying in the sun and reading a book or listening to music and using a facial roller every day, twice a day (Gotta keep that skin looking youthful). The more you do these things, the quicker they will become habits and the sooner you’ll start to feel better. 

Doing at least one active thing a day 

Like I said at the beginning of this post, physical health and mental health coincide with one another. ESPECIALLY during lockdown where all we can pretty much do is sit on your butt and watch tv, it is important to move. Get the heart rate going, blood circulating and body groovin’. (Was hoping that would rhyme, poor attempt). Even if it’s something small. One of the major advantages of Social Media is the convenience, there are plenty of at home workout videos to follow on YouTube and Instagram. If working out isn’t your thing, trying some Yoga or Pilates. I just deeply encourage you to try and move about for even the smallest fraction of your day, I know it makes me feel good and productive and it is bound to do the same for you!

Social Media declutter 

Sounds weird, sounds unnecessary but what you surround yourself with and the things you follow are the things your subconscious “manifests” for you. If you constantly follow negative pages or read sad quotes, chances are you aren’t going to ever really be happy because you’re always relating to the dimmer side of things.  So I did a Social Media “decluttering”. Anything that was no longer serving me any positivity and inspiration I unfollowed, whether that be meme pages or quotes, people I knew or didn’t know – what’s the point? Get rid of it if you feel no sort of value coming from it. If you aren’t too keen on the unfollow bit which I admit, I was to a certain extent, the mute button is a great tool and one I take real advantage of and NOT sorry for it! You gotta be thinking about yourself when you do this, not how they might feel. 

Meditate

This one is still a bit new to me. I still find it a bit strange learning how to empty my thoughts and just be in the now. But I have been doing this very casually every night for 5 minutes before I go to bed and I find it really calms me and my thoughts. Meditation is also really lovely for those who suffer from anxiety and stress. It allows you to not think of the future but to remain present, focus on your breathing, learn to relax and relieve you of any stresses you’ve been holding onto for the day. You don’t need to know how to do it off the bat, if you ask me I don’t really think there is a right or wrong way to do it. You just start off small, a few minutes every day and if you want to, you can expand from there. 

“You spend your entire life in your head, make sure it’s a comfortable place”

If there is one other thing I can ask you to do, is check on your friends during this time, even the ones that seem the strongest. You know how the saying goes, ‘Everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about’. During this lockdown, it is easy to over think and to over feel, knowing that there is someone there for you can go a long way. Let’s try make this world a little softer for those who need it, including ourselves.

Week 4 of my 8 week journey to a better me has come to a close and let me tell you, it has not been sunshine and rainbows all the time but it hasn’t been all that bad either.

Firstly, if you are new around here WELCOME and thank you for stumbling across my blog! 4 Weeks ago I made a decision to undergo an 8 eight week journey to a better me and i’m finally half way through! To catch up on the whole story you can click on my blogpost, “Life Update & 8 Week Journey to a better you”. before you continue reading this post.

To be honest with you, I’m loving the experience because for the first time in my life I have stuck to something and actually gotten more than halfway through it without giving up – that’s already a win in my eyes!

So here is a quick rundown on how these past 4 weeks have been for me; Week 1&2 were amazing. Everything felt so easy and natural, nothing was forced and I had zero temptations or desires for junk food (which is weird for me because usually when my body does a “detox” if you will, all it craves is everything i’m not giving it which was not the case) I thought that I was going to breeze through these 8 weeks with no hassle. I had so much energy, I was so motivated, extremely happy i’m sure I started annoying some people (lol, aint my problem) well, that was until Monday of Week 3.

I woke up feeling the complete opposite of how I was feeling the previous two weeks. I was weak, extremely nauseous and I felt like I hadn’t slept in 12 hours. I thought maybe I was starting to get the flu so I made sure I did everything to kick it before it came flying towards me – drank lots of water, kept warm, ate well, gave my body the nutrients it needed, sweated (a lot) had natural anti-inflammatories and all that jazz but nope, nothing was working!

I carried on with my normal routine, I mean I wasn’t sick I just felt it and I had stuff I needed to do, by Wednesday I was besides myself because I honestly felt more ill than ever and I couldn’t understand what was wrong with me so I decided to give myself and my body a break and see if that would do the trick. I exercised on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and gave myself the rest of the week off. By Saturday I was feeling a little bit better and after doing some analysing of my week and what I ate I realised that I had a lot more carbs and gluten then I did the weeks before, which my body does not react well to (clearly.)

My body was just exhausted, overworked and although I was eating healthily, my body didn’t cope well with those foods (That’s why you should keep a food diary kids) but at least I now know for the future what I should and shouldn’t eat!

“You can’t pour from an empty cup,

Take care of yourself first”

Week 4 came round a lot sooner than I thought it would and I actually felt good again. I was excited to get back into gym and motivated to continue my journey and push myself! For the first 3 weeks I worked out about 3-4 times a week and Week 4 I started working out 4-5 times a week. That extra day made a huge difference to my routine! Although, towards the end of the week from around Thursday/Friday I struggled to eat, mainly because I just didn’t get hungry but when I did eat all I felt like was junk food so it was tough but I managed and conquered through.

I feel as if these past 4 weeks have been a good trial run to see where I am with my fitness and where I can go from here. I’ve understood what foods work with my body positively and which ones not so much.

I honestly believe that understanding your body and what works for you is a crucial step in creating a healthy active lifestyle for yourself.

And with that said I have written up 4 tips that i’ve learned from these past 4 weeks that I wish I knew before but didn’t so now I am hoping to enlighten you if you are wanting to take on this journey (if you haven’t already!)

1. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

The point of this is to create a lifestyle for yourself that you love. We want to live a long and healthy life mentally and physically, the minute you start doing things you don’t enjoy because you think it will get you to where you need to be a little bit quicker you will begin to resent the whole point of this and end up quitting rather than continue it. There is always an alternative way to do something and in a way that you enjoy it so whether that means it takes a little bit longer well at least you are doing it the way you could see yourself doing this for a long amount of time!

2. You’re allowed to give yourself breaks.

I’ve struggled with this many times in the past and to be honest with you, I still do I’ve just learned to understand when I really need a break or not. When I set my mind to something (for example like an eight week journey to a better me) I give it my all even if that meant I pushed myself until breaking point which actually ends up doing more damage than progress – There is nothing wrong with pushing yourself to the best of your abilities and I am on that train all day, every day but when you are tired or your body is too sore to do anything GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK, make it a priority to include rest days into your routine and train yourself into that habit. It’s so important to let your body recover from all the amazing things it does for you everyday, don’t see it in a negative light. If anything you will almost see better results from letting yourself heal rather than pushing yourself too far and injuring yourself.

3. Reinvent your routine, weekly.

I’m actually excited to share this tip with you because I found that it was what helped me when I struggled to get up to go and train or eat well. Constantly doing the same routine, same workout split and eating the same meals week after week can get extremely monotonous and tedious. That’s why I found reinventing my week, every week helped me so much. I make a point every Sunday evening to plan my week, I start with the things that have a set time like au pairing or appointments and then I plan around that – I will include things such as experimenting in the kitchen or working out in my back yard instead of in the gym and change of environment really makes such a big difference to you mentally as well. Have fun with it! If you do it in a way that you love, you will never get bored and lose motivation!

4. Don’t turn a bad day (in the kitchen or gym) into a bad week.

First things first, get rid of the guilt! If you have half a gym session because you lost interest or if you had one too many peanut butter cookies, know and tell yourself that it’s okay. We’re all human, we all get it. But what I don’t want you to do is get so sucked into your own guilt that you don’t make a conscious effort to change and you turn a bad hour of your day into a bad week. You can start fresh with a healthier meal or better workout as soon as you decide to and this does a full circle back to tip number 1, don’t take yourself too seriously! Be mindful of the food you eat, do mind to muscle connection in the gym, drink lots of water and you’ll be a happy human!

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”

I hope these tips and my story so far has helped or inspired you to continue this lifestyle. Always remember that if it were easy, everyone would do it!

Lots of love, Jeanna x