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Every time I begin therapy with my clients, and I know we\’ve covered all the basics in terms of getting their presenting issue and some basic information; I\’m always very interested in finding out what a typical day in their life looks like.
How they begin and end their days and what they do in the middle. Why? Because our daily habits have a lot to do with how we end up feeling, our energy levels and even how we think (our cognitive abilities).
Now of course I am a very big believer in therapy. But daily routine is how everything gets started. One can spend all day pouring their heart out to a therapist but if they don\’t go back to their daily lives and implement everything they have learned, it serves no purpose.
I had this revelation when my husband and I began our journey to wellness together, we became extremely aware of how many unhealthy habits we had created and clung onto and how they had had such an effect on our mental health in general.
Slowly we began being intentional about what we consumed physically, spiritually and cognitively. We also had to get proactive in replacing our old bad habits with new good daily habits.
Don\’t get me wrong, all these daily habits sound easy in context, but daily discipline and intentionality will be needed to grow mental health.
It Has been long and continuous, but even the smallest changes in our daily habits greatly impact our mental health. There\’s so much I am still to add to the list, some I will have to adjust because life is malleable and consistently changing. But believe me that before unpacking our trauma, emotion processing and resilience; our daily habits are extremely essential because otherwise, all the other work can prove useless if you don\’t make these intentional changes to your lifestyle.
Here are some of my daily habits:
MORNING ROUTINE
What you do and what you ingest early in the morning or whatever time you wake up is really impactful to whatever tone the rest of your day is going to carry.
I\’m a born again Christian and therefore bible study is really important to me. That\’s the first thing I do in the morning, whether reading, worshipping or listening and talking to God. I make it my goal to involve Him before I begin anything else.
Also, I never check any of my messages or social media first thing in the morning. I keep my electronics at a distance and maybe the only app I will have open is my Bible app.
This is because I know what I feed on in the morning will set a tone for my day. So my daily habit is ensuring that my morning is filling my time with intentional habits that feed my soul.
Mind you, all these things don\’t have to take up your whole morning, just learn to be intentional and dedicate the first few minutes of your morning to reset your mind and to make a conscious decision what type of day you have.
As well, I have a warm glass of water just to start up my digestive system because I do know how much our gut health has a big effect on how we feel.
SLEEP HYGIENE
I know we\’ve heard over and over that we need 7 to 8 hours of sleep. Which is great. But How many times do we pay attention to the quality of sleep?
I am of the opinion the quality of sleep takes higher president than the number of hours slept.
To avoid waking up just as exhausted as you were the night before, It is important to develop great sleep hygiene.
What I mean by this is, how do you wind down before you sleep?
I sometimes like to unpack my day through journaling, I also enjoy practising gratitude and plan out my expectations for the following day. I also like my evenings quiet so I have learnt to reduce the amount of TV I watch, my access to social media so as to seat in silence and undistracted by all the noise outside.
I also take this time to catch up with my family. We have recently begun bible study in the evening, something simple and relaxing.
As well I take a shower and some stretches to relieve my body of all the aches and pains of the day.
This again doesn\’t have to take a long period of time.
You can dedicate the last 30 minutes to an hour before you sleep to wind down.
I have also realised they\’re taking the time to do all pre-bed activities away from the bedroom so as to allow us to fall asleep as soon as we hit the pillow. Try this and tell me how it goes. delegate the bedroom to only sleeping.
EXERCISE AND MOVEMENT
The importance of moving my body every single day. It doesn\’t have to be much even a little has a huge effect, just to get the blood flowing to produce these good feeling hormones then have you living in the moment.
LEARNING
At the present time, my family and I are learning some easy introductory phrases in Spanish, it\’s a great bonding exercise but it also helps with our mental health. When we focus our attention on learning and education we increase our neural plasticity( check out my mini-blog neuroplasticity)
Neuroplasticity is our brain\’s malleability. The more you learn, the more your brain is adaptable and open to change and have way more resilience in times of hardship. This is a simple science and I have also seen the impact of focusing at least 15 minutes on learning something new every day. Learning from simple blogs like this is also a great way of adding to your positive daily habits.
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BLOCK, MUTE AND UNFOLLOW
These are not just for social media but in Real Life as well. Take a moment to notice what is working for you, who is feeding your soul, places, and even TV shows and do more of that and give more time to that. For what does not work, act accordingly.
Notice your inner peace, regard and respect it and always adjust accordingly.
HYDRATION
The amount of water you need per day has been subject to discussion over the years. But the basis is to keep hydrating all through the day. It allows our bodies to function in the most optimal way.
Hydration has greatly improved my mental health because sometimes all I just need is a glass of water. I\’m not tired, overwhelmed, I\’m not even truly anxious, I\’m just thirsty.
BOUNDARIES
No, maybe this is not for everybody. Some people were raised with a vocabulary and permission to enforce boundaries without guilt. But if you\’re like me and this was something you had to learn as an adult in order to better serve yourself and serve others better. Learn your boundaries. (check out youtube video here)
The beginning of setting your boundaries will not be easy it will still be extremely uncomfortable because it\’s new but push past the discomfort.
Please create pleasure by knowing that you\’re making yourself a priority again and that you\’re not dependent on other people\’s affection or Praise to survive. You can also check my blog on self-love and boundaries here.
TRYING OUT NEW THINGS OFTEN
This may not count necessarily as a daily habit but take some time off to try and do things that you would originally consider scary this goes hand-in-hand learning new things but try some scary things every once in a while you see how great that will improve your mental health.
One thing I\’ve learnt is that a journey to happiness is exactly that: a journey. you may not be checking off all your daily habits every single day but remember to be gentle with yourself give yourself props for making it this far.
Adopting a daily habit every so often gives you some time to definitely start feeling completely natural.
We have other awesome tips for daily mental health growth on our youtube page.
