Taking care your mental health

Its easy to take care of your physical health and just a quick online search regarding it will come up with new diets, exercise regimes and the latest super foods. But when it comes to taking care of your mental health there isn't a lot about it, I mean sure physical health ties into it but mental health goes beyond skin deep. Over the years I have learnt to take care of my mental health as the moment my anxiety starts disrupting my daily life everything becomes that much harder to handle. There is no right or wrong way for taking care of your mental health but here are some ideas of how you can:

• Get enough sleep - if you're pulling all nighters or not in a good sleep routine this will change your train of thoughts and your mood long term. Work out how many hours of sleep you need a night and try to get into a good routine. For me I need around 9 hours and I like to read before bed so I aim to be in bed by 9.30pm and lights off by 10.30, this is what works for me some people may need less sleep to function others may need more everyone is different! If you want to get out of bad sleep habits I recommend using Recharge which is an app that will help calculate how much sleep you will need and help reset your bodies clock. I have found this invaluable in resetting my body clock and I see the difference.
• Treating yourself - Once a week I treat myself to a piece of cake (or something sweet) in a café. I spend an hour or so reading a book and just relaxing this puts me in a better frame of mind and its a time when I focus on myself and ignore the hundreds of things on my to do list. It can be anything just make sure you have an hour or two to yourself weekly and I guarantee you will find yourself more calm and level headed throughout the week.
• Setting goals and meeting them - I get a sense of satisfaction ticking things off a list when I complete them, it reminds me that I am capable to doing things and it keeps me motivated. This is a great way to keep moving forward when times are tough, if lists aren't your thing you can set goals that need to be met weekly or monthly and work towards them.
• Let yourself worry
  
  - I have accepted that I am a worrier by nature and that not worrying does more harm than good. So instead of worrying 24/7 I set aside a few minutes a day to worry and that gets it off my chest and I can continue with the rest of my life like normal. Saying that it can be hard to set aside that time so I use the WorryTime app I put all the things that I am anxious about into the app and set the alarm to go on the app at a set time for 5 minutes and for those 5 minutes I go to town worrying! This makes me feel overwhelmed during the day and I'm not banning myself from worrying just restricting it.
  
  
• Breathe -
  
  When you start to feel overwhelmed breathing can help so much and can help refocus your mind. I first learnt how to do deep breathing exercises to help deal with my anxiety attacks and its been an invaluable skill to have. I have done these exercise before job interviews, during drivers test and whenever I begin to feel really overwhelmed. It can be hard to remember the exercises when the time comes up so thankfully there is an app called Breathe that will teach you how to do the exercises and help you calm down when you need it most.

There so many more ways to take care of your mental health but the above are ones I do most often and have been invaluable for me. Everyone is different and what works for me may not work for you. At the end of the day its important to remember that you should take care of your mental health as much as you take care of your physical health and that you need to be both physically and mentally healthy to be your best.

*I was in no way compensated to review these apps I just love using them and wanted other people to know about them.