Tip 334) Who is looking after your Mental Health?

Thanks to the lovely Abby Pickles from HappiMe for her Guest Blog on looking after your mental health. 

When is a good time to consider what you are doing to take care of your mental and emotional health? For many busy business owners, this often comes at the bottom of their list of priorities. 
 
If you are anything like me five years ago, you might have a glass of wine on an evening, occasionally hit the gym (like, once a year!), or maybe you sit outside and read your book once every blue moon. The truth is, we all know we should be doing more to take care of ourselves, but we get stuck, claim to be too busy, lose the motivation or simply forget.

It can be tough knowing what to do, or how to fit it in—so here are my top tips for taking care of yourself right now:

• Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than you would normally get up and start the day with a morning meditation. I recommend using ‘Insight Timer’, a free app with over 15,000 fantastic meditations for every occasion. Or search ‘Short Morning Meditations’ on YouTube instead.
• Ditch (or reduce) the caffeine by going decaf or no-caf. For many of you, this is just too big a sacrifice—but as a former barista, trust me, it is NOT as good for you as you might think it is. Decaf capps, lattes and flat whites are just as tasty! Check out this article, but only if you're open to changing your perspective on caffeine. 
• Get enough sleep. There is a huge amount of research about how not getting enough sleep can negatively impact on our mental health. Check out this article on sleep habits.
• Switch the TV off 30 minutes earlier. Pick up a book, chat to your friends or partner, perhaps even listen to an audiobook or meditate. 
• Get more exercise! Go swimming, join the gym, find a regular class or even enjoy a morning/evening power-walk. For some, this could be way out of your comfort zone—so instead, take some small steps to increase your daily exercise. When I first got back into fitness, I started doing some longer dog walks and made the most of my garden by following high-impact, 10-minute exercise videos on YouTube.
• Practice a self-therapy. A few years ago, I learned about EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). EFT is a simple but extremely effective therapy that takes less than five minutes to learn, but can make a world of difference if you practice it for just 10 minutes a day! It can help with stress, anxiety, grief, pain relief and phobias. Check out this super short ‘how-to’ video to find out more. 

 
Let’s put a stop to the excuses and look after ourselves. In the words of my wise mother, if I was to offer you £10,000 to take care of your mental and emotional health better this month, would you do it? Of course you would!

Keeping your mind healthy...

Abby Pickles
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Abby runs a non-profit called HappiMe, which is aimed at helping children in Bristol with anxiety, confidence and mental health issues. She is a qualified psychotherapist and EFT practitioner and works from her treatment room in South Bristol.