In a world that’s pushing for self-care and full cups and working to end the stigma on mental disorder, are you taking intentional steps to prevent mental burn out or are you still in a habit of waiting until it’s too late and nursing your brokenness back to health?
You don’t have to have a mental disorder, to be mentally disordered.
When I say mental illness, or disorder, I’m not only talking about diagnosed depression or anxiety disorders, I’m talking about any moment of mental disorder. Any time you feel anxious, worried, fearful, burdened, angry, hopeless, overwhelmed, triggered, or like running away: these are all moments of “mental disorder.”
Just because you don’t feel the need for a therapist right now, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be proactive about maintaining your own mental health.
You workout without a personal trainer.
You seek spiritual connection without a pastor in the room.
You’re allowed to seek mental wellness at home too.
I’d been on this mental heath roller coaster for over a decade and I can confirm that when you let your guard down and forget to stay healthy, the illness creeps back in. Too often I’ve waited until I was looking for a way out of this life to address the real issues.
Don’t do what I did. Don’t let things get bad before you make them better.
Take action before you’re facing life or death decisions.
Don’t let your cup run dry, let me show you how to keep it overflowing with peace and joy.
There are 3 basic steps to practicing proactive mental wellness: introspection, stress management, and pursuing your purpose. When you look within and discover who you are, you learn what stressors and triggers are keeping you from living your best life.
When you remove the stressors, you make room for peace and the pursuit of happiness.
Then joy comes when you begin to chase the dreams you were meant to live, when you begin to do exactly what God has created you to do.
1.Find yourself with introspection
Mindfulness is another name for this step. This involves digging deep and looking at our mental, our physical, and our spiritual wellness. This is the practice of mindfulness, and many of the exercises you will learn in the Happy Mom-Brain Workbook are related to the practice.
I am a lifelong believer of putting pen to paper in order to understand what’s going on in my heart and mind.
Journaling is it a great way to reflect and keep track of where you’ve been and when you felt these things. Audio notes are great too, if you’re more of a talker than a writer. Save the memos like an audio diary so you can access them again later.
2. Find your peace with stress management
Peace and positivity are found when we make room for them. By clearing out the stressors, the negative thoughts, and the limiting beliefs that keep you stuck in a cycle of shame and doubt, you make space and free up your energy for what you really want: peace and joy.
You were made to be a joyful human. You became a mom to enjoy having a family. You were meant for this pursuit of peace and happiness.
Learn to combat the negative thoughts, eliminate stressors, learn to accept yourself and care for yourself.
Limiting beliefs are cognitive distortions that keep you stuck, thinking that you can’t move forward or that you’re not worthy of bettering yourself or your situation.
Limiting beliefs can make you see a stressor or a burden, where there isn’t really one.
You are enough. You are worthy. You are meant to bloom.
3. Find your joy and pursue your purpose
We find our joy when our daily lives line up with our biggest dreams. The joy is found when we begin to live the life God has created you to live. Step into your calling, pursue your dreams in the everyday, and that is where your joy is waiting. You will bloom when you find this joy.
We can replace the self-shaming and the negative thinking with something better. It won’t be easy.
It’ll involve hard work and a good night’s sleep.
It’ll involve you putting in the time to take care of yourself.
It’ll involve learning to talk more kindly to yourself and to be content with all you have.
It’ll involve you being exactly who you are embracing that whole heartedly.
The Happy Mom-Brain is here for this. You can find it right here: https://etsy.me/2RSmaJl
