When you are indulged in pursuing your career goals, or fitness goals, or home duties, sometimes you forget who you are! While the sense of accomplishment you get feels good but it's important to focus on your mental health too.
The moment you wake up, you start calculating your day's duties and responsibilities without even being grateful for the same day. It's not that you are a selfish and ungrateful person, but amidst everything going on in your life, how many times have you taken care of yourself?
Do you take time out of your busy schedule to do a head massage? or How many times do you visit the salon for a hair spa?
Giving yourself a mental break is as necessary as meeting your deadlines. People, in general, believe that if they won't do as much hard work as others do, they might lag behind.
But you need to ensure that your competition is not with anyone else, but with yourself. So you need to take timely breaks to recharge and reset yourself.
Here are 8 healthy ways to give yourself a mental break so you won't stress out:
1.Prioritize restful activities- What are restful activities? A downtime or a restful activity is that which provides you comfort and relaxation. Which activity do you like to enjoy the most?
Be it going outside to take a walk, or binging onto your favorite show, or dancing to a piece of good music whatever it is that makes you happy and that provides a break to your brain should be your priority. You should know that prioritizing these activities won't cost you enough money or your job.
2. Sleep More- We have always been listening to this phrase that a good sleep comprises of 7-8 hours and we must sleep for this affixed amount of time. Some finish their work as early as possible and sleep peacefully at night while others find it difficult to sleep.
If you also cannot sleep adequately at night, you can take a small nap in the daytime. If you have something important to finish and you are sitting in front of your laptop since morning, it's okay to set your work aside and take a small nap break to reset yourself. Sometimes you may wonder- "I should complete my work first, then I will do some other thing." While it's good that you are serious about your work, but continuously sitting and doing work will make you fatigued which can impact the quality of your work.
3. Feed yourself with positivity- There are many days when we don't have any actual reason to be sad or worried but still we are stressed. Does this happen to you also? A possible reason behind unknown sadness can be some negative thoughts/phrases/news/quotes/films or anything related to that.
Think and try to examine which source gave you negativity and from then onwards change it into positivity. Always try to read something positive every day. Before going to bed or when you wake up, read a positive quote, and see yourself feeling fresh and relaxed.
4. Set aside all the financial worries- For one day, try to NOT think about your expenses, money that you owe to someone, financial bills, etc. Understand that worrying about your expenses won't going to sort it out or make you poor. So why trouble yourself by thinking about financial issues?
Just keep aside all the financial issues that are bothering you, and relax. When you will be relaxed you can think of better ideas to deal with a challenging situation. Never make it a constant practice of worrying and getting stressed about paying your bills or expenses. The expenses would remain the same only. So, start taking a mental break from such issues that hamper your peace of mind.
5. Stop multitasking- A study conducted at Stanford University stated how multitasking causes us stress and anxiety. We mostly do 3-4 tasks at once in order to finish them as quickly as possible. But we don't realize that when we are bombarded with several tasks at once, we lose our focus, memory, and productivity.
Do one thing at once, if you are writing something, first complete it then edit it. As when you will devote your attention to too many tasks at once, your creativity will be inhibited which will impact your work and thus cause you stress.
Take a mental break from multitasking and do one task at a particular time.
6. Release and burn your emotions- On a daily basis, we carry a lot with us, betrayals, failures, family problems, relationship issues, money, health, career, and what not! Every time when we solve one issue, the other stands in front of us causing our mind to work non-stop. Though already our brain is in the process of creating thoughts. However, when any unwanted situation stands up, we become negative.
To relax and reset our mental power, we need to release those emotions and burn them.
How can we do so? Here is a 3-step-guide for you:
- Sit down comfortably and grab a pen and paper.
- Start writing down whatever is coming into your mind. All those negative thoughts, criticism, someone made you feel low, whatever is coming in your head, jot it down.
- Then stand up, get a matchstick, and burn that paper. Understand that it is normal and watch the paper is burning along with your negative sentiments.
Try it out once and you would feel relaxed, calm, and better by burning that paper.
7. Switch off gadgets- Usually, adults spend most of their time on phones and other tech gadgets. Everywhere you go, you would find people either scrolling their news feed or capturing the best shot. Social media and technology have made our life easier but it has also impacted our health. We tend to compare ourselves with people, might watch disturbing news that affects our entire day, and much more.
You need to be conscious when you are picking gadgets. It's okay if your taking it for guilty pleasures but should also know when are you going to use it and what sort of information you would grasp from it!
8. Take mini-breaks- Doing small acts for your personal well-being is never a bad idea. You should know when to shut off the work and spend time by yourself. Schedule your work timings and break timings. This way your mind will not get tired and you will also increase your productivity level.
You can try out the Pomodoro Technique where you can do your work for 25 minutes and then you can take a break for 5 minutes. This is an easy way of not getting emotionally exhausted.
Final Words
To combat stress and negativity, you need to give yourself a mental break so that you can live a simpler, healthier, and happier life!
Have something else to add to the list?
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