For those of you who personally know me, might be aware that I like to put other people’s needs before my own. These last few weeks that passed I’ve been keeping track of how I spend my time and my mental health state. Nine out of ten times I’m always attending to another person’s schedule which is good because human interactions are crucial but not If you going to neglect your own needs.
Basic human needs
Need is a strong word, but in simple words, certain things that we need for our survival, for example, food and water, if you don’t eat you will starve. Besides consumables, our bodies also need exercise, so that we can stay healthy. I sometimes skip meals, not because it’s my way of dieting, but I would be too busy attending to another person’s problems, to such an extent that I start neglecting myself.
Do you meet your basic needs ?
Sometimes I get so busy that I don’t get time to attend to basic things like drinking water. Especially as a blogger when the inspiration hits, then I would usually sit up late until I have unpacked all my thoughts because If I write in intervals my thoughts become scattered.
Physical Health
Lately, I’ve tried to make more time to drink water but also to exercise because I’ve realized that if I have a busy day, I tend to skip the basic self-care that my body needs.
Sometimes if work gets busy then there is almost no room to focus on other aspects of life. Every day my to-do list would remain untouched, or I would get home and just jump onto my bed to sleep, busy to such an extent that whenever I speak to my friend, I always tell her how I honestly wish there were more hours in a day.
If a day had 30 hours and we had the ability not to easily become tired, I would certainly want to live in a 30-hour day. Because I can certainly do with more hours, to not just attend to other people, but also for me to attend to myself and my self-development.
Mental Health
Besides my recent continues efforts to exercise. I have realized the most important thing I forget in my day-to-day life is my mental state. As humans we try to eat healthily, we exercise a lot, but we forget to take care of our mental state. I often fall into the trap of putting myself last. Or putting off what I need most, a break. A time to allow my mind to relax and breathe.
When last did you take a walk and think about what you’ve been through over these last few months? Even at this time where we all might have had a moment during the lockdown, where things seemed overwhelming. I often forget to do these checks, sometimes we might think it’s not necessarily until you have a mental breakdown and you realized that you have forgotten the most important aspect of your life, your mental state.
Importance of Mental Health
Why is your mental state important and why is it imperative that we make time to look after our mental state? If your mental state is not okay it might affect your personal development, work, and relationships with other people. Many people don’t often openly express themselves when it comes to mental health. We have this fear that we will be judged or being labeled. However, keeping quiet about it keeps us back from fixing the most critical problem in our lives.
Example
For example the other week I had a busy week, running up and down, and also workload increased. I felt like I was becoming more like a machine, moving up and down. I never sat down and questioned myself am I well? Am I managing? I kept putting it off and off. Later the week while rushing to work, I bumped into the pole at the parking.
Lucky it wasn’t the end of the world. But this is how we often forget the most important aspect to maintain our mental health. I felt overwhelmed but also emotional that week, however, I kept putting on a face and not being honest with myself and those around me.
We as individuals need to be able to have a way of checking our mental health.
Benefits of Metal Health
Here are some of the reasons why one should pay close attention to their mental state.
Better Physical health
Taking care of your body is the best way to reduce stress and allow your mental state to be better. What you eat and how you exercise determines your mental state. Hence my increased effort to exercise. Exercise gives you endorphins, and endorphins make you happy. Makes sure that you get enough rest, healthy meals and exercise reguraly this will decrease your chances of reaching a point where you feel low or depressed.
Work-life
During the pandemic, many people had to become used to the new normal. Some might have got used to the new way of working, from home, other companies might have increase workload. Studies show that more than 200 million workdays are lost each year because of mental health issues. If you have a well-balanced mental health. You’re more likely to work better with your team at work and will maintain a good work environment and relationships.
Healthy relations
How you treat yourself is very important. The context of your thoughts is reflective of the type of people and relationships you attract. If you invest in yourself, for example in the morning I like to listen to motivation videos on youtube or Instagram. You need to make time for your self-development. That is a very hard fact that learned and struggle a lot to apply in my life, but if you gonna put it off, you will feel like how I did, attending to other people’s problems, yet forgetting yourself.
Healthy you
If you can become a better version of yourself. Then when you are around other people it will help you to maintain healthy relationships with other people too. Set limits to what you can and cannot tolerate from a person. Set boundaries when it comes to negative people. Let go of the negative self-talk, pessimistic over-analysis, and self-criticism. You are important, and you deserve peace.
Caring for your mind is just as important as caring for your body. Not only will it be better for your life but you will also be able to live longer.
