5 THINGS I DID THAT HELPED IMPROVE MY MENTAL HEALTH

Forgiveness – one of the things that I find so difficult to give.

Falling into depression opened my eyes that the greatest pain that I have been carrying with me is caused by my inability to let go and forgive.

Growing up, I was constantly being compared. I was constantly told I was and will never be good enough.

I was made to believe that I will never get anywhere in life.

And I hated them for doing that. I took the pain and their words with me.

I pushed myself every day to the point where I was constantly striving for perfection.

I feared failure and when I do fail, I beat myself up with the same words that they told me.

And that took so much toll on me, in fact, it’s one of the things that dragged me into a dark place.

I realized that the reason why I was doing that was that I never really let go of the pain and I never did learn to forgive.

And that’s the thing, more often we see forgiveness as something that we give to other people without realizing that it’s also something that we need, in order for us to grow and move on.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean that we are minimizing the pain or the wrongness that they have done. It simply means that we are now willing to let go and to not let their words hurt us anymore.

I know that forgiveness is not something that happens overnight, but you can do it a thousand times if you have to.

Do it every day until it finally gets easier.

Don’t let anger and pain consume you, set yourself free.

Take a time out from digital devices

When I was still working a very stressful 9-5 job, my coping mechanism after a long stressful day was to bury myself in digital devices.

Sure, scrolling through Social Media distracts me from the bad day that I had but that’s all it does.

It just distracts me but it never really helps in making me feel better. It was just another channel for me to hide from the pain.

And after falling into depression, burying myself in digital devices was just making it worse.

Don’t get me wrong, using digital devices is not bad but sometimes we all need a break from it to go outside, breathe, and even do something that we love.

Try taking a mini-digital detox, go for a half a day without using them or even just for a couple hours and instead use that time to spend quality time with yourself or with the people that you love.

Go outside, take a short walk. Admire the sky, smell the flowers.

Do something that you love.

Trust me, those couple hours make a huge difference!

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