Changing your Mental Health Takes Daily Work

Mental health is a journey, not a destination. Just like physical health, it requires daily care and attention. In today's fast-paced world, where stress, anxiety, and depression have become all too common, it's crucial to understand that improving your mental health isn't an overnight process. It takes consistent effort, just like tending to a garden to make it flourish. In this blog post, we'll explore why changing your mental health takes daily work and provide valuable insights and tips on how to make that journey smoother.

The Daily Struggle: Mental Health Challenges

Living with mental health challenges like depression, anxiety, or OCD can feel like an uphill battle. These conditions can be incredibly debilitating, making even the simplest tasks seem daunting. It's important to acknowledge that you're not alone in this struggle. Millions of people around the world face similar challenges every day.

It's also crucial to understand that changing your mental health isn't a linear process. There will be ups and downs, good days and bad days. It's all part of the journey. But the key is to keep moving forward, even if it's just one step at a time.

The daily work you put into improving your mental health can make a significant difference in the long run.

The Mind-Emotion-Behavior Loop

One of the fundamental aspects of daily work in improving your mental health is recognizing the intricate relationship between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Understanding this loop is pivotal because it can either work for or against you.

1. Thoughts: Your thoughts are the starting point.

They are the lens through which you perceive the world. When dealing with mental health challenges, these thoughts can often be negative, self-critical, or anxious. For instance, if you suffer from anxiety, your mind might be flooded with thoughts of impending doom or excessive worry about everyday situations. Pro tip: cultivate a ‘helpful lawyer’ to argue against unhelpful thought patterns/beliefs. There is almost always an ‘equally as true and also more helpful’ way to think about something! Ex. “there are more and more forest fires and the news tells me climate change will end humanity, things are hopeless” - the helpful lawyer would say “there does seem to be more forest fires, and there are a lot of politicians and bureaucrats spending their days working hard to figure out ways to address the forest fire issue. The world may be changing, but the world has changed in may ways and humans have figured out ways to solve big difficult problems in the past.”

2. Emotions: These thoughts trigger emotions.

Negative thoughts often lead to negative emotions, such as sadness, fear, or anger. Ex. if you constantly think about your perceived failures, it's natural for feelings of self-doubt and sadness to follow suit.

3. Behaviors: Your emotions drive your behaviors.

Your actions are a response to how you're feeling. If you're feeling anxious, you might avoid social situations. If you're feeling down, you may isolate yourself or engage in unhelpful coping mechanisms, like overeating or substance use. These behaviors in turn, influence your thoughts and emotions - creating either a negative/unhelpful/unhealthy feedback loop, or the opposite - a positive/helpful/healthy one. Hence, the crucial aspect of this loop is that it's self-feeding. But here's the good news: you can break this cycle with daily work, as YOU CONTROL your behaviors, and which thought patterns you participate in and how you participate in them.

Breaking the Loop Through Daily Work

Changing your mental health involves disrupting the negative thought-emotion-behavior loop. Here's how you can do it:

1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness helps you become aware of your thoughts without judgment. When you practice mindfulness, you can observe your negative thoughts as they arise, acknowledge them, and choose not to get entangled in them. This can help you prevent these thoughts from spiraling into overwhelming emotions and unhelpful behaviors.

2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is a therapeutic approach that focuses on identifying and challenging negative thought patterns. A trained therapist like myself can help you recognize these patterns, reframe them, and develop more positive and constructive ways of thinking. Over time, this can lead to healthier emotions and behaviors.

3. Emotional Regulation: Learning to manage your emotions is another vital aspect of daily work. Techniques like deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, or journaling can help you gain control over your emotional responses. By regulating your emotions, you can prevent them from driving negative behaviors.

4. Positive Behavior Reinforcement: Engaging in positive behaviors can also influence your thoughts and emotions. When you take actions that align with your values and goals, it can boost your self-esteem and change your thought patterns. For example, setting and achieving small daily goals can create a positive feedback loop that gradually improves your mental health.

In Conclusion, changing your mental health takes daily work, but understanding the thought-emotion-behavior loop is a significant step in the right direction. By recognizing how your thoughts affect your emotions, which, in turn, influence your behaviors, you can gain more control over your mental well-being. With the right strategies, such as mindfulness, therapy, emotional regulation, and positive behavior reinforcement, you can break free from negative cycles and create a healthier, more fulfilling life.

I will mention that of course, trauma and/or difficult experiences of the past can cause or contribute to mental health issues - and this is also something that a therapist like me can help with! 

In the fast-paced world we live in, it's easy to neglect our mental well-being. But just as we prioritize our physical health through daily exercise and a balanced diet, we must prioritize our mental health through daily self-care and self-compassion. So, take that step today, and start the daily work of changing your mental health for the better.