The past two years of my life have been rough.  I’ve been living in a toxic environment and I’ve spent my time focusing on how to get out and not on my mental health. When I first left home I worked so hard to become the best version of myself and since I’ve been back I’ve lost myself again. I feel like I’ve reverted back to the child I once was. I’ve lost my confidence and for a while I didn’t know who I was anymore. Now that I have the chance to leave again I want to get my confidence back and work on my mental health. There are a few things that helped me improve my mental health that I want to share and hopefully start again in the new year.

Get physical: For me going to the gym relieves so much stress. I’m not really focused on trying to lose weight,  I’m a pretty slim person but doing physical exercise helps me release my energy. I’ve haven’t been working out and I’ve been feeling sluggish and weak and I want to feel strong again. The reason why I haven’t been working out like I used to is that since my diagnosis with Graves Disease I get heart palpitations a lot and it scares me but now I’m on the right medication to start again. Something else that I like to make a habit of is doing yoga. With yoga I won’t have to worry about my heart rate since it’s way more relaxing but you still get a good workout.

Practice self care: Self care is an essential part of improving your mental health. Self care for me is painting my nails. I’ve been painting my nails for years and when I was in my teens I would do designs on my nails myself. I stopped doing my nails for a while until two years ago when I decided to see if I could grow out my nails myself. My love of doing my nails started again so my sister got me a gel manicure set so I won’t have to go to the salon again.  Doing my nails is relaxing for me because I actually take time out of my day and I give myself a manicure like you would get at the salon. I soak my hands, put cuticle oil on, everything. Self care is subjective, so do whatever makes you happy.

Do something random: On my birthday I wanted the day for myself so I decided to get a massage. For years my birthday hasn’t been so great and I finally wanted to do something for myself. It was the first time that I ever got a massage and it was worth it. Since it was my birthday I got a free upgrade to add essential oils. I was nervous about going and I was in my head too much at first. Once I let myself relax I started to enjoy it more. I always knew that I was tense in my upper back, as she pressed her hands down my back  I felt it all crack. What I didn’t expect was my right shoulder to hurt when she massaged there. I also didn’t expect to literally be massaged from my head to my toes. I’m glad that I did this and would definitely do it again.

Talk to someone: This could be a therapist, a friend or both. The reason why I like therapy is that I’m talking to someone that will give me their on biased opinion on something or the truth that I need to hear. The first time that I went to therapy is because a friend told me to because she was worried about me. I continued going until my counselor left and I was afraid of going to a new one because I didn’t want to tell a new person my problems. That was the worst thing that I could do because I eventually went back and broke down crying the first session with the new counselor. I haven’t been in two years and there are some things that I need to get off of my chest. As a person going through therapy you get to led the conversation where you want to and you don’t have to talk about something if you’re not ready yet. I usually like going so I can vent, I usually know what I need to do, it’s just that I need to talk it out.