How often do you check your mental health, and do you like what you see?
I learned to check my mental health when I grappled with more than I thought I could survive. It was a long, dark, painful road, but it taught me something.
I discovered that overcoming adversity opens your eyes to how precious and fleeting life really is.
You have so many opportunities to experience something beautiful and honest right where you are, but you’ll miss them if you’re too busy to notice.
So, today I offer you a few different ways to keep an eye on your mental health. It’s time to stay on top of problems before they grow deep roots that choke the life out of you.
Let’s begin.
4 Questions To Check Your Mental Health
1. Are You Sleeping?
How well you sleep reflects how healthy your mind and emotions are. If you spend hours tossing and turning every night, chances are that you have way too much going on in your brain and psyche.
How do you calm the storm?
That depends on why you can’t or don’t sleep enough. If you’re simply too busy or have way too much on your plate, now would be a good time to delegate what you can.
I know you got all the skills and wanna do all the things, but how well can you perform if you’re too exhausted to think straight because you’re moving too fast?
Burnout is real, y’all. Pause, breathe, and sleep. It’ll all be there when you wake up anyway.
If you struggle to sleep because you’re dealing with anxiety, depression, grief, or some other emotional disturbance, I see you. It’s a hard, difficult place to be in. I know how exhausting it is. My heart is with you.
Please consider professional therapy or counselling if you’re not seeing anyone yet. It helps to get an objective perspective from someone who’s trained to see your blind spots and help you untangle the knots in your brain.
Therapy takes time and can be truly challenging, but it does help. Talk to someone and let out the pressure. Your heart will thank you for it.
Personally, I started sleeping better when I began digging into the Bible and praying over my mind.
Did things change overnight? No, but they did shift enough to show me that the peace I felt in the Lord’s Presence was stronger and more real than anything I’d ever experienced anywhere else.
For some reason, praying the Psalms out loud have been particularly helpful. No matter how frazzled or worn I feel, praying one or more Psalms aloud always heals my heart in the moment.
I guess the life in the Word of God is changing my brain and soul in real time, amen?
2. Are You Eating?
If you don’t eat enough or you eat too much, something ain’t right.
Feeling too stressed or tired to eat is often a sign that you’re overwhelmed, exhausted, and maybe even on the verge of burnout.
It can be very subtle, but if you can’t bear the thought of food beyond the bare minimum, you might wanna dig a little deeper into why you feel that way.
What if you’re eating too much so you can feel better?
Emotional eating is real, and it’s simply turning to food for comfort when you’re sad, worried, or stressed out. It’s also overindulging to celebrate when you’re happy.
Here’s the problem with emotional eating though: You don’t actually solve whatever’s hurting or stressing you, you just suppress it. And I can tell you that anything you keep suppressing will eventually blow up in your face.
Hear me when I say that it’s ugly, messy, and you don’t need that heat in your life.
So, what do you do?
Pay attention to how and why you eat. If your default reaction to something painful or unpleasant is to grab a plate of cookies, a burger, or a milkshake, maybe it’s time to look at why that is.
What’s really going on? What’re you running from or trying to forget?
Whatever it is, facing it head on is the only way to heal from it, not stuffing it down with food.
And if you feel you just can’t stop or handle it on your own, that’s why we have trained professionals to help us handle thorny issues.
Please let them help you.
3. Are Your Relationships Healthy?
You don’t need a lot of people in your life, but you do need the right people to be healthy.
Do you know who your right people are, and do you have healthy relationships with them?
Your relationships matter because you wither in isolation and suffer when you feel excluded, unseen, and unloved. How well you navigate the relationships in your life reflect how healthy you are in your mind and your emotions.
If you’re too stressed or busy to remember birthdays, anniversaries, and other special events, you’re moving too fast. If you don’t have time to call your mum or reach out to your friends unless you need something, it’s time to slow down for real, fam.
When I decided to write love letters to my family and friends to tell them how I felt about them, it changed me.
It helped me see that we’re all busy and we all have so much going on, but we always appreciate a kind word or a simple thank-you. We just wanna feel seen and heard, you know? And one of the best ways to do that is pausing long enough to see your loved ones for the treasures they truly are.
Interestingly, writing hundreds of love letters helped me have a healthier relationship with myself too.
I mean, you can’t get away from yourself, right? You kinda have to take your own head with you everywhere you go, LOL. I’m always gonna be me, so I might as well learn to be healthy in my own mind, amen?!
Seriously though, it’s easier to maintain healthy relationships when you’re aware of how valuable they are. Moving too fast or getting too caught up in daily stressors robs you of countless opportunities to pause, slow down, and touch base with your family and friends.
Because honestly? All the things stressing you out are always gonna be there. The economy will always rise and fall. Rush hour is gonna remain rush hour. Gnarly people are gonna remain gnarly people unless they get a miracle, LOL.
And life will always be challenging with an ever-changing mix of chores, projects, responsibilities, and all the things unique to your situation.
So, please don’t get so caught up in trying to stay on top of your to-do list that you neglect your relationships.
I don’t know what your schedule looks like or how many hats you have to wear. I can’t tell you what you definitely should or shouldn’t do, because I’m not you and you’re not me. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you, and vice versa.
But I can invite you to take stock of your relationships and check their pulses.
Are your relationships vibrant and healthy, or are they dull and toxic?
You’re the only one who can answer that question for yourself. Your answer reflects the real state of your mental health, which makes it super important.
Are you willing to assess your relationships today and take action to keep them vibrant and healthy?
4. Are You Kind To Yourself?
This was a big one for me. I had to learn to truly be kind to myself in my mind before I could get my self-talk and mental health right.
I mean, it’s hard to have a healthy relationship with yourself if you can’t be kind to yourself, you know?
Because you see, being kind to yourself helps you be kind to others. The Bible says to love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:39), which means you actually gotta love yourself if you wanna love your neighbour. It also means you gotta be kind to yourself before you can be kind to other people.
Personally, I find it’s easier to be kind when I’m coming from a pure place. If I’m being kind to get something, I’m looking for love and attention, and that’s not cool. If I’m being kind to give something, I’m expressing love and attention, and that’s very cool.
But I can’t express love and give someone affection with no strings attached if I’m hungry for love myself, you feel me? And I can’t be genuinely kind unless I separate my self-worth from my relationships and interactions with other people, because I can’t truly give unless my heart’s already full.
Can you relate?
I learned to be kind to myself after many years of journaling and talking my mum’s ear off, LOL.
But really though, putting my thoughts down on paper helped me see the patterns keeping me stuck and get help with breaking them. It took a lot of time, tears, and effort, but it was worth it.
Therapy and Jesus also got my mind right, because Jesus makes everything right, amen?
So, how can you be kind to yourself today?
You already know what I’d suggest, but I’ll lay it out anyway just in case you missed it.
Keep a journal. Write some love letters. Make time to nurture your relationships with your crew. Fill your heart with Jesus so you can give from the overflow of love and kindness He brings.
Be gentle with your mistakes, forgive yourself for your past, and live in today, not in yesterday or 10 years ago. Your possibilities live in today, not in yesterday.
Get your focus right.
Check Your Mental Health Often
I hope these questions help you slow down long enough to check your mental health and get your mind right.
I pray that you experience love, joy, peace, and laughter in beautiful friendships and relationships.
And my genuine desire is for you to be healthy deep in your soul, because honestly? Nothing else matters if you feel trapped in inner turmoil that you can’t break free of.
Your mental health matters more than your stats, accolades, or body of work. Remember that the next time you feel like you don’t have enough time to get enough sleep, food, or time with your family.
Stay safe, y’all. Check your mental health often, not just once in a while.
Stay ahead of crisis and you won’t have to buckle under crisis, you feel me?
Moving forward, how will you commit to caring for your mental health?
Tell me about it in the comments below. 🙂
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