Hop Out Your Feeling & Hop in Your Bag
May is mental health awarness month, I decided to share some of my tips (I am no professional) on how I get out of my feelings and into my bag. Basically how I deal with things when I’m mentally exhausted or haven’t been in the best of spaces.
I want to start by saying I started going to therapy in 2019 and it has been such a life changing experience. Growing up in a caribbean household therapy and anything pertaining to mental health is truly swept under the rug because “you have food and shelter, what you depressed for” uuhhh oh okay lol. There are many things that are “toxic” about the culture but this isn’t about that. I just mentioned that to say my mom was concerned when I told her I was going, asking if everything was okay. Firstly, it was free so why not and second, I’m not perfect so like why not go and learn more about myself.
But here’s what you all came for, ways I Hop Out my Feelings and Hop in my Bag
- Therapy
I mentioned earlier that therapy has really changed my life for the better and I stand on that. Working with my therapist I learned how to set boundaries, learned the things that I liked and what made me happy and learned, learning actually, how to give myself grace. There are so many resources available for theraphy.
2. Take a break
Wether that’s a social media break, a sun break through out the day, or just turning your phone off for a few hours breaks are necessary. Whatever you were doing will be there once you’re in a better headspace. My current take a break routine consist of me making lunch everyday at 1, or just leaving my computer at 1PM everyday, even if its for 5 minutes. Since it is sunny outside I do enjoy going out and getting some sun on a daily basis.
3. Exercise
Can’t believe I’m tell yall this but I do see the effects of exercise on my mental health. I like to workout in the working to start my day and it really helps me to plan as well. Exercise helps me to start my day with a clear mind and it also gives me a boost of energy for the day. I’m usually in the gym 3x a week in the morning. I’m an early bird so 5:30AM–6/6:30AM sessions are my favorites.
4. Prayer, Meditation and showing Gratitude
Pray everyday. In good mental space and in bad mental spaces always remember to pray. Even in the bad moments express gratitude. I still struggle with this but I won’t tell yall about something I’m not working on myself. One thing I love doing is reading my devotional everyday. I bought these two devotional books from Ross and they have been great since January.
5. Journaling
I don’t know what it is but writing my thoughts out really help me to better process them. I need to research the science behind this. If you want to give journaling a try I would say start with researching some topics. Some nights I want to write everything and other nights I need some extra motivation.
That’s all I have for yall. If you do any of these let me know. Also please make sure you are going to therapy and actually doing the work. And even if you’re not in therapy learn to be self aware and work improving the different parts of you.
Be patient with yourself and give yourself some grace today and beyond.
