Tracking your mental health can lead to better awareness and management of your wellbeing. Explore our engaging tips to monitor your mental health effectively and enhance your life.
Did you know that keeping track of your mental health can significantly improve your overall well-being? By being in tune with your emotions, how stress affects you, and the patterns of low moods…you can snag these warning signs early on and then do something about them so life keeps feeling livable. Below are some tips to help you keep better track of your mental health does not need futuristic props.
1. Keep a Mood Journal
Writing things down can be very therapeutic. Consider keeping a mood journal where you record your daily feelings. Include events, stressors, or any positive experiences you’ve had. Over time, you will begin to notice patterns and triggers that affect your mental health. Plus t’s an amazing way to get things off your chest! So, why not give keeping a mood journal a try?
2. Use Mental Health Apps
They are more trending these days and hey, we live in a digital era so why not use the technology at maximum? Many mental health apps available can help track your mood, sleep, and anxiety levels. Moodpath, Daylio, and Sanvello are just a few examples of apps that can use your entries to offer advice.
3. Set Daily Check-Ins
Spend a few minutes each day checking in with yourself. Questions like, “How am I doing today? or “What’s my stress level?” Doing this check can help you keep a level of self-awareness, and remain mindful of what state your mind is in on any given day.
4. Track Your Sleep
Monitor how much and how well you are sleeping. You can use a sleep tracker in order to track your sleep. People who sleep poorly are more likely to suffer stress and anxiety or some other mental health issue. By tracking your sleep can you identify these red alerts at the soonest?
5. Create a Stress Diary
Maintain a journal devoted solely to your anxiety. Write down exactly when you felt anxiety, what caused it, and how you handled the situation. The hope is to help you identify what stresses you out most frequently and develop better-coping mechanisms over time.
6. Keep an Eye Out on Physical Health
Your physical health is closely linked to your mental wellbeing. Keep track of your exercise, diet, and any physical symptoms you experience. Physical issues can often be indicators of mental health problems, and vice versa. Maintaining a balance between the two is key.
7. Reach Out To Someone
Sometimes, all you need someone else to stop and start the healing process. Chatting through things with a friend, family member, or therapist on the way you’re feeling can serve as great introspection. They may observe patterns or changes that you haven’t, and be able to discuss them with you for support and advice.
8. Use a Habit Tracker
Incorporate mental health habits into your daily routine with a habit tracker. Include activities such as meditating, writing a journal, or walking. Keeping a record of these habits helps to ensure that you stay on the right path toward always taking care of your mental health.
9. Reflect and Review
At the end of every week or month, try to reflect on what you have written.
What patterns do you see? At what times, or in which situations does it look like you are not at your best? Looking back at your entries can give you insight on how to further improve your mental health and make the necessary changes in your thoughts.
10. Be Honest with Yourself
Last but definitely not least, be honest about your tracking. We could easily brush off or pass over where we really are. Now, to effectively track your progress you need to be honest with yourself. Appreciate the good days and try to make something beautiful of them, but also – acknowledge that it’s okay not to be okay sometimes.
Managing mental health simply doesn’t have to be an intense experience. By practicing the above tips, you can keep your emotions in check and manage stress which will help maintain a healthy mind. What other tricks have you put to work? What works best for you?