Your Mental Health Feel-Good-List
Build your personal mental wealth list.
What is a mental health feel-good-list?
The risk to suffer from depression in a lifetime is estimated to be around 50%. That means that every second person on our planet will most likely have to deal with depression at least once in their lives. If it’s not you, it will happen to your partner. Your child. Your parent. Your brother or sister. Your best friend.
This week is mental health awareness week in Ireland, a week to raise awareness and to release the stigma that is still attached to mental health problems. I see a lot of people sharing their personal experiences of times when their mental health was impacted. Some share their stories of lifelong struggles. People share openly to encourage others to seek help when needed, to speak up rather than suffer in silence.
I want to add something to this week, something that puts you in the driver seat and gives you a practical tool to care for your own mental health.
As a Positive Psychology Practitioner, I know that the science of Positive Psychology has successfully identified and developed tools that can help you build your mental health. You can compare these tools with the weights you use in the gym or in your home workout. When you use the workout weights regularly, you build stronger muscles, which protect your body from injuries and boost your overall physical health and stamina. Like your gym workout, Positive Psychology tools build your mental wealth muscles in your brain and with that you create immediate happiness and a long-term buffer against the risk of depression, anxiety and burnout to name but a few.
One of these tools is a feel-good-list, a mental health care-kit. This magic list contains all the activities, skills, talents and people that make you happy, give you positive energy and recharge your batteries.
Why is your feel-good-list important?
Your mental health requires care - like your physical body does as well. Especially in times when we are stressed, or dealing with harsh deadlines, balancing too many responsibilities at the same time, our energy reserves are draining and we make ourselves prone to mental injuries - fatigue, burnout, depression.
These times of extra stress and pressure are often the times where we put ourselves last, making sure everyone else is taken care off and then falling into bed exhausted, without even thinking about doing something for ourselves, to recharge our batteries.
In these moments, you need an emergency tool kit! Something that has a few tools in it, you just open it, pick one that you like, a tool that will make it a bit better that day. Maybe you need something energising? Or something more grounding? Or something beautifully distracting?
Something from your feel-good-list!
How do you build your feel-good-list?
The best time to start your feel-good-list is NOW. You seem to have a quiet moment to read this blog post, so grab a pen and paper and jot down 3 things that make you happy. It can be activities, moments of calmness or people.
It’s best to add to your list over time. Observe your energy levels over the next week and notice which activities give you energy, rather than taking energy away. Add these to your list.
Remember these things you used to do that you somehow haven’t found the time for in a while? Add them to your list too!
Try to get a mix of the following onto your list:
energising activities: something that leaves you buzzing and zesty
calming activities: something that leaves you balanced and grounded
solitary activities: things that you can do on your own to recharge
sociable activities: things you to with others that make you happy
flow activities: things you do where you loose track of time and are fully absorbed in
soul activities: these moments for the soul, pure bliss, pure contentment
As this is your personal and unique list, think about what category of activities you want to add?
How to use your list
We are what we repeatedly do.
Aristotle
Drawing from the wisdom of Aristotle - and research findings from Positive Psychology of course - you can build your mental wealth by making space for some of your feel-good-activities every week.
Now, I am not saying you need to do one activity each day - because that might be an unrealistic goal for some. Instead, try to make more time next week than you could make this week. It’s not about doing them all at once - it’s about checking in with yourself and understanding which of your items on your list would give you that extra boost today, tomorrow, this week.
Pick and choose whatever feels right in the present. Remember, these are tools, and every tool has a purpose.
The idea is, if you do a little bit every week, you will create moments of happiness, meaning, engagement and contentment. All of these moments together build your mental health muscles. And when you have a particularly hard week, you now know what to do: get your feel-good-list to the rescue and pick that one item that you need right now.