Thursday 26 May 2016

A Mental Health Day

26/05/2016. Today, I gave myself a mental health day.


I think most people associate ‘mental health days’ with looking after yourself  allowing yourself to unwind and de-stress. 

But today, I chose to spend the entire day feeling miserable.

And yes  you read that right. Today, I chose to feel sad. And you know what?

It was great.

In my day-to-day life, I try my best to actively shut out negative thoughts. I find that, in general, this helps me to live a more positive and healthy life. 

But sometimes, these thoughts creep their way into my brain and refuse to budge. And sometimes, it's important that I acknowledge those thoughts. Because, if I don't, they're just going to build up and up and up until I feel like I'm going to explode... and that's not healthy.
 



Today, I allowed myself to feel sad. I allowed all of those miserable thoughts to come flooding out, so that they would stop banging on that little door in my brain demanding that I pay attention.

I lay in my bed and I cried. I thought about all of the things that were bothering me. I wrote about them in a diary*. I even let myself briefly wallow in a spot of self-pity.
 *A significantly better option than emotionally-tweeting, I should add.

Today, I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling. I gave validation to my sadness (...which, after all, is an emotion as real as any other). And by doing this, I was able to get it all out... and now, hopefully, I can move on. 

Yes, self-care is incredibly important  but for me, today’s experience was just as valuable as taking a relaxing bath, cuddling with my cat, or watching an uplifting movie on Netflix. 

Striving for happiness is great, and it’s something that I work toward every day. But you know what? Sometimes, allowing yourself to feel sad is important, too.

Love, 

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree with everything you said in this post! However, I get anxious when I am not being productive so I can never have one of these days unless I am very very ill! You are definitely entitled to them. Like you said self care is important but we are not robots at the end of day, we can't always ignore our negative emotions xx

    thriftyvintagefashion.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Ugh I know what you mean, I start to feel so overwhelmed if I'm not doing something productive!! :-( I agree, I loved your recent post on self-care! Hope you're doing well ♥ xx

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