In the final stages of recovery from my mental breakdown, it was about putting tools in place to survive daily life from now on. Understanding my triggers has helped me reduce the mental impact of certain situations. In this respect, self-maintenance is required.
For example, I know lack of sleep impacts me negatively. Therefore, I have rest or a nap if it’s needed, and I have time to do so. Meditation has also allowed me to feel refreshed, without spending too much of my time on this activity. Practice makes perfect!
We need to start treating mental well-being maintenance with the same importance as physical wellbeing maintenance.
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Even when I feel mentally well, I now understand that ongoing self-maintenance is required. A runner doesn’t just go for one run, and then stop. We need to start treating mental well-being maintenance with the same importance as physical well-being maintenance.
It’s essential I build on the foundations of self-maintenance I discuss below.
Positive thinking
Every single day since my mental breakdown, I’ve worked hard to replace negative thoughts with positive ones and try not to let my mind run away with itself. The blog has helped and I feel like I’ve processed a lot of emotions by writing about my experiences.
I also now understand that we manifest and create the world we live in, from our thoughts. Whether these are positive or negative can have an impact on our well-being and our outlook on life.
Planning time for self-care
Regardless of your circumstances, we live in a fast-paced and busy world. It is easy to tell ourselves we are too busy, or tired to fit in self-care and self-maintenance. But it must be done. Constant self-care was one of the main factors in recovering from my mental breakdown. I was forced to be kind to myself. And I’ve continued this far beyond recovery.
Meditation for self-maintenance
You may have already viewed my page on my blog, following my hypnotherapy journey. Because of this transformative course, I am now well-practised at mediating and I get huge benefits from doing this.
Life Coaching
Life coaching is something I tried in the past, but I recently opted for the hypnotherapy course instead. The sessions are made up of assisting you in finding your power and the path you want to take – so essentially it is life coaching with the addition of some other concrete tools you can use for the rest of your life.
Maintaining connections
I have written on the blog before about hiding away from social situations during my anxiety-filled days. Making new connections and being honest with my family and friends about my struggles, allowed me to heal. Following my breakdown, the support network I had was vital.
I now make a point of ditching any relationship which doesn’t serve me (not everyone in life is supposed to get along). And I seek out, value and nurture connections which align with my values. Favouring like-minded people has allowed me to finally attain the career I want and be surrounded by people who want to help others. All of which have a positive impact on my mental well-being.
Affirmations for self-maintenance
If you follow the blog, you will know I have affirmation cards dotted around the house, Particularly around my workspace, to motivate me and encourage me to think positively. Especially if I am having a bad day.
The ones I use are centred around career, empowerment and confidence. But there are so many other decks available, depending on your preference. Maybe you want a journal to record gratitude or affirmations in a different format. Take a look at the various options below:
Waterstones
Absolute Affirmations: 44 Positive Affirmation Cards
Tranquillity Cards: Seaside Serenity: 48 Mindful Affirmation Cards for Daily Meditation (Paperback)
Stress Less: 80 Tips and Affirmation Cards to Help You Find Calm
Final thoughts
I hope you enjoyed reading this post.
Do you use affirmation cards for self-maintenance? Would they work for you?
I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
I also suffered a mental breakdown at the end of 2018; the recovery was long and slow. I’m not in the best mental state right now due to letting many things build up instead of talking about them. I have used affirmation cards in the past and they did help. Now that I have my grandson here 3 days and nights a week, I find it hard to find time for them and keep them out of little hands.
Sorry you went through this. And toddlers do get into everything! I haven’t been feeling great lately with my mental health either. The world is just such a dreary place.
These are all fantastic tips for managing your mental health, especially after a bad period of mental illness. I’ve tried life coaching before and it was brilliant x
Thank you. It sounds brilliant – thanks for confirming this, as I may try it at some point.
Great tools and I would love to use life coaching. These are very important to improve our lives.
Life coaching is great, like having your own cheerleader – but sometimes we need this!
I could not agree with you more! I went through an incredibly challenging time from 2021 to 2022 and it taught me that self-care, self-preservation, breaks, mindfulness and meditation are not all nice to haves, they’re NEED to haves. Unfortunately, we all find out the hard way!
Thanks for sharing these gems.
Definitely must haves! Happy you’ve been able to put these self-care measures in place.