Resource What's your "Go-to" list for things which you know are beneficial for your mental health?

[Fresh Soju]

Trying to get my mood a tad better as I don't like suffering this much, so I am slowly "rebooting" my "wellness program."

It's things such as:

1. Daily Meditation
   1. It helps me ground myself a lot and lifts my mood, even if it's just 10 minutes before or after sleep.
2. Weekly creative endeavors such as writing or photography
   1. I thrive when I do something creatively instead of just consuming things. It helps me appreciate things others have created a lot more, too.
3. Daily exercise, be it waking or lifting or cycling or running
   1. Helps me steady my mental and keeps me in shape.
4. Proper diet vs artificial slop
   1. Ideally low carb or even ketogenic as that helps my mental most, but even just a clean diet with whole foods is a major step towards keeping my mental more steady.
5. Not skimping out on my studying, as that makes me feel worse when I just do the bare minimum vs something I am pleased about
   1. I love studying, it's fun and helps me feel fulfilled, but I also feel bad if I just do the bare minimum. It's a struggle with ADHD as some days I really feel no drive whatsoever, but on the days I do feel better I shouldn't do things quickly just so I can do other, easier, fun activities such as gaming quicker.
6. Proper sleep hygiene
   1. Sleeping all around the clock makes it hard to have any stability in any habits and is bad for your psychological and physical health. You can't even go on walks, really, as it's cold or just not as safe or fun in the middle of the night.
      1. Quitting caffeine here helps,too, if you're an addict and drink it at midnight like I am.. (Trying to quit at least but addiction is so strong I might fail less than 24h later, after having thrown out my caffeine..)
7. Nurturing social connections
   1. Loneliness kills me, but social connections can be hard to maintain and also make me feel awful at times.. Complex, but.. Even just seeing the healthcare workers at the blood bank and the woman matching the bandage with my outfit helped me feel a lot better than being coped up alone at home.

Now I am wondering what do you guys find that works for you, when it comes to feeling better? Can be small or big things. ^^

 

[charlavail]

I "know" that walking, sunlight, exercise, eating healthy, journaling, and not isolating are the most helpful. However, it's hard to start that behavior again bc of how depressed I am and the anxiety I feel going outside

 

[NoPoint2Life]

I'm not in recovery, but I came across this post and it feels relevant right now as I'm really struggling with this.

Pretty sure getting off sasu for a while would be beneficial. Certainly can't hurt.

 

[webb&flow]

Poetry and philosophy are some truly great things. Art enriches our lives, deepening our minds, connecting us more to humanity even when we feel distant from other people. Via art, even in our one and only life, we are able to live many lives, enduring and exploring countless minds and realities; such travelling creates the psyche into a whole new garden in itself, diversifying that wilderness within, juxtaposing our curiosity, composing fresh multitude of novelty itself.

Creation of our own poetry and philosophy (can be learned like any other skill can, through practice and love), helps us touch deeply into not just what others think, but what WE feel. And what WE have felt. This allows our life to feel more interconnected, turning our past not merely into an exclusion zone but an anthology to blossom unto the present as well.

Try to go outside for about roughly 20–30 minutes every day. It's not just about stretching your muscles, it connects your soul to the weather. Poets of all ages do not invoke the weather for reason absent, there is such exegesis and wordless insight taken from the analogy of the seasons unto ourselves. By enveloping yourself in that changing air, you will feel a sense of vaguer, deeper understanding, of what the fuck goes on. Outside, and inside.

And on top of that all, remember these three. The Delphic maxims.

1. Know Thyself.
2. Nothing Too Much.
3. Give a pledge, and trouble is at hand.

Remembering these three will aid you imperially in avoiding strain and lossy things, and drawing yourself more unto peace and pristine states and sensations.

Your pain is not pointless but is a part of life that can be understood. By examining our pain, we examine the terrains of ourselves—when we know that terrain, we become able to chart a route towards a life truly good. Know thyself—recognize your pain as valid, and its causes: Even if it cannot be solved instantly, the more iy is understood, the more routes for remediation (even longer ones) will be seen by the eye and feel of thine.

Social interaction, just seeing some people over none, is also a relaxor as well. You don't need to have a megapack of 10 friends you hang out with daily, even just seeing some people here and there, saying hi to people, going to places where people are around, having neat converations with relative strangers, all this is a great fun and joy and is truly a catalyst for our sanity.

As much as some extol to the skies that ideal of independence, we ought seek greater curiosity, harmony, and radical resonance, over any hailed ideal of ideological purity. Give yourself the gift of focus and expanse, without damning either. That, is better than any thing one seeks to invoke prestige over. Whether be it to any other, or any self. Company does not deprive one of pure solitude. And solitude need not deprive one of pure company.

You need not keep many friends, but for a single life, even friends a few go a long way, farther than we may know right now Even the friend who you are with, and part ways with, continues to educate you in afterimage. Whatever that friend would hath left you with, is real rich material that fosters new life, be it in yourself, or your relations and passing pathcrosses to come.

If you cannot find even a single friend, even despite will and trial, know that even though friendship enriches, that many things also enrich. What are some of these? The humanities. The arts, in all forms, philosophy, expression, and experiences across all lines, all of these· are a kind of enrichment. Seek richness in humanity outside of the immediate friend. And continue to look into the curiosity of things always. When you acquaint yourself with acquaintance itself, when you are drawn to become curious of curiosity itself, then the journey into the eyes and words of another becomes a richer one, even if it is still a complex harmony, wrangling to master. When you seek richness outside of the immediate human, you realize what wonder surrounds us not only in space but also in time; you deepen your resolution of the world, and that lens through which you peek yourself. And no doubt in such a journey, so utranscendent it strikingly justifies itself, ways into the eyes and ears and words and looks of others, will open themselves up alongside the rest of the images and motions of that which is.

If you cannot find a single friend to accompany you, make a friend of all beauty in the world; continue to explore and gaze ever deeper ever more striking into the heart of yourself and what beats in all life and expression outside of you: the only person you need to please is yourself.

And so for your own sake venture what you will: I implore you to be curious and accept no conclusive end, ending not on definitive statements, those thought terminating clichés of now and yore, but to mark thy mind with those phrases that open the mind: those apertures of reality, give them to me. Seek them, find them, stand in awe of them: journey, and enjoy.

Dilige, et quod vis fac.
Care, and what you wish, do.

 

[mjolnir]

I wouldn't say I'm in recovery, nor trying to recover, but something I've been doing is reading, mainly existentialist philosophy. Albert Camus is my favorite author; I like the way he confronts the intrinsic meaninglessness of life and the indifference of the universe, and yet proposes living lucidly, as a form of rebellion—affirming life and love without resorting to an ultimate or divine meaning. I also enjoy running, when my body allows.