Without a healthy mind and heart, it's impossible to do almost anything else: school, work, relationships... etc. But I'm the first to admit that maintaining positive mental health is hard as hell, and we all need a fully stocked toolkit to work on being our best selves. Here's eight creative tools you can add to your own daily routine to work on being a little bit healthier where it counts.
1. Habit tracker
Mental health is more than just what goes on in our heads, our behaviors shape how we think and feel. With a habit tracker, it's easy to hold ourselves accountable for the daily habits we should be keeping up on in order to stay healthy.
2. Mood tracker
This simple and compact chart is a great way to look at your bad days through both the day by day lens as well as the big picture. Mood trackers like this one serve as a reminder that even our worst days only have 24 hours.
3. Mood graph
More of a visual person? With a mood graph, you can see the ebb and flow of your mood as the day (the month, the year, etc.) progresses. Once you identify patterns, it's that much easier to start making changes.
4. Trigger tracker
Everyone has triggers; whether they're triggers for emotions or triggers for behaviors, it's important to identify what exactly they are in order to be proactive and avoid harmful thought patterns/actions.
5. Alternatives/distractions list
Lists of alternatives/distractions were a key part of my recovery in the early days to avoid engaging in self-destructive behaviors. Even if you're not dealing with behaviors like self-harm, an eating disorder, or substance abuse, there are times when you need to do something – anything – other than thinking or feeling what's going through your mind and heart.
6. Therapy debriefer
Therapy is a vital part of maintaining a positive mental health, and I'm personally of the belief that everyone should go to therapy at some point in their lives. However, a lot of what happens in that room with the couches isn't enough. Doing simple reflective tasks like a therapy debrief following a session can really make what you learned in that room stick.
7. Gratitude log
Let's face it: life is really hard, and usually not fair. But there's also a lot of beauty. Taking a minute or two out of every day to express gratitude for the simplest things can help remind us that it's not all bad, and the pain certainly won't last forever.
8. Sleep log
What's a day of positive mental health without a good night's sleep to seal it? We don't always realize the effect that sleep has on our sanity and stability. Using a sleep log like this one can help us see the patterns we're falling into and strive to make those highlighted sections in the middle a little bit longer.
Mental health isn't always a walk in the park – in fact, more often than not, it's a lot of work and a lot of struggle. But the payoff of getting to a healthy and stable state of mind is invaluable. With these eight simple and fun ways of keeping track of your mental health on a daily basis, you'll be one step closer to a healthy mind and a healthy body.
