During your busy life you may not have taken the time to think about the state of your mental health. You hear lots of information about how to love yourself and self-care, but do you hear much about how to measure your well-being? We all have a brain that needs to be taken care of and a physical body that has needs. When those needs are taken care of, we will have better mental health overall. This does not mean that you will be immune to an emotional upset. It means that you will have more resilience and will be able to manage your emotions better.

Some questions you can ask yourself to determine your well-being are:

Have I been able to focus on tasks and conversations?

Do I make good decisions?

Have I been able to fulfill my obligations at work/school?

Have I been sleeping well?

Have I felt good about myself?

Do I have healthy habit of exercise and eating?

Have I been satisfied with my relationships?

Have I been able to cope with my problems?

If you can answer yes to at least 6 of these questions, then you have a good sense of self care and well-being. If you answered no to 6 of these questions, then you can improve your well-being by making some changes. These questions are a guideline for good mental and physical health, but they are not the only measurements. If you answered yes to all these questions but still feel like there is something wrong, please go to your doctor and seek help. 

Since I am a counselor, I believe that counselors can help you to find the answers to better mental health. I also understand that not everyone can participate in counseling so I want to give information to help those who cannot see a counselor in person. 

To make changes to your daily habits you will need to start your day off right with thoughts of gratitude and focus on what you can be thankful for that day. An example of a simple gratitude is being thankful for clean water, or a roof over your head. Try not to focus on what you don’t have, but only what you do have. Sometimes focusing on what we have helps us to have a better sense of satisfaction and joy. 

Mornings are a great time to give your spiritual health some attention. I am writing this from a Christian perspective, so I use a Bible verse or Bible study and prayer to help me with my spiritual health. If I don’t have time to read, then I will use the Bible app and listen to it while doing the morning tasks. Memorizing Bible verses also helps to fill your brain with truth. Even if you don’t fully understand the Bible, you can memorize it. Just like you memorized the Declaration of Independence for history class, you can fill your brain with truth instead of letting it fill with negative anxious thoughts. 

The next step in focusing our thoughts each morning is to think on who I can be a friend to today. Maybe someone comes to your mind quickly and you can think on what you can do to show them that you care about them. Or you cannot think of anyone who you can help, so then pray for someone to show kindness to. Speaking kind words to someone may be the friendly action that you do. You don’t have to perform big actions to show kindness and friendliness. Most people want just a friendly smile or a kind word or a simple act of kindness. You can focus your thoughts on others and that will help you. 

Your physical body also needs some attention. Think on what one thing you can do for your body to have better health. Does that look like eating healthy? Drinking 2 glasses of water? Does that look like taking a walk? Or a 2-mile run? Wherever you are with your eating and exercise habits, you can focus on doing just one thing today that will be healthy for your physical body. If you aren’t sure what is healthy eating, then the step you can take is to research some healthy eating changes that you can make. From experience, I recommend that you make small changes that you can stick with. The diets that are complete changes can be too difficult to continue with. 

The final item to give attention to is your time. Think about your schedule and how many obligations do you have. Is your schedule so packed that you will be running around all day and struggling to make it to your next activity? Or do you have some margin in your schedule? Having some margin is very important for your mental and physical health. Our brains need time to process events and need time for breaks. You are the only one who knows how many events you can handle in a day. Practice self-awareness and how you are feeling, then make changes based on how much you can handle.

Most of all, remember that small steps lead to big changes.