Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH.
As we hit these final days of Spring Break, it’s also the last post of TNTH until after the semester work is done and complete. It does suck, but I feel like once I get everything I need to get done for my classes, I’ll be able to completely focus on the blog as well as coming up with new content to talk about on days like this.
Lately, it’s been really hard for me to relax my thoughts and my mind when there’s a million and one things to be on top of. I currently use a bullet journal (which you can read about here) to help me organize the many things I have on my never-ending list of things to focus on in my mind. Even then it could be difficult to space out time for yourself when you really don’t have it, and I hate to break it to you and to myself even, it’s just going to get a lot more intense when we get older. It’s always good to know that you have to take necessary breaks to ease your mind and relax from completing that mental to-do list.
While it is important to relax your mind, we sometimes think that relaxing your mind means ignoring everything going on in your mind. I am guilty of this. Sometimes, we just have so much to worry about that we tend to drop everything and ignore everything we are feeling in order to “relax” and while it does help, it only does temporarily. As a result, not only are you choosing to ignore your mind, you are also choosing to ignore your mental health. Every time you feel severely anxious or overwhelmed and ignore it just so it could go away, the next time it will happen even worse than the last time. Take it from a person who’s had frequent anxiety attacks within the last couple of weeks.
No one should ignore their mind to the point where you’re ignoring your mental health. Taking breaks to wind down is one thing, but continuously ignoring your feelings and emotions and classifying it as “just some unwanted thoughts”, you’re not doing yourself a favor. The more you try to seclude your feelings and thoughts out of your mind in order to “make your day better”, you’re just making the next episode worse.
Personally, I deal with a lot of anxiety that I know is very silly and dramatic, but I sometimes tend to categorize major anxiety issues with those ridiculous ones. I tell myself that I’m being over the top and I just need to calm down and forget about it. That helps my minor anxiety, but when it comes to the things that need more fixing, I completely shut down and ignore it in hopes that I’ll just feel better afterward. My problem is by doing that is like bottling up emotions; once it explodes, everything comes out. I recently had an episode where everything came exploding out during an anxiety attack and after sleeping on it and resting my mind the proper way, I realize just how much I try to ignore thinking about.
In recap, it’s good to take a breather every now and then. Relax a bit so that you can come back stronger and more clear-minded. With mental health, it’s not so easy and shouldn’t be taken too lightly. Just because you ignored how you were feeling and drowned yourself in some Netflix shows and suddenly feel better, it doesn’t mean that the anxiety or the depression or the whatever you were experiencing is now all of a sudden gone. Accept the fact that you are going through more than just a stressful day. You are going through a time in your life that will eventually go away, and it’s time to be more aware of it.
I am speaking my experience and my awareness into existence. You should too.
-Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 