Series – Future Self Journaling – 10E – Mental Health Work

I have been completing a small task each morning, in addition to setting my intention for the day.

Intention Today: Stop and witness the beauty around me.

My Five Reasons to Make Healthy Choices Today – Focus Mental Health

  1. Healthy routines provide peace of mind.
  2. Meeting goals creates good feelings.
  3. A calmer environment means a lower blood pressure, also good for fussy kidneys.
  4. Less control creates more opportunities for trust building.
  5. because I deserve a healthy body and mind.

Yeah, I really enjoy the mental and physical effort of list making. My mind is always a little hamster on the wheel, frenetic and juggling all these thought and ideas. I assume it’s the same for everyone else but…? My reasons to make healthy choices generally focus on physical health, but I think, especially coming into the cold weather months, a shift to mental health would be more helpful. Whether the impacts of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the lack of warm sunshiny exercise opportunities or the absence of the joy of gardening, mental health becomes more important to tend to, for me, come cold weather.

I mean, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, a spark of joy in the new cold of fall. Yet I find myself more tired and less willing to expend energy on the holiday. Then Christmas, never my favorite holiday. My intent a few years ago to just do the whole Christmas tree thing alternate years, but we haven’t done a tree since we agreed to ‘every other year’. I’ve lost my spark for it.

I have so many shiny charming ornaments. Sitting in a box. It takes me less than a half hour to decorate the house for Christmas now. Isn’t that sad?

Speaking of mental health, I would like to focus on creating a warm involved, intentional sense of holiday cheer this year.

I just wrote it down.

Grateful for:

-finding a study related to an issue I am dealing with. An unexpected gift. 147 pages, I read everything today that wasn’t the bibliography.

-bought The Sps’s Christmas gifts. It’s still more than 2 months til Christmas, but wanted to beat any supply shortages. Feels good to have that done!

-A new season of Below Deck!

-The Kiddo is adjusting well to high school. Good reports from all the teachers, it’s lovely to see him bloom and shine.

Godspeed ya’ll!

Please share your experiences, sources or research!