May is mental health awareness month, which seems like a great time for Mindful Health Solutions to remind everyone just how important their mental health really is. When we’re all so busy trying to just keep up with daily demands, the tendency is to stop taking care of our minds. We forget that this is a direct way to stop taking care of our bodies too. We’ll look at why this month is so important and steps people can take to celebrate it.
A Year of Isolation
Every year brings with it its own set of stresses and struggles for people, but the pandemic created restriction after restriction that would make even the most stoic of people weary. People in California saw cases surge and businesses close. They were asked to stay off the beach and out of other people’s homes.
As necessary as these precautions were, it made it easy to forget that your immune system and mental health go hand-in-hand. Staying away from the virus is critical, but so is having relief from constant anxiety and social isolation.
The toll on mental health was enormous from the pandemic and, unfortunately, not something we’re likely to truly grasp for a while. Instead of setting mental health off to the side in favor of zoning out in front of the couch (again), the time has come to ask ourselves how we’re really holding up, and what we can do to lift our spirits.
Are You Ok, What Can I Do?
This is also a good time to think about other people in your life and how they’re holding up. Conversations can be as simple as finding out if there’s anything going on and offering help. There are a few reasons that everyone should be doing this regardless of what they’re going through:
- Focusing on someone else can temporarily relieve stress by getting your mind off your own problems.
- Social distancing and loss of social events
- You can connect with other people so you don’t feel as alone.
- You may actually be able to help the other person, which can actively help you feel better too.
Most people have an excuse for not reaching out to others in their lives, and usually it’s because they know how the conversation will go before they have it. They may fear that offering help will open the floodgates to endless requests or that they’ll just get a stonewall reaction that offers no insight into how the other person is really feeling. This may be true to a certain extent, but it shouldn’t stop anyone from trying periodically. You never know either, as even your loved ones may surprise you.
Do Nice Things for You
This doesn’t mean having a third donut or treating yourself to martinis every night. Most people know that taking care of yourself means getting enough sleep, eating the right foods, and exercising regularly. These three cornerstone concepts won’t solve every problem, but it’s incredible just how far you can get if you make time for them.
This convenient advice ignores outside factors (e.g., chronic insomnia, mandatory overtime, etc., but no one is immune from at least trying to have more of a balance in their lives. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, something is going to give. Instead of letting your mental health fall by the wayside, you need to look at other ways to make simple lifestyle changes that can result in serious benefits. For instance, maybe you cut out all screens at least an hour before bedtime, ask a friend to take the kids for an hour, or commit to meditating for five minutes once a day.
Don’t Give Up Hope
No matter how difficult this year has been or what you’ve been going through lately, there is hope on the other side. Mindful Health Solutions was founded in 2007 to provide people with the help and services they need when they need it most.
The staff specializes in people who are resistant to traditional treatment. Overcoming deep-seated feelings isn’t always as straightforward as forming better habits at home or counting your blessings. Instead of trying the same things again and again, doctors at our company outside the box.
While psychiatry has made huge strides in the past several decades, both in terms of treatments and research, there’s still a lot of work to be done. As new research debuts, the staff at Mindful Health Solutions will evaluate the findings to understand more about the benefits and whether it’s right for our clients.
Dr. Richard Bermudes is the heart of operation here, and promotes ground-breaking solutions that can bring relief and peace to patients, such as esketamine nasal spray and electroconvulsive therapy. Mindful Health Solutions integrates medication and talk therapy as a way to give patients the best chance at mental health.
Our company’s motto is Innovative Psychiatry Services because we want to incorporate advances in the industry, while still honoring the tried-and-true methodologies of the past. We have more than 15 locations throughout the state of California, and we also have telepsychiatry appointments available. For those who want to take a proactive approach to their mental health this year and search for a ‘psychiatrist near me’, there’s never been a better time.
Make an appointment and Contact Us today.
