Mental Health Resources
I plan to keep a live list of free and accessible mental health resources — things that have worked for me, helped me cultivate good habits and kept me away from my unhealthy habits (well not always, but lots of the times).
Disclaimer: These resources are not a replacement to a professional help (therapy or medication). Please continue your regular sessions/ medicines as per your doctor’s advice.
Another disclaimer: Using these resources does not mean that you will not return to the poorer mental states. You will not magically be cured of your maladaptive mental states or habits. You will fall into the bad trips. You will loose focus and attention. But don’t get discouraged by that! These resources are useful in learning how to bounce back every time you are in the awful state of mind. Over time, they will train your brain how to avoid going into the downward spiral . Remember that these are called “habits” or “practices” and not “magic potion” to “cure” all your problems.
How to use these resources ?
Idea is not to get overwhelmed with too many pieces of advice at the same time. This blog is not meant to be read as a whole in one go.
Every time you feel tired of scrolling aimlessly through the web, or feeling hopeless, anxious or depressed about your current situation: pick one of the links mentioned here. See if you can immediately follow through at least one of the advice. Most of the tips here are easy and doable: For e.g. drink a glass of water or write down your thoughts. Once you have intentionally done one of these things, you will feel better, regardless of the hurdles you are coping with.
Once you feel better, try to make this a routine, or at least do it for 2 or 3 weeks. For e.g. drink a glass of water first thing in the morning for 3 weeks. If you like this practice, you will dig deeper and be creative in finding other ways to make yourself happy, if not, you will go on to find the next habit.
It’s okay if you missed your routine some of the days, but the key is to remember that you can always fall back to these rituals when you feel like you want to improve yourself (even when you can’t improve the situation you are in!)
I will keep adding more personal comments as and when I find something that is scientifically backed up and personally helpful.
Also let me know what you would like see more in the “Tips for…” section!
Tips for…
0. Being Honest (note to self):
Recognizing a problem is the important zeroth step in the process of self-improvement. Be honest about what needs to be improved. Do not hide behind the veil of self-pity or blame-game but also do not be harsh on yourself. If you have sprained your ankle, you cannot expect yourself to run a marathon.
On the other hand, you would also not get sunk into self-pity. You could blame the event or the people responsible for spraining your ankle, but that would not help so much without a systematic knowledge of how not to sprain an ankle the next time.
But that knowledge comes later.
What you must do with the immediate effect is to seek a treatment. Why feel guilty about treating a mental health issue if you are not feeling guilty about treating a sprained ankle?
Our brain defines ‘us’ only as much as our ankle defines ‘us’.
Knowing this, is liberating. It allows us to observe our thoughts in the same way as we would observe our ankle — from a distance. This is the gist of all forms of meditation. Remembering this once in a while will help us have the compassion for ourselves. It will teach us to take things lightly. It will make us laugh about our mistakes, just as we would laugh about a sprained ankle, because we know it will be treated!
Tips: Keep a phone-less sleep tracker in your bullet journal (see below on how to make one!). You will be surprised how a single tick on a piece of paper will motivate you to keep your phone out of your bed every night!
Tips: Keep some food close to your bed if you are absolutely demotivated to move. Most times when you come out of a depressive trip or an online rabbit hole, you have no energy left to move out of bed.Most likely because you are dehydrated and literally dying of hunger. After making yourself a peanut butter bread/ banana/ cup noodles and a hot cup of green tea/ milk in the bed (buy an electric kettle if you can afford, if not maybe just have a jar of water nearby), you can move out and plan bigger things in life!
NOTE: This is only a backup plan. Eventually we will learn to not get stuck into the bed in the first place!
— Keep track of what nutrients you miss with Chronometer .
Tips: Don’t go crazy with this app. Use it for a week or two, record most things in your meals, and you will get a fair idea of what micro-nutrients you are hugely missing from your diet. You can delete the app after that and consult your physician or make affordable changes to your diet !
Ready to go healthy foods for breakfast or snack: Yogurt, Whole grain/ Oat/ Sesame crackers, fruits, dry fruits, peanuts.
3. Organizing Your Day
Make a schedule in the previous night for the next day. Even if you are damn sure you are not going to follow it the next day, make the schedule: write down about what you would want to do instead of what you will do.
Even if you have no meetings, no job or no friends, make that schedule. Write down what time will you wake up, , what you will eat for breakfast, what time will you take bath, what dress you will wear. Maybe not the timings but the order in which you will do things!
Planning your day ahead frees you from “decision fatigue” and “switching costs” of the tasks. I have found myself scrolling through my phone most of the times when I did not know what to do next.
Just two rules: It should not be a mental note and it should not be in a digital form. It should be in front of your eyes when you wake up. Write it down on a piece of paper. I personally use a tiny whiteboard. That way it is more temporary. It is not set in stone! It allows me to change a few things the next day and make room for new additions when I am done with a few others.
4. Focus
Tips: If you have a job, perhaps you have some important and/or urgent tasks. If you do not have a job, think harder about one task that you would want to do in the next 25–30 mins. It can be as simple as planning out the next meal (grocery, cooking etc) or folding your clothes or doing your dishes. Perhaps you wanted to study something or read a newspaper that you currently cannot do because of lack of focus. Pick one task and do it for the next 25–30 mins until the timer goes off. Even if you achieve nothing, you will learn how much time a task takes if you were focused on just that and nothing else!
Tips: there are millions of videos out there on how to bullet journal. I recommend you to cut down on all the fluff and art and keep only the core concepts in mind when you are starting out. No stylistic details, just a minimal framework to get you started on the journey of organizing your ideas, thoughts, dreams, to-dos and long term plans in one place.
To start with, I recommend reading the original book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39071691-the-bullet-journal-method
If you do not have time, patience and budget for the book, you can start with the YouTube link above but it is much better an experience reading a book and putting the concepts into action at your own pace! Plus, the book explains the philosophy behind this technique! Let me know if you want me to gift you the kindle version :)
6. Take Control
You don’t have to download all the apps mentioned in this list, but at least thinking about the main purpose of those apps will help you find ways to stay away from digital media when it is required.
Another tip: When you are in the study/ work mode, keep your phone out of sight. And notifications off. If you have to check phone during the breaks, move away from your study place, go to your phone and check the phone standing up.
I had decided against any digital apps for I have a low self-resistance power. But I found Fabulous quite reasonable. The free version will be enough to test if it is helping you in anyways!
And finally, a huge shout-out to these amazing people and the work they do!
- Therapy in Nutshell (Skills to cultivate good sleeping and eating routines, quick tips for reducing anxiety, understanding depression)
2. Science of well being. (If you are curious about what science says matter the most in life!)
3. Marie Kondo (Practical tips for finding joy in mundane chores)
4.Ryder Caroll (Tips for organizing your ideas, note-taking, and how to bullet journal)
5. MedCircle (Tips for traversing through social- circles, understanding people, but also understanding clinical disorders)
We don’t care about food only when we are about to crash on the floor with low BP. So why do we care about mental health only when we are absolutely dysfunctional ?
Your safe space is within you, in the actions that you choose to take today!
