Evening beautiful people! May is the month for mental health awareness and I wanted to share with you my own experience dealing with mental health, as well as how I am currently coping with it today.
The first recall of having depression was when I was a teenager, but it gradually intensified when I was eighteen years old. I remember skipping college and sleeping in bed the whole day with no lights on, as I had no desire to leave or even be awake to take on the real world(when you’re depressed you are super lethargic). Depression has affected my blogging consistency which frustrated me as I had all these amazing creative ideas to share, but motivating myself was the issue because the passion was there but not the desire. The time I realised how bad my depression became, was from the condition of my room as it’s a reflection of your mental state. There would be piles of laundry, clothes strewed around and everything was chaotic!
People need to realise the difference between laziness and depression, as I have heard a few comments from people saying that it is an excuse for laziness. No, not at all. When you are depressed it is the lack of motivation and inability to feel happy for things you used to love. As an example, you are a painter painting beautiful coloured pictures and suddenly all your colours disappear to white, grey and black. You can continue on painting but at the end it wont have the same impression and give you the feeling you hoped it would. What’s the point of even doing anything which is creative or fun when you don’t feel any joy or meaning towards it. This is completely how I felt over the past years creating content for my blog!
Depression makes you become super self critical of who you are by the way you look and even your self worth. Since the start of this year I have been working on myself as I do not want my depression stopping me from opportunities and living my life.
Below are a few things that have helped improve my depression:
Being Organized
I can not stress enough how organising myself has completely changed my life! I bought a small notebook that I can carry around with me and the day before I write down pointers of what I need to achieve the next day. It can be as simple as doing one batch of laundry, but it makes you feel that you have accomplished something within that day. The trick to it is being specific on what you want to achieve, for example don’t say clean room, break it down into parts for instance clean out and organise top draw in desk. It becomes less overbearing and you are more likely to do it.
Clean Atmosphere
As I noted before that your room or house is a reflection of your mental state. When you throw away unnecessary junk and everything is organised, it is like getting rid of all the baggage in your head and tossing away the negativity. Since selling clothes, shoes and objects that I barely used and were lingering around I feel lighter, its the attachment we have of sentimental value which can be the problem but if it is affecting your mental state is it worth it?
Self – Care
From October I started a journey of learning to love myself through beauty regimes, workouts and reading books to learn new knowledge to better myself. I am guilty of trying to achieve everything at the same time which is doomed for failure at the start. I chose one particular part of my body that I was insecure about and focused on it for a month, so I could really put time and effort into taking care of myself. Once I saw improvements I felt super proud and it motivated me to continue looking after myself. What it taught me was if you don’t love yourself, learn to love yourself step by step as every step counts to you becoming the person you envision to become.
Meditation and Affirmations
In my month of February, the focus was spirituality. I read about the benefits of meditation and how it completely transforms your way of life. Living in a city like London is continuously stressful wherever you go; meditation is the only place of tranquility where I can completely stop and be present. Since then my mood has changed and I don’t get angry over the small things they once did before. After my meditation I do daily affirmations for confidence, abundance and for motivating me to exercise. After twenty-one days my mental state changed and I fell more confident in who I am!
Eating Healthy
Since eating plant-based food and drinking litres of water a day, I have more energy to complete tasks and don’t feel groggy or sleepy. Not only did it change how I felt on the inside but as well as on the outside, because I lost weight from all the junk food and my skin began to glow! It is an amazing feeling so put down the bag of crisps and eat some hummus with carrot sticks!
Do Things You Love
I can not scream from the rooftops about this! Life is too short and if you sacrifice the things you enjoy, you won’t find pleasure in living. We complain there is not enough time, but you can always find it especially if it’s going to help your mental state. Being creative is one of the biggest parts of making me happy and fulfilled, as it is a way of expressing myself.
I hope whoever is reading this now with depression or anxiety that these pointers will help you to take control of your life. I know it is hard to get out of the depression with all the self critique voices whispering in your mind, but things take time and doing the things above have transformed my life! I hope it can do the same for you too!
Tomorrow I am posting a D.I.Y. face mask on Joy Store’s Instagram story tomorrow for mantal health awareness, which will also be linked to my own Instagram account @tahjana_mccoy. Stay positive and let’s #breakthestigma
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