LEARNING TO BREATHE

It’s another week for the hivelearners topic and seeing this week’s edition, I’m not sure exactly but I want to take it as a message to me personally. We are asked to share how we balance taking care of our physical health and mental health.

In all honesty, I’m not doing a good job in any of them and that’s because particularly my mental health is easily compromised when I’m in a bad place with people. People dictate the condition of my mental health, so once I’m not in a good place with them, I easily neglect things about myself. I’d rather spend time thinking about what could have gone wrong and blame myself for everything. I have noticed this for a while now and right now I’m still thinking of a better way to get rid of whatever they have on me. I remember there was a time I’d even tell myself that it was better that people hurt me than I hurt them. I’d even pray that it happens that way. Why?

I do that because I know how I feel when people offend me so I somehow never wished anyone the same but sadly I hurt people the most too. Because of that, I always tried to avoid making too many friends and just live my life. But I forget that I still have my family and some people that I have to relate with often and I never really got better. I noticed that I didn’t really love myself and that affected my mental and physical health a lot of times. Well, I finally saw my problem and now, I’m on my way to fixing it.

There are just a few ways I have learnt to balance things out. My top priority is my mental health and that is because once that is in good shape, my physical health just follows suit. These days, I try to always listen and even if I can’t, I try to stop assuming. Most times I end up assuming things are this way or should go a particular way and when it doesn’t, I feel affected mentally. So now, I want to start taking people by their words. I won’t try to know anything more than what they want me to know and just focus on building myself mentally. In simple terms, I would try to stop overthinking things.

Another way I’m trying to balance my physical and mental health is by always resting when I feel like. I don’t want to over stress my brain so it can carry out its functions properly. So, resting is a top priority for me in achieving good health both physically and mentally.

Now, I want to start working on improving myself, daily. I haven’t thought about how I plan to do this but that’s what I’m going to set my mind to do. I believe when I’m focusing on improving myself, I’ll be more intentional about taking good care of my health.

I also try to eat very well no matter what. Usually, once I’m not in a good mood it is hard for me to eat but I’m working on that and it has been a bit helpful. I also try to drink enough water and treat myself to things that makes me light at heart. Rather than feeling sad, I try to pray, read or listen to music.

These things and others are what I do and plan to do to balance both my physical and mental health. It might not help immediately but I want to try and be more intentional and consistent too.

Thank you for reading through. ❤️