Mental Self-Care

I was reviewing school information this week when I started thinking about mental health and self-care. I know that I talk a lot about self-care with my clients and on my pages and how important self-care is to our mental health. But as I was going over school information and how I wanted to proceed with my classes, I started thinking, "If learning and thinking and problem-solving are part of self-care, why do we not normally think about that when talking about mental health?"

In my experience, talks about mental health usually revolve around dealing with mental illnesses and coping mechanisms. But what about the mental stimulation aspect of mental health? Learning, solving puzzles, and mentally stimulating ourselves is also an important aspect of mental health that isn't talked about as often. In fact, some people don't even include it when talking about the different aspects of self-care.

Depending on where you look, there are usually 4-8 different aspects of self-care that are recognized. The most common ones are Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, Social, and Mental. Then there are others that may or may not be included like Financial, Environmental, Practical, and Professional. And depending on which page you are looking at the Mental and Emotional categories may be combined into one. In others, the Mental and Professional categories are combined. Not to mention all the other combinations that are possible between the other categories.

When talking about the mental health aspect of self-care, things like regulating your emotions, managing your stress, and going to therapy tend to be the main focus points. I would put those under the "Emotional" category even though most people list them under the "Mental" category. Similarly, things like solving puzzles, reading a book, or learning a new skill, while still under the umbrella of mental health, would probably go under the "Mental" category in my opinion.

No matter how you look at it, all of these activities affect our mental health. They are all important in keeping us healthy as a whole person and are good for us. I guess what I hope that you take away from this is that mental health is not just about your emotions, but your brain function as well. Or maybe mental capacity? I'm not really sure what the correct terminology is but hopefully, you all understand what I am trying to say. Learning and challenging yourself mentally is just as important as managing your stress and making sure that you are in a good place mentally.

This blog post didn't come out quite as neat and clean as I was hoping it would. But I hope that you all understand what I am trying to get across. And hopefully, it gave you some things to think about and some inspiration to take that class you've been thinking of, or learn that new language or skill. After all, learning new things is a part of self-care too!