For Mental Health Awareness Month, QMG Behavioral Health Therapist Melissa Hildebrand, LCPC, NCC, offers some tips to help you focus on your mental health from the following resources.
THE CBT Workbook for Mental Health
By Simon A. Rego, PsyD, and Sarah Fader
Skill: Practice mindful self-compassion and build your self-esteem
Time: 10 minutes
You can practice this skill whenever and wherever you are! Take a short walk or sit down and take some relaxing breaths.
- Notice your thoughts. For example, you catch yourself thinking something like “I hate my life, I have nothing going for me.”
- Notice how these thoughts make you feel in your body.
- Rather than trying to convince yourself that these thoughts are not true, practice being compassionate and try telling yourself “Wow that sounds painful. I’m sorry you’re hurting. You have gone through a lot lately.” The words we use with ourselves MATTERS!
- Notice how you feel in your body after each time you try this approach.
Wise Mind
Worksheet found on www.therapistaid.com
Skill: Balancing emotions and logic
Time: 5-10 minutes
If you are feeling unsettled about a decision or conversation you are planning to have in the near future, try to give yourself a few minutes to think about what you want to say before you act. During that time, do the following:
- Visualize the “emotional mind”, “reasonable mind” and “wise mind” circles in your mind.
- Ask yourself if think either emotional mind or logical mind dominating your thoughts. Do a body scan. If you feel like there may be chance you will act from emotional mind, you run the risk of acting before you think and making and impulsive decision.
- If reasonable mind is dominating, you may not be considering the “big picture” or how your actions could affect other people.
- Ask yourself, “what can I do to make sure my behavior and decisions come from a plan based on emotions, logic and wisdom?”
- Visualizing the circles is an easy “go to skill” to help you achieve balance in thoughts and actions quickly!
For more information on our QMG Behavioral Health team, click here.