Taking Care of Your Mental Health During TEOTWAWKI

“Are YOU Ready?”

It’s not hard to find people damaged by the stresses life and terrible events can dish out. Soldiers, first responders, survivors of tragedies both large and small. Even normal life can pile it on, crunch time at work, harvest is coming on full steam and the baby is cutting 3 teeth at once, every  night.

It’s important to take what steps you can to help protect your mental health especially during longer downturns. While it may seem that things collapse overnight, the rebuilding and recovering always take  an order of magnitude longer.

Maintain healthy routines - Whether it’s a morning cup of something hot, an evening run or monthly skills group meeting (quilting, shooting, bee keepers, etc.) don’t stop going when you feel at your lowest. If you feel like you don’t have time for such things, that’s a good clue that you absolutely shouldn’t stop. Our minds are like other muscles in that they need time to relax and rest in order to grow stronger.

Go out of your way to fit in physical activity - When I’m onsite at a customer’s location, I’ll bring various things, depending on the transportation to and from. Airplane travel limits me to my rubber bands, swim suit and running outfit. If I’m going in a car I can usually take my yoga mat. 12 hour days in an industrial construction site is hard on the body and I always feel better if I can fit in some blood pumping cardio or deep stretching, mind calming yoga.  The endorphins help counteract the stress and the calorie burning offsets some of the bad food.

Take time to create - Do you strum a bit of guitar? Whittle a bit? Sew some? The act of creating something beautiful, useful or both can be very soothing to a taxed mind and body. Our brains don’t make a lot of distinction between finishing something large and complex and finishing something simple and quick. So don’t make things harder than they need to be.

What are you doing for your mental health? How do you plan to keep at it during times of stress and downturn?

Sound off in the comments!

- Calamity Jane