psychology
5 signs you’re letting your mental health slip
© Galina Zhigalova / Shutterstock
You’re actually fine, but somehow you’re just running on the back burner? Then it’s time to do a mental health check. Because we like to let them slide in stressful times.
The stress at work doesn’t go away. The mountains of laundry are piling up at home. The answering machine flashes reproachfully. And the scheduler has sometimes had less to do. Honestly, we live in challenging times. The fast pace of society has gradually increased – and even the pandemic was only able to pull the plug on it for a short time. No sooner has the everyday top started turning than it picks up more momentum with each appointment weight. And at the end we are dizzy from stress.
We are often responsible for a part of this nonsense, which has really dominated our conversations and lives for long enough and for some even seems to have become a status symbol. Because what we don’t like to ignore with all the to-dos is our physical condition. After all, gyms advertise 24-hour opening hours, steal excuses from us about “too early” and “too late”, and sport and healthy eating are totally in right now – and if others even put them in their social feed, we will because yes, you can in our everyday life. So we work, kick, run, shop and cook in rainbow colors in order to then eat a colorful bowl with half-open eyes, which should at least provide us with fiber. But we actually have enough ballast.
Taking care of your own health has become one of the many everyday to-dos these days. It’s trending. It’s good. Or? Why then do we still feel so completely unhealthy? Because we like to forget the psyche with all the begging of the physique.
Our mental health also needs care. In stressful times, we often let her slide first – because she cooperates for a long time before she starts to complain. But then she becomes resentful and lets us feel the disregard for a long time. That’s why we now resolve to take better care of ourselves – of our bodies and our minds.
5 signs your psyche deserves some TLC
1. You have trouble getting out of bed.
Whether lark or owl: sleep is a wonderful window into our heads. Changes — like trouble falling asleep, waking up frequently, not getting out of bed, or confusing dreams — can tell us something about our mood in general. We just have to listen.
2. You neglect habits.
It’s a mean vicious circle, yes. But when things get stressful, we often first cut out the things that we really need urgently. For example yoga in the morning. the meditation The balanced breakfast. Everything that we cancel because we sleep badly and prefer to lie down. Only doing the things that are necessary and not those that are good is a clear warning sign. Because it is the latter who form our safety net in everyday life, who protect us from too much stress, teach us resilience and, above all, to take care of ourselves.
3. You fight physical symptoms without physical causes with simple means.
You have a headache, but the doctor can’t find a cause. Your back hurts, but you don’t have time for recreational sport – so you resort to medication and small remedies that can be quickly incorporated into everyday life without knocking you out. Physical complaints, for which there is no physical cause, are often a clear shaking of our psyche that wants to draw attention to itself.
4. You find yourself suppressing emotions in order to function.
This doesn’t just apply to pain, by the way. Feelings can also come inappropriately – that sounds unhealthy when writing. Nevertheless, nowadays we often learn to swallow and control our emotions instead of acting them out, simply because they just don’t suit us. The problem with this: they are not gone, but merely pushed from the surface. And that creates much bigger problems for us in the long term. So we shouldn’t get used to suppressing feelings in the first place.
5. You cancel your hobbies and spend your free time on the sofa.
And at the end of the day, when we actually have time for the beautiful things, for everything we’ve put aside, we just feel empty – and fall on the sofa. A therapist once explained to me that an early symptom of burnout is not making the cuts at work but in your free time. caught? Leisure time stress is of course not a solution either, but every now and then we should have an experience far away from home and fill it with hobbies or people who are good for us – and recharge our mental batteries.