5 Ways to Care for Your Mind Right Now

Photo by Caleb George on Unsplash

Have you ever felt like you’ve got everything in order, you know what you want to do with your life and have an idea of how you’ll get there — and then everything changes? Like the world is testing your dedication and resilience, and as soon as you feel like you’ve made progress, your map is turned upside down and you are once again disoriented? Directionless?

I’ve been feeling this way recently. It’s taxing, and it’s happening to everybody right now. Every person, every business — we’re all scrambling to keep up with the quick changes of the world, and honestly? I could use a break. My guess is you might want one, too.

May is Mental Health Awareness month and every single one of us needs to take care of our minds. No excuses. And if we see others who might need some help taking care of their minds, it is our responsibility to check in on them. Because mental illness is isolating in normal times. Mental illness in a time of so many unknowns can be lethal.

We are all walking through this new world together, and while nobody knows exactly what to do to make it out to the other side, there are some things we can all do to ensure we’re equipped to handle what lies ahead.

Here are some simple ideas for how to take care of your mind right now.

1. Pause

Bestselling author and student of Stoicism Ryan Holiday frequently says if you want to learn about the world today, read about the world in the past. Stay away from the news and instead learn how we have historically overcome obstacles. Today’s pandemic is a good example. Instead of obsessively checking how many cases of COVID-19 your state has, which I used to do constantly, we’d all do well to read up on the 1918 Flu Pandemic. How did we overcome it? What mistakes did we make? What can we do differently today? While not totally realistic, learning about what we’ve done in the past and applying it to today is a more beneficial use of time — and a much-needed relief for the anxiety building up in your head.

Avoiding the news ties into something else I find to be very valuable: taking a social media break. Do you find…