This morning I read an interesting article on the BBC News website about simple ways to improve your mental health.  Over the past few years I have struggled with my own mental health and I’ve found that a number of things have helped me on my road to recovery. Activity, exercise, self-care and meditation have all featured at some point.

The hardest thing I’ve found is to form habits that last,  that fit into my daily routine and that I don’t have to think about too much.   Some of the Instagram accounts that I follow can sometimes make me feel guilty that I’m not doing enough, which, in turn, isn’t any good for my own mental health.

So I’ve come up with a new approach.  Each month I’m going to take a particular theme which will help to improve your (and my) mental health.   Every day I will post a new prompt on my Instagram account @keepsmeoutofmischief which, rather than being a challenge to complete each and every one, can be used as a gentle nudge to remind you to spend a couple of minutes looking after you.  The posts each month will be displayed on the same background so you’ll easily spot them in your newsfeed if you choose to follow them.

The themes I’ve chosen are:

January: Activity – I’ve signed up for RED January and, as a member of their Facebook group, I see others worrying whether they’re doing enough activity to warrant being involved.  The prompts this month will encourage you off the sofa and into some gentle activity to help you through this wintery month.

February: Self-Love – During the Valentine’s month it’s important to show yourself some love, so all of the prompts this month will be about looking after yourself.

March: Gratitude – A couple of moments at the end of the day thinking about what you’re grateful for has been shown to improve your mood.  It’s always worth a try!

April: Kindness – We’ll be sharing the love during April, helping others to feel better whilst helping ourselves.

May: Mental Wellness – A month of activities that focus on quick little tips that should help to improve your mental wealth.

June: Journaling – a month of prompts to get you writing or just thinking, if the thought of committing your thoughts to paper is making you sweat.

July: Positivity – A month of prompts that will work on changing your mindset towards a more positive frame of mind.

August: Meditation – 31 days of simple meditative practices that should bring some calm into your life.

September: Productivity – Sometimes it’s really difficult to just get going and do those little tasks that make life so much easier once they’ve been done.  The prompts this month will aim to help life flow more easily.

October: Sleep – With Autumn drawing in, our thoughts turn towards blanket forts and cosy evenings. Unfortunately, sleep doesn’t always follow.  During October they will be 31 prompts to help you change your sleep practises for the better.

November: Happiness – In November we’ll once again be sharing the love, but in a slightly different way to April.

December: Reflection – We’ll be looking back on 2019, but also looking forward to 2020!

Who’s in?