30 Little Ways to Work on Your Mental Fitness Every Day

Ways to be kind to yourself and teach yourself that it’s okay to stop and take a breath. My favorite tips were:

8. Turn off your notifications.

If you’re feeling majorly overwhelmed by the relentless news cycle and need a break, try turning off push notifications to conserve your mental energy (ditto for silencing the group chat when you just…can’t). When you’re ready, catch up on the articles, threads, or newsletters you’ve missed, and browse the social feeds of trusted sources. We don’t always have the bandwidth to engage with bad news, and that’s OK.

This totally reminds me of this Lisa Simpson meme:

If you know me personally, you know getting a reply from me is a hit or miss. I can either: open your message, get distracted, and close it; open it and realize I need more energy or less distractions to respond to it; clear the notification and forget you even messages me. I have a majority of my notifications and badge icons off on my phone so I won’t know if you message me unless I go into the app; and I do this on purpose. I hate being so attached to my phone and relying on it to communicate. A part of me wants to go back to when writing letters to one another was a common thing.

14. Keep a “wins” list.

Every time you make a huge or small decision you’re proud of or someone says something nice to you, write it down in your Notes app, on an actual piece of paper, or on a computer doc. After a tough day, pull that list out to remember that you’re kind of amazing. A little self-love and self-appreciation can go a long way

I actually used to do this for a while. I used to have a box where I put little notes of what people have said to me that were kind, or just positive quotes. Whenever I felt down or needed a pick-me-up, I would open the box and draw out notes until I felt better. Time to start doing this again!

21. Actually turn off your phone.

Try shutting your phone off for 30 minutes and see what comes up. Do you feel FOMO or feel kind of…nice? Whatever your reaction, investigate those thoughts and emotions for a better understanding of your relationship with your phone. Maybe you’ll realize you want to take these breaks more often or that silencing notifications periodically works better for you.

I am all for distancing yourself from your phone and social media so I am all for this! The only problem may be that I may not never turn my phone back on again!