Give Your Mental Health a Fighting Chance with These Secret TIPS, TRICKS, & STRATEGIES!

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

This is the kind of place where your glass will never be anything other than half full because we choose to focus on the positive side of life.

Now, this doesn't mean that we shy away from the real talk.

No, not a chance.

Matter of fact, we explore all aspects of life.

From the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But all of that is done with one purpose.

One purpose.

To inspire you to never give up on life, even when it may seem like life has given up on you.

Now I get it, life is hard.

But starting today, you've got grit, grace, and inspiration.

What's happening?

And welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I am your host, Kevin Lowe, joining you today for what is episode number 154.

Hopefully you're having an amazing day.

And if not, well, that's why you come to this very podcast.

In our last episode, episode 153, I was joined by Benoit Kim.

And we talked a lot about mental health.

And so today, in this companion episode, I want to extend on that conversation by giving you some tactical pieces of advice to help you with improving your mental health.

A lot of times we get focused on our physical health, the way we look, our physical appearance.

That's why we are told to exercise and eat good and do those crunches and lift those dumbbells.

We got to tone those muscles and trim that fat and have us look at all kinds of good.

Well, what doesn't get talked about nearly enough is exercising our mental health, making our mental health strong, chiseled, ready to take on life.

Well, that's what I want to do inside of today's episode is to give you some strategies, some thoughts, some ideas for you to start putting in place to start improving your mental health.

Because if your mental health is out of whack, your physical health is going to be out of whack.

And you're going to find that life in general is out of whack.

So I want to help you out as much as I can.

Now, before we dive into the topic that we're speaking of today, if you didn't listen to that episode 153 with Ben Wachim, I would highly encourage you to go back and listen to that episode.

Truly insightful conversation with a guy who's a real deep thinker, who has an amazing amount of wisdom.

And oh man, it's just gonna have you thinking about life in a little bit deeper way than you probably do on a normal basis.

With that said, though, this is episode 154.

My top tips for helping you to improve your mental health.

I'm talking about taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

I highly recommend you setting aside time out of your day for activities that you enjoy.

I'm specifically talking to those kinds of activities that help you chill out, help you relax, help you kind of de-stress from the day.

I'm talking about things like reading a book, taking a walk, or maybe doing a little bit of yoga.

Anything that's gonna help you to clear your mind while at the same time focusing on you.

Next on my list is kind of opposite of what we just talked about, where I want you to not only focus on you, but I want you to also focus on making connections with others.

Building and maintaining strong relationships with friends and family members is gonna do amazing things for your mental health.

We're not meant to do life alone.

We're meant to do life with people.

You can call them your friends, your crew, your club, your gang, whatever you want to call them.

But I encourage you to find those people and be sure that you're doing life with them.

And by doing so, you're going to improve your mental health.

Here's another one for you.

You got to get enough sleep.

Yeah, if you're not getting enough sleep at night, it's no wonder that you're stressed out, worn out, and all kinds of confused about life.

It's because you're not getting enough sleep.

Adequate sleep is essential for your mental health.

They say you should be getting somewhere around seven to nine hours of sleep.

Depends what study you are listening to and what year it is, because it always seems to change a little bit.

I feel it's kind of specific to each individual person, but get to understand when do you feel your best in the morning?

Was it after a good seven hours, eight hours, ten hours?

Whatever it is for you, focus on being sure that you're getting that amount of sleep every night.

It goes without saying that eating a healthy diet is essential to both our physical and mental health.

What we eat is what we put into our bodies, what fuel we are feeding ourselves.

If we're not giving ourselves the best fuel possible, well, then how can we expect it to produce the best outcome possible?

So, yeah, I'm talking about eating the rainbow.

Get plenty of good fruits and vegetables, meats and poultry and dairy, whatever it is, be sure it's real food, not the stuff from the boxes or the cans, but real food, whole food.

The more of that you can eat, the more colors you can have on your plate, the better.

And ultimately, it's gonna have you feeling better because you will have fed your body what it needs.

And with eating better is well, exercising more often.

I know, I know.

It's nothing that most of us care to hear about.

Exercising more.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Go on, Kevin.

You're probably already hit the skip button or just went ahead and closed out this episode.

But trust me, it does have its place in our lives.

Because just like the need to feed ourselves good stuff, we also need to get our bodies up and move it.

By participating in some regular physical exercise, you're gonna find that your mood is going to improve and both your physical and mental health are gonna get a boost.

Now, it doesn't have to be anything crazy.

You don't have to go out and get a membership to the gym.

No, I'm talking about going for a brisk walk, going for a jog, maybe hitting up a Zumba class.

I don't even know.

Is Zumba still a thing?

Whatever it is, get a little bit of some moderate to high energy activity for about 30 minutes a day.

Do that as much as you possibly can.

Maybe it's not every day, maybe it's three days a week.

Well, that's better than none.

So give it a try.

And maybe I'll see you in the Zumba class.

My sixth tip for you on helping to manage your mental health is understanding that stress is unfortunately a normal part of life.

But that's why I'm encouraging you to come up with ways for you to manage that stress.

See what it is that works for you the best.

Maybe it's something like meditation or deep breathing exercises, something that's gonna have you calming down, relaxing, taking your mind off of the stresses and really focusing on you, being sure that your breathing is in check, doing that breath work, being sure that you're just helping your body to relax.

By relaxing, you're gonna find that that stress is able to go away.

And if anything else, realize that maybe you just need to talk to somebody, whether that's to a friend or a family member, or to a mental health professional.

Talking can help a ton.

You don't have to keep it all bottled up inside of you.

Sometimes we just need to let it out.

And by letting it out, it's like, ooh, wow, don't I feel better?

So give that a try next time you find yourself stressed out.

My last tip is me encouraging you to seek help when you need it.

If you're struggling with your mental health, don't be afraid or ashamed to reach out for help.

There's nothing wrong with you.

There's nothing wrong with going to a counselor or a therapist.

That's what they're there for.

Struggles with mental health, they don't get talked about enough.

And even here is the year 2023, and yet so many people still find it hard to let it be known that they're struggling, that they need help.

And I think that is such a shame because haven't we come far enough in society to understand that mental health is a thing, and that life isn't always easy for everybody, and that some of us struggle, not just physically, but mentally.

And luckily enough, there's people who understand that and they have a passion for helping people.

That's why they went to school, that's why they became a therapist, a counselor.

So I would encourage you to seek out a mental health professional and get some help if you feel like you could use it.

And there's nothing wrong by you doing so.

And maybe even you don't need to reach out to a therapist or counselor.

Maybe it's just joining a support group.

Social media can get a bad rap.

But one thing pretty awesome about Facebook is all of the Facebook groups that you can join.

I know for myself, I'm a member of several Facebook groups for people who are blind or visually impaired.

It's a group of people who understand what each of us are going through.

I'm part of another group on Facebook for people who have the same type of endocrine issues that I have, since I have no pituitary gland that was caused by the brain tumor that caused me to go blind.

I have a group there.

No one else in my world understands what I'm going through, but in that group, they do.

And so by finding a support group, you're not only able to be heard, but you're able to be understood.

So maybe even consider that as an option for you.

At the end of the day, the only person who can take care of you is you.

So make today be the day that you matter.

So take some of the tips that I've given you, take some tips that you discover on your own and dive deep into them.

And put you in first place.

I want you to be the focus.

And by doing so, by improving your mental health, you'll in turn improve your physical health.

And well, at that point, the sky truly is the only limit.

Until next time, this is Kevin Lowe with Grit Grace and Inspiration.

If I could ever be of service to you, please reach out to me.

You can find my contact information inside of today's show notes, or just hit me up over on Instagram at gritgraceinspiration, or you can find all of my contact information at my website, which is also just gritgraceinspiration.com.

Until next time, I hope you have an absolutely beautiful day.

And just remember, today is the day that you get that mental health in check.

Hey, real quick before you go, I have one last thought to leave you with.

I of course hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, but more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast to hear something that I have to say or that my guest has to share and think, wow, I wish I could be like them.

I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing, but I just can't.

Well, friend, that's where you're wrong.

unknown: You're wrong.

SPEAKER_00: You are capable.

You are able.

And you darn sure are deserving of having all that you can imagine in this life.

There's nothing special about me or any guests I have on this podcast.

We are all just normal people trying to make it in this life.

And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you know what?

I can do it too.

Now, of course, if you would like help along that way, reach out to me.

Whether that's as a listener of this podcast, a friend, or if you'd like to work with me as a coach.

My contact information is inside of every episode's show notes, just like this one.

So go down, check out my contact information, and reach out to me today.

With that said, I encourage you to take on the day every day with grit, grace, and inspiration.