Small but important ways to take care of your Mental Health

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Give yourself permission to take a mental health day when you need it.





Do something else besides watching Netflix before bed.

If you've lost track of more nights than you can count while binge-watching a series, only to feel tired and groggy and kind of behind on life the next day, try a little experiment where you don't watch TV before bed for a week. Use that time to read, color, call your mom, journal, take a bath, whatever. For a lot of people, zoning out with a good series can be a therapeutic coping mechanism, which is great, but it's helpful to find other tools for calming down at the end of the day. And maybe you'll find one that won't occasionally keep you up until 2 a.m.





Stop glorifying being busy and get some sleep.

You make time for work/school, the gym, and going out. It's time to make time for sleep. Without it, not only will you feel like a groggy mess at work and in life, but your mental health will almost certainly suffer. Sleep isn't a magic reset button for your moods, but it can make a huge difference when you're not getting enough.




Write down a bunch of positive affirmations and healthy coping mechanisms and put them in a jar for when you need to snap out of a negative thought spiral.The point is to remind yourself you have options when you're blinded by negative thoughts that tell you there's nothing that will help you. These can be simple reminders ("You are loved"), coping strategies ("Take a walk and have some water"), or Beyoncé lyrics—whatever will help you regain focus when you're struggling with your mental health.