Train Your Mental Wellbeing

Life ebbs and flows. This week has been one of those weeks. At times I have felt happy and relaxed whilst at other times I have felt pretty flat and grumpy.

There are times you do as much as you can to keep everyone else happy & satisfied. And by doing that you don’t always allow yourself to be happy. You can burn out very quickly if you are not careful.

Certain thing you do and certain people you hang out with will energise you. Then there will be other things and people that drain you. It’s all about getting a balance.

I have a friend who has initiated a wonderful program in Mandurah for men who are struggling with mental and emotional issues. We chat 1 or 2 times per week, and even though this is a pretty new friendship, we are both extremely open about how we are feeling. If we are struggling, we just say. Just by doing this relieves the burden a little.

One of his amazing pieces of advice, almost his mantra, is that you must “manage your energy, not your time”. If you don’t manage your energy you can crash and burn pretty quickly.

He also says it’s very important when you’re on the road to recovery and feeling great, ensure that you don’t overdo otherwise you may “relapse”. This puts you back to the starting gates of recovery again.

I believe it’s like getting fit. You can’t go out and run a marathon on your first training session. You have to start with a 1-2km run, then a 5 km, then a 10 km, then half marathon before you can think about trying to run a marathon.

I think it’s the same with mental wellness. You must do little bits at a time, building up your mental wellness health in increments. When your  mental wellness is at marathon level then you can do most things you need to do. This allows you to be happy whilst fulfilling not only your needs, but others as well.

The problem is if you get injured, you can’t keep running the marathon distances without causing more damage and pain. This is also the case if your mental wellness marathon gets a little injury. It can set you back and if you don’t realise, acknowledge or ignore this injury, it is going get a lot worse really quickly.

And this is when you can relapse, and your flat days can become dark days.

It is super important to recognise when you have a little mental wellness injury. This is your first step to making a full recovery. Then it is very important that you start your rehab program and build up your mental wellness fitness slowly before being marathon ready.

During your recover and when fully fit you still must, like my wonderful friend says, “manage your energy.”

This is been the best advice I have heard in a long time and I encourage you to do the same.

If you are interested in donating or getting involved with this program to help men in our local region get back on their feet, then contact the team at “Squared Away” and see how you can get involved.

“It’s Time”.