When new patients contact me, I help those in crisis find emergency care and connect others with counselors or support groups. But when stressors with a capital “S” like unrelenting anxiety, exhausting depression, and insomnia roar loudly, some patients want more immediate help. This might explain why many potential patients ask me, “What can I do right now to improve my mental health?”
A possible solution, says clinical psychologist emily anhalt, is to add “emotional training” to your self-care regimen. “Just as exercise prevents high blood pressure and heart disease, emotional fitness can be a proactive stance toward managing stress,” says Anhalt, co-founder of Coa, a gym for mental health.
In Coa’s virtual classes, Anhalt and his team teach exercises called “emotional push-ups,” which are small ways to work on yourself each day. “The purpose is to strengthen your mental health muscles so that you are in a better position to face life’s challenges,” she says.
self care tools can be helpful, especially when barriers like high-deductible insurance plans, high copays, and living in remote areas can make mental health care difficult to afford or access. And while the pandemic isn’t solely to blame for the lack of therapists, it certainly made things worse, he says. vale wrightsenior director of health care innovation for the American Psychological Association.
With very few mental health resources, we need innovative ways to make psychological care more accessible, she says. If she’s waiting to see a therapist, can’t afford mental health care, or has recently finished therapy, emotional exercises are one way to strengthen her psychological muscles. While these exercises aren’t meant to replace individual or group therapy, Anhalt says they can promote resilience and help you feel empowered.
Here are some expert-backed exercises to help you get started.
Overwhelmed? Schedule a ‘concern appointment’.
Understandably, the uptick in global turmoil is shaking our sanity. Wright says that the almost constant cycle of “bad news” and discussions on social media can increase our feelings of worry and overwhelm.
The researchers claim that worry has a cognitive component, which is why ruminations often stimulate troubling thoughts that recur. One way to deal with this distress is to schedule a “worry appointment.” “Set a time in your daily calendar to worry, obsess, and ruminate,” Anhalt suggests. During this appointment, take 10-15 minutes to write down your problems.
In his book, “cards against anxiety”, mental health educator and author Pooky Knightsmith He says that a date with worries can prevent this feeling of worry from becoming the boss and taking over.
Angry with a loved one? Practice the ‘self-reflection push-up’.
When you’re feeling frustrated that your partner went to a concert without a mask or that a co-worker stole the spotlight, it’s natural to see the annoying party as the problem. But another approach is to take the opportunity to learn about yourself, says Anhalt.
Feeling hurt, annoyed, or angry at another person’s behavior may reflect something we dislike about ourselves. To examine this possibility, Anhalt suggests doing an exercise she calls the “self-reflection pushup.” This push-up uses the “3 J’s, which stand for bind, jealous, and judge” to guide you.
Ask yourself if the other person’s behavior is something you also do (join), envy (jealousy), or criticize (judge). For example, if you’re upset with your friend for being selfish, you might realize that you’ve behaved the same way. Putting the spotlight on our actions allows us to take responsibility, says Anhalt.
When it comes to building close relationships, research shows that self-awareness can increase cognitive empathywhich is our ability to understand another person’s emotions from their perspective.
Depressed? Make friends with difficult emotions.
As humans, we are programmed to avoid pain. When uncomfortable emotions like anger or sadness arise, we can try to distract ourselves from feeling bad. We can scroll through social media, have an extra glass of wine, or binge on Netflix. These tactics are called “defenses,” which are thoughts and behaviors that prevent us from feeling the unbearable. But when we rely solely on defenses, we avoid feeling our emotions, hindering our ability to process them.
When upsetting emotions arise, try to make friends with their feelings. Start by naming your emotions, a technique psychologists call Affect labeling. You can also become a detective by exploring where your feelings appear in your body. For example, I ask my patients, “Where do you feel that emotion?” and “What could he be trying to tell you?” The goal is not to alter the emotion, but to raise awareness of how you feel at that moment.
A 2018 research review states that “focusing on our feelings, without trying to change them” can help ease distress. This “in the moment” mentality is what dialectical behavior therapist Marsha Linehan calls radical acceptance and it is a way to prevent the pain from persisting. Many people assume that radical acceptance prevents change, but this liberating posture can accompany transformation, says the clinical psychologist. Jenny Taitz.
Reeling from anxiety? Exercise curiosity.
About 32 percent of American adults showed symptoms of an anxiety disorder or depressive disorder in the week before Aug. 8, according to the Household Pulse Survey showed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For a smaller percentage of people, anxiety symptoms are a mental illness such as generalized anxiety disorderwhich affects about 3 percent of Americans, or social anxiety disorderIt affects about 7 percent of the general population.
If you want to disarm your anxiety, adopting a curious mindset can help. When fear and uncertainty hit, we are often quick to ask, “Why is this happening?” explains psychiatrist and neuroscientist Judson Brewer, author of “relaxing anxiety” and medical director of Share “The mind clings to this ‘why’ question because we believe that discovering the answer will solve our anxiety,” explains Brewer. But in reality, this mindset can make us feel powerless and stuck. To get out of this rabbit hole, try entering the “anxiety-free zone,” the neuroscientist recommends.
One grounding exercise is to sit down, look at your feet, and ask yourself, which “foot is warmer than the other”? This question helps spark curiosity, says Brewer. This wonderful feeling can also open your mind to possibilities, allowing us to see our situations in a different light, research shows. “When anxiety turns us upside down, replacing ‘Why is this happening?’ with ‘What’s going on?’ it can get us out of the anxiety-ridden zone of ‘why,’” says Brewer.
Mental health exercises can teach us to better manage our worrying thoughts and upsetting feelings. These workouts can also help us think about our discomfort in a different way. “Symptoms like anxiety and depression are the body’s alarm system,” says Anhalt. “By trying to understand them, we can discover the root cause of our suffering.”
If you are looking for additional mental health exercises, wonderfull mind offers a free newsletter with mental fitness tips, Coá offers a complimentary 15-minute emotional conditioning class, and Release offers wellness classes to help people deal with stress and burnout.
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