Thanks! I’d love to hear any details you can think of about what you actually do on a daily basis to maintain mental health (when it’s already fairly stable). Personally I don’t really have a system for this, and I’ve been lucky that my bad times are usually not that bad in the scheme of things, and they go away eventually.
You’ve got the basics—eat right, workout, sleep, etc., but just saying that isn’t much help.
I’ve gotten a great deal out of habit chaining/trigger-action planning when used consistently; basically you create chains of actions that feed into one another so once you’ve started the chain, it takes no extra willpower to just keep following it to its conclusion.
For instance:
Wake up → make breakfast → get pills → turn on sunlamp → eat
is one, that makes sure I take my medication, eat breakfast, and get some light everyday (the latter is especially important in the winter).
Another is:
Meditate → Workout → Shower
which, while I mix up both the kinds of meditation and the kinds of workout, ensures all three get done, roughly every other day.
Do it consistently, and eventually you can just do them on autopilot. You don’t really forget anything and somehow, not doing them becomes the unnatural state.
Thanks! I’d love to hear any details you can think of about what you actually do on a daily basis to maintain mental health (when it’s already fairly stable). Personally I don’t really have a system for this, and I’ve been lucky that my bad times are usually not that bad in the scheme of things, and they go away eventually.
Great question.
You’ve got the basics—eat right, workout, sleep, etc., but just saying that isn’t much help.
I’ve gotten a great deal out of habit chaining/trigger-action planning when used consistently; basically you create chains of actions that feed into one another so once you’ve started the chain, it takes no extra willpower to just keep following it to its conclusion.
For instance:
Wake up → make breakfast → get pills → turn on sunlamp → eat
is one, that makes sure I take my medication, eat breakfast, and get some light everyday (the latter is especially important in the winter).
Another is:
Meditate → Workout → Shower
which, while I mix up both the kinds of meditation and the kinds of workout, ensures all three get done, roughly every other day.
Do it consistently, and eventually you can just do them on autopilot. You don’t really forget anything and somehow, not doing them becomes the unnatural state.
Hope that helps!
Excellent, I think I will give something like that a try