How To Look After Your Mental Health In Winter

Look After Your Mental Health

In the winter your mental health always deteriorates. Even the strongest people will get winter blues. But others struggle so much more. Asking for help isn’t always easy for people. They don’t want others to know that they are struggling. But looking online means you can get advice on how to feel better through the winter. Asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of, in fact, it makes you a stronger person. But it is difficult to know how to look after your mental health when you are struggling so much.

As a parent, you also need to look after your family. So you tend to put your family before others. Then the stronger you try to be, the harder you seem to fall. But taking time for yourself will help to get you to love yourself again and make you feel so much better. Here are a few ways you can help yourself when you feel rubbish.

Take A Bath

Taking a shower is better sometimes if you are in a rush. But running a bath and unwinding is so much different. Run your bath and add some nice bubbles or a bath bomb. Then climb in and close your eyes and relax. Surround yourself with scented candles and incense sticks. Close your eyes and relax.

There are so many bubble baths around on the market. But if you can afford it, buy a few different ones for your bathroom. Maybe you want a relaxing bath, so use a lavender one. This will also help you to sleep at night. For a moisturizing bath, use a Shea butter bubble bath. This will help put some moisture back in your skin.

After your bath, smother your skin with a lovely body cream. And then climb into your bed with lovely clean sheets.

Isolation

The past couple of winters have been filled with the threat of Covid 19. Then lockdowns, travel bans and isolating from others. Is it any wonder that people are struggling with mental health? If you are alone and you have to isolate yourself again, make sure you create a bubble with someone. That way you do not need to be alone. You will have someone to rant with and cry with. As well as someone to laugh and get drunk with.

Travel bans mean you cannot visit your family. This is so hard for people who have families abroad like me. My granddaughter was born at the start of Covid and we have a Grandma telephone relationship. I have seen her 3 times in nearly two years. If you are separated from your family, make your contact into video calls. this way you don’t miss out on children or grandchildren growing up. You still get to see the special moments and milestones.

If you feel isolated, go out and take a walk. Say hello to people passing you. You will feel so much better for getting out of the house and having fresh air.

When you have been isolating and avoiding people for so long, it can be difficult to meet up with them again. If you are worried about being with people after keeping away for so long. Let them know because they will understand.

You Don’t Have To Be Insta-Perfect

Everyone on Instagram seems to have a perfect life, don’t they? Well, life is not perfect. For every picture posted on social media, an influencer has probably taken 300. But they will never show the ones that are not perfect. You do not need to be Insta-Perfect all of the time. Share your disorganised life with everyone. Share your real-life on social media. Share your experiences of depression and how you feel. You could actually be helping someone else with your experience.

Being yourself is better than setting yourself up to feel like a failure when you see perfect pictures of others.

Buy Some Decent Lighting

You can buy lamps for winter depression. These lamps give you the impression of daylight, even on the darkest of days. Winter SAD lamps can be expensive though for something that only comes out for a couple of months a year. Instead, you can buy some light bulbs for your lights. You will be able to dim your lights or keep them in the brightest setting. This gives the impression of daylight all over your house. You can connect these with your Alexa or Google devices. You can then use voice commands to switch them on and off.

Get Medical Help If You need It

There is no shame in asking your GP for help. You might just need some medication to get you through your tough time. When you call the surgery and they say you will go on the triage list. Make sure that you tell them it is your mental health. Otherwise, you might chicken out of telling them the truth later, when they call back.

You will beat these bad feelings. Just hang on a little while and ask for support and help. It is always good to compliment others too, it makes you feel good as well as them.