Mental Health Challenge January 2018
This year in my attempt to simplify my life, I am using mini challenges each month to help me focus on one area of life at a time. I chose to start with mental wellness, and found a 21 day challenge on Pinterest to get me started. I chose this challenge because it wasn't a whole month worth of tasks, I knew that January was going to be a busy month, and I wanted to give myself the best chance at success I could.
I didn't use everything from the list and some things I did twice. Here's a recap of what I did and didn't do, and how I liked them.
1. Take a bubble bath - Totally rocked this one. I had a bath bomb and a bubble bar from LUSH and I took a glittery, bubbly bath like a boss.
2. Journal 10 things I'm grateful for - another good one. It's nice to take time to think about the best parts of life.
3. Take a walk outdoors - We spent 10 hours at Disney so I got plenty of outdoor time, plus I saw fireworks, so just huge win win.
4. Call someone you love - didn't happen. I am not a phone person, which is surprising considering how much I love to run my mouth, but I just never made the effort to make a phone call.
5. De-clutter your room or desk - I worked on my craft room/office, it didn't get completely done, but it looked a lot better and we took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill.
6. Social media sabbatical - I went 1 whole day without checking any social media, I ended up being home sick that day, so it wasn't that hard to just nap and shower and nap and watch netflix and nap some more. It would have been a lot harder on a day I didn't feel too sick to give a shit about anyone else.
7. Make a list of short term goals - I had a list of 3 goals to try and accomplish in the next 30-90 days. We are almost done with one, one of them will be easy once the first one is done, and the other one isn't going well.
8. Eat outside - Ate at the Scottish Highland Games. Check!
9. Watch the sunset - didn't happen.
10. Get rid of 5 things I don't use - I got rid of way more than 5 things. I'm in a "get rid of all the things" mood right now
11. Unsubscribe from annoying emails - did it. It was an annoying task. I don't know if it was worth it.
12. Go for a walk - walked to the train after work, it's one of my favorite things now
13. Send and encouraging text to five people - I cried doing this. I have a hard time with sharing my genuine feelings with people, even positive ones.
14. Wake up 30 min early - never going to happen. I tried three different days.
15. Plan a coffee date with a friend - I planned a couple of outings that didn't involve coffee with friends and a coffee date with Christopher that I ended up sleeping through. Oops.
16. No complaining all day - I tried. I'm a whiny bitch, so that's hard for me.
17. Create a new playlist - this was something I was looking forward to and then when I had to do it, I didn't enjoy it at all. I am so used to just listening to pre-made playlists that it didn't feel like it was worth the time and effort it was taking.
18. Eat a real breakfast - this didn't happen the day I had it scheduled, but I did eat a real breakfast a couple of times this month. Normally I just snack during the morning at work because I'm not a morning person so breakfast is hard
19. Do something I've been putting off - I made an appointment with a new GP
I didn't use everything from the list and some things I did twice. Here's a recap of what I did and didn't do, and how I liked them.
1. Take a bubble bath - Totally rocked this one. I had a bath bomb and a bubble bar from LUSH and I took a glittery, bubbly bath like a boss.
2. Journal 10 things I'm grateful for - another good one. It's nice to take time to think about the best parts of life.
3. Take a walk outdoors - We spent 10 hours at Disney so I got plenty of outdoor time, plus I saw fireworks, so just huge win win.
4. Call someone you love - didn't happen. I am not a phone person, which is surprising considering how much I love to run my mouth, but I just never made the effort to make a phone call.
5. De-clutter your room or desk - I worked on my craft room/office, it didn't get completely done, but it looked a lot better and we took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill.
6. Social media sabbatical - I went 1 whole day without checking any social media, I ended up being home sick that day, so it wasn't that hard to just nap and shower and nap and watch netflix and nap some more. It would have been a lot harder on a day I didn't feel too sick to give a shit about anyone else.
7. Make a list of short term goals - I had a list of 3 goals to try and accomplish in the next 30-90 days. We are almost done with one, one of them will be easy once the first one is done, and the other one isn't going well.
8. Eat outside - Ate at the Scottish Highland Games. Check!
9. Watch the sunset - didn't happen.
10. Get rid of 5 things I don't use - I got rid of way more than 5 things. I'm in a "get rid of all the things" mood right now
11. Unsubscribe from annoying emails - did it. It was an annoying task. I don't know if it was worth it.
12. Go for a walk - walked to the train after work, it's one of my favorite things now
13. Send and encouraging text to five people - I cried doing this. I have a hard time with sharing my genuine feelings with people, even positive ones.
14. Wake up 30 min early - never going to happen. I tried three different days.
15. Plan a coffee date with a friend - I planned a couple of outings that didn't involve coffee with friends and a coffee date with Christopher that I ended up sleeping through. Oops.
16. No complaining all day - I tried. I'm a whiny bitch, so that's hard for me.
17. Create a new playlist - this was something I was looking forward to and then when I had to do it, I didn't enjoy it at all. I am so used to just listening to pre-made playlists that it didn't feel like it was worth the time and effort it was taking.
18. Eat a real breakfast - this didn't happen the day I had it scheduled, but I did eat a real breakfast a couple of times this month. Normally I just snack during the morning at work because I'm not a morning person so breakfast is hard
19. Do something I've been putting off - I made an appointment with a new GP
I thought this challenge went pretty well, there were only a few days that I didn't accomplish what I wanted to accomplish, but overall it was a good experience.