Latest / feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell / the easiest ways to improve your mental health

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the easiest ways to improve your mental health · feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell

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  For years, I knew that I needed to improve my mental health.
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  I knew that I needed to do something and start the process
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  of solving the puzzle that is my mental health.
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  However, I found myself treading water and not making any real
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  improvements. This led me to feeling shame and
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  guilt for not seeing progress and not improving.
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  However, after a few years of experience and a solid amount of
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  research, trial and error, and watching other people's advice
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  on how to improve my mental health, I think I've pieced
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  together a three-part puzzle that you can start today in
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  order to improve your mental health.
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  My name is Ethan Jewell and welcome back to Feel Your
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  Feelings. I know it sounds oversimplified,
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  but often simplifying is what we need to do when it comes to our
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  mental health. This is a three-step puzzle that
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  if you are able to solve it, I genuinely believe it will help
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  your mental health immensely. It has helped mine in ways that
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  I previously thought weren't impossible, and really you can
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  start it anytime, anywhere. Now.
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  I use the word puzzle to describe this method because I
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  think that is a very, very accurate description.
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  When you start a puzzle, you are looking at a mess of pieces and
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  you're not quite sure how they go together.
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  However, you have a formula you can go back to.
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  Almost everyone starts with the edge pieces.
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  You pick out the edge pieces and you begin the puzzle that way,
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  and then you start piercing together certain sections of the
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  puzzle that look easier to solve.
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  There is a formula that you can always go back to.
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  Mental health is complicated. Improving your mental health is
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  even more complicated. But if we have a formula that we
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  can go back to in order to keep piercing together this puzzle,
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  we can always keep moving and never feel like we are treading
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  water. I want to remind you, I am not a
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  mental health professional. I'm not a doctor.
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  I'm not a psychiatrist, however I am a normal guy who has
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  experienced big feelings just like you and through careful
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  trial and error in personal experience, this is the formula
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  I've developped 1A relationship with your body.
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  I know this is very cliche and you've probably heard this a
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  lot, but I cannot stress how important this is.
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  This was the hardest step for me to start on for years.
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  I knew that moving my body and being active would help my
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  overall health, but I didn't realize how much it would help
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  my mental health. You see exercise and movement
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  releases feel good chemicals in your brain such as endorphins or
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  serotonin. What I always believed is that
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  this was just a quick burst of feelings that you felt after
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  your workout and that it would go away, that there's really no
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  point in working out because those feel good.
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  Chemicals would be gone soon after.
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  But in reality, exercise and movement starts a snowball
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  effect. It's natural for humans to want
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  to do things after we have done other things.
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  That's a part of how our motivation and reward system
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  works. When dopamine or other feel good
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  chemicals are released, our body and our mind want more and that
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  motivates you to do other things to improve your health.
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  So what I found is simply by moving, by exercising, I
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  suddenly wanted to do other things.
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  I thought it would tire me out. I thought it would suck all of
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  my energy away. But no, it had the opposite
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  effect. It motivated me and it energized
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  me. Now, I understand that physical
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  activity is very, very difficult.
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  It is a hard habit to get into and it is not easily accessible
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  for everybody. So I want to point out that this
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  physical activity can be very, very small.
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  I'm not demanding that you start going to the gym six days a week
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  or you start doing several mile runs a day.
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  That's very unrealistic and you will get burnt out quickly.
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  I didn't start out going to the gym several times a day or going
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  on runs. I started simply going on like a
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  10 minute walk with my dog and doing 20 pushups.
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  That was it. That was all I would do.
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  I would roll out of bed onto the ground and I would do a few
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  pushups and eventually this started a snowball effect and I
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  would want to do more pushups. I would want to go on longer
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  walks and before I knew it, I felt so motivated to keep
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  improving myself. Your relationship with your body
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  is about establishing feel good chemicals in order to start the
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  natural motivating process that is literally built into us.
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  This is part of our nature and this is part of what we're
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  supposed to do. So please tap into this, tap
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  into this reward system that moving your body can bring you,
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  and watch as you reap the benefits.
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  The next step to solving this puzzle and improving from a
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  place of complacency is a relationship with other people.
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  In 1938, Harvard researchers started a decades long journey
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  to find what makes us happy over this 85 year study.
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  They're consistent finding is that positive relationships make
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  us happier and healthier. Your relationships with other
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  people affect you physically. They affect you mentally, they
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  affect you emotionally. Maintaining healthy and engaging
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  relationships is incredibly important for piercing together
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  your puzzle. This isn't something that can
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  happen overnight and toxic friendships and relationships
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  are very easy to fall into. You should be cautious on who
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  you allow to be close in your life.
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  Now, I'm not saying that your friends should only be your
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  friends if you can rely on them and if they can be a support
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  system and that that's all they're good for.
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  I really don't want to come across like that.
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  However, it is important to have a couple of really close friends
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  that you can rely on and can be a good support system.
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  It's okay to have boundaries with certain people and make
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  sure that the people you are relying on are your healthiest
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  relationships and really will benefit you and will never end
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  up stabbing you in the back. Having close friendships and
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  close relationships and ones that are happy and ones you can
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  rely on is incredibly beneficial to our lives, and that's what
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  that Harvard study found from 85 years ago.
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  Being close with other people feels good.
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  Sharing experiences with other people feels good.
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  Sharing a deep connection and relying on each other through
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  difficult times feels so good. So please take the time to
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  nurture your friendships, to nurture your relationships.
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  Can really deeply connect and understand these people that
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  you're close with. The final piece of the puzzle is
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  your relationship with your mind.
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  This may seem obvious, but you need to have a solid
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  relationship with your mind and emotions in order to solve your
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  puzzle. And I don't mean you need to go
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  to intensive therapy and learn every in and out of your mind.
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  You simply need to understand yourself.
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  What triggers you? What makes you feel good and how
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  you can take care of yourself whenever you're feeling bad?
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  The simplest way to do this is to simply sit in silence and
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  meditate with your feelings. Take 10 to 20 minutes out of
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  your day and sit in a dark room that has no distractions and no
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  noises, and just notice the thoughts, feelings, and emotions
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  that come and go as you're sitting there.
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  And trust me, if you sit there with no distractions, emotions
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  will come up, thoughts will come up, and you can digest them.
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  You can acknowledge them. This will help your relationship
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  with your own mind and help you understand yourself.
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  Whenever things get hard, these emotions won't be as much of a
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  surprise. You'll know what to expect and
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  be able to fall back into a routine.
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  This is a really, really important and beautiful part of
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  the human experience. Being able to engage with
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  yourself, being able to have deep conversations with yourself
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  and being able to understand who you are, what hurts you and how
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  you can improve yourself. This is a very, very big part of
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  the puzzle and one that took me a long time.
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  I went through a couple years of therapy and I journaled a lot
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  and I meditated a lot, and eventually I was able to
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  determine what makes me feel bad, what makes me feel good,
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  how to avoid the bad, and how to channel the good.
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  And this has done wonders for improving my mental health and
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  solving my puzzle. One of the worst feelings is
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  trying to improve your mental health, knowing you need to, but
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  feeling like you're making no progress.
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  And that is a place that I was stuck in for years.
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  But by simplifying and breaking down the steps into a three-part
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  formula, I have something that I'm always able to go back to
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  and that is incredibly important.
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  So once again, I'm not a professional.
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  This isn't a tried and true method that I can 100% guarantee
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  will work, but I urge you to try to find your own formula.
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  We are all trying to solve the puzzle that is our mental
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  health. We are all trying to piece it
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  together and figure out how to improve and you can come up with
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  your own formula. You can find what works for you.
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  So start experimenting, start with this formula, improve your
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  relationship with your body, with other people and with your
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  mind and see what happens. Take the next year and really
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  try to dig deep and solve this puzzle.
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  You deserve to feel like you are moving, you deserve to feel like
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  you are improving, and you deserve to watch all of your
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  pieces fall into place. That's going to wrap it up for
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  today's episode. If you need help feeling your
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  feelings at all, go check out my music under the name of Ethan
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  Jewel on all platforms. I almost guarantee it'll make
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  you cry. Also, please shoot me a message
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  on my Instagram at Jewel Boy with an I under score and let me
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  know what you thought about today's episode.
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  So thank you so much for being here.
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  Thank you for listening. And as always, thank you for
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  feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.