Latest / feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell / how mental health progress gets easier

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how mental health progress gets easier · feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell

• 0:00
  If you want to improve at something, what do you do?
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  That's right, you practice it a little bit each day.
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  If you want to improve your education, you study some every
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  day. Yet when we face the question of
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  how to improve our mental health, our gut reaction isn't
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  to sit down and focus on it every day.
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  Bettering mental health is a daunting task, but doing a
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  little every day makes it easier.
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  My name is Ethan Jewell and welcome back to Feel Your
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  Feelings. It's an unfortunate truth that
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  improving your mental health is hard.
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  There's no step by step tutorial you can follow.
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  Most people won't even heal in the same way.
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  You won't improve the same way that I will, and your friends
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  won't improve the same way that you will.
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  It's all different. That's why I always stress on
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  these episodes that I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a doctor,
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  I'm sharing my own personal experiences, feeling these big
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  feelings. However, one thing that I do
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  know is that doing a little bit every day makes it easier.
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  The new habits and practices you have to form in order to
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  consistently improve your mental health.
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  That takes time and active effort.
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  If you're already struggling with mental health, that can
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  make improvement feel impossible.
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  But with anything, practice makes perfect.
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  It gets easier. Let's take any skill for that
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  example. It's a no brainer.
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  If you want to be good at a sport, you have to practice it.
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  If you want to improve in football, you have to do the
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  work, show up to practices, keep yourself in shape, maintain a
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  rigorous training schedule. Like I said in the beginning, if
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  you want to improve your education, you have to sit down
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  and study every day. You have to take active time out
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  of your day to put towards furthering your education.
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  However, the idea of sitting down and actively trying to
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  improve our mental health every day is foreign.
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  It's not normalized in the slightest, it's uncomfortable
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  and it is not at all glamorous. In fact, I've seen a complete
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  aversion to it. If you've never done it, it
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  sounds weird and unnecessary to actually sit down and put in
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  effort every day to improve your mental health.
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  But I ask you, why does that sound weird?
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  Why does that seem unnecessary? We just confirmed the fact that
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  to improve at a support or field of education, you need to spend
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  time on it every day. To physically and mentally
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  improve yourself, you have to sit down and put in active
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  effort. So why is it not normal to do
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  the same for our emotional health?
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  For our mental health? We have 3 pillars to improve
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  within ourselves. We should always be looking to
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  improve ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally.
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  Yet almost none of us uphold the same rigorous schedule that we
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  would for physical health or for learning and education.
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  And that is what I'm concerned about.
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  The fact that it is not normal to sit down and feel your
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  feelings and really look inside of yourself and see what hurts.
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  Find the unhealed parts of you, Find where your trauma sits.
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  Yes, I know it's it's difficult and it's not pretty.
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  It's rough. It'll bring up awful, awful
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  feelings, but that's necessary. We have to do that in order to
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  improve. You have to feel the bad in
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  order to feel the good. But that's not the only benefit.
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  A blog post from the ZR Path Behavioral Health Agency notes
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  some of the benefits of doing the work every day.
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  They note that quote consistency and self-care routines can help
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  you manage stress more effectively.
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  When you have reliable coping strategies in place, it's easier
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  to navigate challenging times and maintain your well-being.
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  End Quote Now this is one of the biggest takeaways I want you to
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  have from this episode. It isn't just about improving
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  your mental health, it's about keeping your mental health from
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  slipping when things get hard. One of the most difficult
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  struggles with depression is those phases where everything
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  just gets worse out of nowhere and your mental health just
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  starts beating up on you. It's harder to get out of bed,
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  harder to see friends, harder to do anything other than just sit
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  with these awful feelings all day.
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  But if you have habits that you have practiced every day, you
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  are able to fall back on them. Reintroducing action into your
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  life after a mental health breakdown is easier when they've
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  been a habit before. When you learn how to ride a
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  bike, you can go years without riding a bike and be able to
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  pick it right back up. When you learn mental health
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  habits, when you learn how to feel your feelings, when you
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  learn how to examine yourself and how to take care of yourself
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  mentally, it becomes easier to reintroduce these things into
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  your life after any kind of breakdown.
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  Small action every day makes your life easier in the long
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  run. I personally can attest to this.
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  I see a massive benefit to my mental health when I take an
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  active effort and build small habits every day to improve it.
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  When I first started doing this, I was frankly very, very
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  depressed and I couldn't find the energy to do much every day.
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  But I started small. As time went on, those small
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  habits I did became something even smaller to me.
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  It was it was easy. It was more insignificant.
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  Doing these things every day became nothing.
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  It was so casual. I was then able to replace those
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  with bigger habits that improved my mental health even more,
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  which then also became easier. You see, when you train your
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  brain and body to be used to looking for ways to improve your
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  mental health, when you're seeking what helps you every
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  day, it becomes easier. You become accustomed to it.
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  Think of it like training to run a marathon.
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  When someone first starts running, there's no way they
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  could hop right in and run 24 miles.
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  Even one mile is daunting. However, as time passes and this
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  runner goes out of their way every day to train, these miles
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  become easier and with time, the marathon becomes a more
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  realistic goal. Your life is a marathon, It's
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  long and it's hard, and if you're not equipped with the
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  proper tools to keep your mental health in check every day, you
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  will become exhausted and burnt out before you can reach the
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  finish line. So please, do yourself a favor
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  and get the right shoes. Do the training that is
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  necessary. I want to see you succeed.
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  I want to see you run and frolic.
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  I have personally experienced this.
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  I've gone through the ups and downs of mental health and a
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  battle with depression for over 4 years and it hasn't been easy.
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  And I know many people who have reached out to me experiencing
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  the same thing. And I wish for all of you that
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  you can find it in you to build small habits.
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  I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a doctor, and I can't guarantee
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  that this will 100% turn your life around.
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  But at least by having these little things in place every day
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  will get a little bit easier. If you can make time for
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  yourself, if you can show up for yourself every single day, I
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  believe that you will see a difference.
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  You have it in you. You just need to show up for you
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  each day. It will become a habit and you
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  will change your life. Make yourself a priority and sit
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  down and examine your feelings. Examine what you feel.
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  Feel what you feel. Think about what's hurting you.
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  Think about what's on your mind. Think about what's weighing you
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  down. Make an active effort.
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  Do it every day and it will get easier.
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  That's going to wrap it up for today's episode.
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  If you need help feeling your feelings, check out my music on
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  all platforms under the name of Ethan Jewell and I almost
• 8:11
  guarantee it'll make you cry. I'm actually coming out with new
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  songs every three weeks to a month and I learned how to sing
• 8:18
  for these songs. I literally spent the last year
• 8:21
  learning how to sing for them, so it would mean the world if
• 8:23
  you check them out. That's Ethan Jewell on all
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  platforms. Also, shoot me a message on my
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  Instagram at Jewell Boy with an eye under score and let me know
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  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 understanding that life is a marathon that you need
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  to train for. And as always, thank you for
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  feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.