Latest / feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell / don’t procrastinate your mental health

Transcript

don’t procrastinate your mental health · feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell

• 0:00
  When I was struggling most with my mental health, I knew
• 0:03
  something was wrong, but I didn't know how to fix it.
• 0:07
  I didn't know how to jumpstart myself and start taking action
• 0:11
  to improve my mental health. It felt like I was in high
• 0:15
  school procrastinating homework all over again.
• 0:18
  It became a vicious cycle as I would then guilt myself for not
• 0:22
  taking action. Eventually I was able to change
• 0:26
  this and start moving and making progress, but it took several
• 0:30
  small yet difficult mindset adjustments.
• 0:35
  My name is Ethan Jewell and welcome back to feel your
• 0:39
  feelings. I don't know about you, but I've
• 0:43
  always been really, really guilty of procrastination.
• 0:46
  All throughout high school and in the two years that I did go
• 0:49
  to college, I found myself procrastinating all the time.
• 0:52
  I don't know what it was. Maybe I found some kind of joy
• 0:56
  in in rushing to do everything last minute, but I was.
• 0:59
  I was a serial procrastinator. I would put off all my work till
• 1:03
  the last possible moment, and then I would quickly figure out
• 1:05
  what I needed to do and try to rush through it.
• 1:08
  However, a problem arose when this became a habit and it
• 1:13
  became the main way that I approached all of my problems in
• 1:16
  life. I started to treat everything as
• 1:20
  if it was schoolwork that can just be procrastinated.
• 1:24
  I started treating work this way.
• 1:27
  I started treating relationships and friendships this way, and
• 1:31
  then I began to treat my mental health problems this way.
• 1:36
  I told myself that I would start helping my mental health soon.
• 1:39
  I knew that something needed to be done, but I didn't know
• 1:44
  exactly what. I didn't know the steps, and
• 1:47
  frankly, I couldn't be bothered to learn, so I just kept
• 1:52
  procrastinating. This is an easy thing to do.
• 1:55
  You see, mental health requires active effort in order to be
• 1:58
  improved. So it's very, very easy to just
• 2:01
  be complacent. However, after time this becomes
• 2:05
  a vicious cycle. Not taking action leads to
• 2:09
  knowing that you need to take action, knowing that you're
• 2:11
  hurting, knowing that something is wrong.
• 2:13
  But improving this takes active effort, which often we don't
• 2:17
  have the availability for when we're struggling.
• 2:20
  And also simply it it's difficult, it's difficult to
• 2:23
  start on a mental health journey.
• 2:25
  It is very, very difficult. So then we feel guilty for not
• 2:29
  improving. You see, I often talk about
• 2:31
  mental health in a very anecdotal way.
• 2:34
  After all, it's complicated and there's no direct 1 correct way
• 2:38
  to face our mental health problems.
• 2:41
  However, today, in order to encourage you to actually start
• 2:45
  doing the work and stop procrastinating your mental
• 2:48
  health, I'm going to go over practical ways that you can use
• 2:53
  to begin to fix your mental health.
• 2:54
  These are things that I've practiced and I've used.
• 2:58
  I want to remind you, I'm I'm not a professional.
• 3:01
  I'm not a therapist, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a doctor.
• 3:04
  I'm just a normal guy who has experienced mental health
• 3:08
  problems, has felt some big feelings, and wants to spread
• 3:11
  awareness. So please, try these for
• 3:14
  yourself. See if they work, and if they
• 3:16
  don't, open yourself up to other options.
• 3:19
  A little action can go a long way.
• 3:23
  From understanding our individual mental health to
• 3:26
  practicing self compassion to seeking professional help and
• 3:29
  finding our own self-care routines.
• 3:32
  I've got you covered, so let's talk about it.
• 3:36
  Like with anything we've been procrastinating, the first step
• 3:39
  of action should be to understand what we're up
• 3:42
  against. I would always start the
• 3:44
  schoolwork that I've been putting off for weeks by at
• 3:47
  least reading through the assignment and figuring out what
• 3:50
  exactly I need to do. This lets me then figure out a
• 3:54
  plan and go from there. The same goes for our mental
• 3:58
  health. You need to get to know yourself
• 4:00
  and your emotions before diving head first into doing the hard
• 4:05
  work. If you've allowed yourself to
• 4:07
  feel your feelings and you've already done most of this, and
• 4:11
  you're very well into starting your journey.
• 4:14
  However, if you tend to push things down, and I don't mean to
• 4:18
  call you out, then you need to take the time to understand
• 4:21
  yourself and understand your feelings.
• 4:25
  This means really taking the time to do some deep reflection.
• 4:30
  Consider moments of joy, challenges you faced, and
• 4:34
  patterns you've noticed in your emotions and behaviors.
• 4:37
  Recognize the situations, environments, or people that
• 4:41
  tend to impact your mental well-being.
• 4:44
  This might include work related stress, relationship dynamics,
• 4:48
  or specific life events. You need to engage in active
• 4:53
  reflection whenever you have the emotional capacity to do so.
• 4:58
  This is very, very important to understand yourself and start
• 5:02
  your journey. You see, reflection and
• 5:05
  understanding your emotions is a very active and concrete
• 5:09
  process. It sounds as if it's kind of
• 5:11
  anecdotal and oh, you need to sit down and feel your feelings.
• 5:14
  But no, this is this is real. You have to sit down and think
• 5:18
  and ask yourself. A lot of people journal for this
• 5:21
  very reason. It makes reflection a very, very
• 5:25
  real process. So if you're having trouble
• 5:28
  reflecting, I would highly recommend journaling or
• 5:31
  following some questionnaire or something like that.
• 5:34
  Make it as real as possible, and engage in active reflection
• 5:38
  whenever you have the emotional capacity to do so.
• 5:42
  If you engage in this relatively simple behavior and make it into
• 5:46
  a habit, you will find yourself discovering a world of things
• 5:50
  about yourself. I personally started journaling
• 5:53
  and meditating and found out a multitude of things about myself
• 5:57
  that I didn't know about before. I found out things about my
• 6:00
  emotions and my feelings and it allowed me to start this mental
• 6:04
  health journey. Once you begin this habit, it
• 6:07
  can absolutely change your life and I highly recommend it.
• 6:11
  However, sometimes self reflection is very difficult by
• 6:15
  yourself. It can be very very difficult to
• 6:17
  self reflect as you may not know the questions to ask yourself or
• 6:21
  the things to reflect upon. In this is when seeking
• 6:25
  professional help, can be very important.
• 6:28
  Therapy, if it's available to you in my opinion, can be
• 6:31
  absolutely crucial in improving our mental health.
• 6:35
  Which is why I'm very happy to say that this show is sponsored
• 6:38
  by Better Help. Throughout a lot of my mental
• 6:40
  health journey, I've had a general idea that I need to work
• 6:44
  to get better or that I need to try to improve my mental health,
• 6:46
  but I never knew where to start. But when I started going to
• 6:50
  therapy, I immediately saw a world of difference.
• 6:54
  Therapy created a safe space for me to talk about my feelings and
• 6:58
  reflect on my own emotions, and I got great advice from a
• 7:02
  professional on how to continue improving my mental health.
• 7:06
  This helped soothe a lot of the uncertainties and anxieties that
• 7:10
  I was having about starting my mental health journey.
• 7:14
  If you want a clear path to helping your mental health, I
• 7:17
  recommend giving better help a try.
• 7:20
  You can get quickly matched with a licensed therapist and start
• 7:23
  your therapy journey all from the comfort of your own home.
• 7:28
  Make your brain your friend with better help.
• 7:31
  Visit betterhelp.com/feel it today to get 10% off your first
• 7:36
  month. That's better help.
• 7:39
  help.com/feel it after doing some reflection.
• 7:46
  It's very important to then engage in self compassion, which
• 7:51
  once again sounds anecdotal but in reality is very very
• 7:55
  practical and something that you can practice on a day-to-day
• 7:58
  basis. You see, it's easy to judge
• 8:01
  ourselves after acts of reflection.
• 8:04
  You may feel down on yourself for not reflecting previously.
• 8:08
  You may discover some behaviors or patterns that you aren't
• 8:12
  particularly proud of. You might find some tough
• 8:15
  emotions or feelings or triggers that you need to work through.
• 8:19
  All of these discoveries can easily bring up harsh self
• 8:23
  judgement. It's important to create a safe
• 8:25
  space for yourself emotionally, to work through yourself
• 8:29
  reflection. If you begin to harshly judge
• 8:32
  yourself for a pattern or feeling, ask yourself why you
• 8:37
  want to put that judgement upon yourself.
• 8:40
  Realize that it's better to simply work through it than to
• 8:43
  blame yourself. After all, when we place
• 8:47
  judgement upon ourselves for something that we're already
• 8:50
  suffering from, we are simply suffering twice.
• 8:56
  Another very practical way to be compassionate with ourselves
• 8:59
  that most people overlook is by creating a solid self-care
• 9:04
  routine that you practice every single day.
• 9:07
  I believe that self-care is very commonly misunderstood.
• 9:11
  You see, people believe that you need some grand routine.
• 9:14
  Like, you know, a bubble bath with a face mask or going to the
• 9:18
  gym or making these amazing meals for yourself, whatever it
• 9:22
  is. But in reality, self-care is
• 9:25
  very, very simple. You just need to take the time
• 9:29
  for yourself every day. That's it.
• 9:32
  Just take some time for yourself.
• 9:34
  Whether it's doing something you enjoy or doing nothing at all,
• 9:38
  spending time by yourself is important and it's an act of
• 9:43
  self-care. You become more comfortable with
• 9:45
  yourself. You become more comfortable with
• 9:48
  whatever situations you're in. It can be anything.
• 9:51
  For me, it's playing the piano and it's sometimes going on
• 9:55
  walks and it's just sitting down and watching YouTube.
• 9:58
  It doesn't have to be grand, it doesn't have to be complicated.
• 10:01
  Self-care is an amazing way to be compassionate with yourself,
• 10:05
  to take care of yourself, and to learn more about yourself.
• 10:10
  Remember, you are the person that you'll spend the most time
• 10:14
  with in life, so make that time something you enjoy sitting down
• 10:20
  to actually do the work and not procrastinate.
• 10:23
  Our mental health is a difficult thing to do.
• 10:26
  Procrastination is a easy trap to fall into.
• 10:29
  However, discovering what to do and actually doing the work is
• 10:33
  crucial in order to improve our mental health, and today we
• 10:37
  learned how to do that. So please, I encourage you
• 10:40
  practice some real self reflection.
• 10:43
  Ask yourself questions, Journal, meditate, then practice self
• 10:49
  compassion with things that might come up.
• 10:51
  Don't. Don't judge yourself for what
• 10:53
  might come up. If it gets too hard, I highly,
• 10:56
  highly recommend seeking professional help, trying to get
• 10:59
  into therapy or leaning on friends, creating a support
• 11:02
  system for yourself, and remember to care for yourself
• 11:07
  one day at a time. You deserve that care.
• 11:10
  You deserve that empathy. You deserve that compassion.
• 11:13
  And you deserve to make progress on your mental health.
• 11:17
  I believe in you. That's going to wrap it up for
• 11:20
  today's episode. Thank you for being here.
• 11:22
  If you need help feeling your feelings, please check out my
• 11:25
  music on all platforms under the name of Ethan Jewell.
• 11:29
  I almost guarantee it'll make you cry.
• 11:31
  Also, please shoot me a message on my Instagram at Jewel Boy
• 11:35
  with an I under score and let me know what you thought about
• 11:38
  today's episode. Thank you so much for
• 11:41
  understanding that you need to start making progress on your
• 11:44
  mental health. And as always, thank you for
• 11:47
  feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.