Jessica’s 5-A-Day

jessica-picJessica posted her 5-a-day… and sent the beautiful photo above too.

“Here are the top five things that I try to do every day to stay mentally healthy, keeping in mind mentally healthy is relative and not always successful:”

1. I am friends with myself. This means that I speak to myself kindly and treat myself the way I treat my close friends. I try and keep the inner dialogue positive and it really does help.

2. I remind myself “This too shall pass”—it works to give me perspective in tough times and also helps me appreciate special moments and have gratitude for everything.

3. Most nights, I get enough sleep. I firmly believe in the regenerative and restorative power of a good night’s sleep and refuse to participate in the modern trend of sleep deprivation.

4. Meditation. I do try to set time aside each day for a few minutes of meditation, but even throughout the day I take a few seconds when necessary to go into that relaxed state and stay centered.

5. Creativity…while I have been awful at keeping up the art this month, I sure do think about it a lot and those faeries are calling out loudly to me to be painted!

“Last night I started journalling again. It’s been a while. It is a healthy habit, and I wish through the years I had been better at keeping up. I start a journal and write almost every day, then when it is time to start a new one I end up with a huge journalling gap.

Also, I think I am on the computer too much. I may start to take a whole day or even two days each week and keep the computer off at home. With the exception, of course, of Netflix instant viewing while I am painting. I often think about what I did before I had a computer- I painted more, read more, journalled more. My attention span was more focused.”

Thanks Jessica!