How many times have you felt overly tired, half-focused and basically a shell of yourself? Whether you are a stay at home mom, a working woman, a work at home woman, or whatever title describes your life, those are the symptoms of a person desperately needing a mental health day.
Yesterday afternoon during my daughter’s basketball game I received a phone call that pretty much rocked my world. It was one of those that you don’t ever want to receive and I was fairly numb the rest of the day.
Last night after I tucked my precious children into bed, prayed for a long time, and snuggled into my husband I finally drifted off to sleep around 2 A.M. I knew I needed some sleep because we had some big things happening at the house this morning but still couldn’t shake the numbness of that horrible phone.
I woke up this morning exhausted and of course, with a headache. I knew I could deal with the few things going on at the house but other than that, it was going to have to be a mental health day.
What is a mental health day?
There may be a true definition of a mental health day but here’s my definition: a day you take for your own self-care because you are stressed out, no longer give a you-know-what, are overly tired, or need some time to focus on you!
What you decide to do on your mental health day depends on you. Some people call their counselor. Some stay in their work out clothes all day and may or may not brush their hair. Others decide to sleep, read, or meet a friend for lunch, exercise, go to a museum, or do a hobby that brings them joy.
My prescription for my own mental health day was staying in my sweats and t-shirt. all day My wonderful husband made me breakfast. (Probably because he knew I wouldn’t have eaten otherwise!) I took a bubble bath, scheduled a massage, and let myself sit and do pretty much nothing the entire morning (which is very rare…I’m a morning person and usually do all of my work in the morning.) After lunch I took a nap. I let the kids make supper while I supervised. I played Tractor-opoly (the farm version of Monopoly) with my boys. We wrestled, giggled, and did homework.
It was necessary!
2 hours after bedtime, I almost feel human again cuddle up with my hubby to watch the news, write this blog post and read a little before bed.
If you have found yourself needing a break, please consider allowing yourself a mental health day. It’s one of the best things I’ve done for myself in a long time!
Do you take mental health days?
Hi ladies! Welcome to week 55 of Women With Intention Wednesdays!
Here is the link for you to fill out a link to be the Featured Blogger on WWIW’s! There aren’t many questions and I’d love to include you in our features!
Last week the most popular post was Top 10 Books I Read in 2015 by Sara at One Radiant Home. There were some good ones on this list that I’ve read, and some I’m excited to check out!
Welcome to Women With Intention Wednesdays!
Here is what you will find at Women With Intention Wednesdays:
- This is a link up party where you come to encourage one another, have fun, and share your best posts to help women live their best life!
- In other words, any post that you have written about Christian living, homemaking, relationships, healthy living, living a frugal life or that helps another woman can be included in this link up! Please just them family friendly (I reserve the right to remove anything that I feel isn’t appropriate).
- This link up is beneficial for every woman! Whether you are a blogger or a reader, this is one you won’t want to miss! I’m very excited to offer this link up as a place to not only build new relationships between bloggers but also by providing an awesome resource of information for my readers!
Here are the rules of this link up:
- You must link directly to your post (no homepages, please).
- Please link up no more than 2 posts each week and please do not link up the same post week after week.
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For every link you add, please visit the link before you and one other of your choice. If your links are consecutive visit the blogger before you and your choice for the 2nd link. It’s impossible to build relationships when no one communicates! Please don’t link and run!
- By linking up you give me permission to share your posts and photos on this blog and social media. Each week I will choose a featured blogger as well as the most popular post. I will only feature you and the most popular posts if you have followed the rules (otherwise I’ll move on to the next most popular post). All features will be linked back to the original source.
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[inlinkz_linkup id=600427 mode=1]
Community Building Question: What is one activity you love that brings you joy?
A few activities that I love are watching my kids play sports, reading, and baking!
Have you enjoyed what you read here today? Do you have friends or other women you know that could benefit from this resource? If so, please do me a favor! I have included the links below to share with other intentional women! They’ll be glad you did!
Shared at these great link parties: The Chicken Chick, Mommy Monday Blog Hop
Crafting something that will bring another person joy makes me happy!
Sorry about that phone call…will be praying for you, Jenny! Glad you got a mental health day…sometimes I get those, too. Mostly I’ll just take time for “mental health activities.” Like baking last night -regardless of the hour!! Which answers the question: baking.
Jenny, I’m sorry to hear about your difficult phone call. I pray things will work themselves out, if that is possible, but either way that you can begin to see God’s good purpose in some way. I know what you mean by a mental health day. For me it’s reading and doing this and that on the computer (reading blogs, checking out Pinterest) in my PJs with NO MAKEUP! Blessings, my sister!
((Hug)) Prayers for the painful call you received. Glad you were able to take some time to regroup. ((blessings))
There are so many great posts linked up today! Thanks for hosting.
A activity that brings me joy? Going on a run or walk (especially with my husband) or anything that makes my daughters laugh. A children’s laughter is the best!
Singing! I love to harmonize and sing with a group!
I have taken a few mental health days! We all need them from time to time. I’m a busy body so taking time to slow down is so hard for me. Taking time to do nothing is even harder, but there is a reason God wanted us to take at least one day per week to rest. However, even Sundays are busy with church services, meetings if you’re in leadership positions and then back on Sunday nights. I think it is important for mental, physical, and spiritual health to find some time once in a while to just do nothing. A whole day is better, but even a half day helps. I’m sorry you had to get that call. Praying for grace and mercy as you grow through it.
Getting in physical activity and writing 🙂
I NEED mental health days. When I take a step away from the chaos, I like to be outdoors. I want to breathe fresh air, walk through the woods, and forget everything for a while.
Me too! 🙂
Hi Jenny!
You are SO RIGHT! We all need those days for any or all of the reasons you mentioned. I am retired from being a professional clinical counselor and more than a few of my clients would have saved themselves a lot of grief, stress, and burnout if they would have applied this principle. I think those of us living in the country seem to especially have a hard time giving ourselves permission to do so, but we SHOULD!!
Thanks much! Always appreciate you hosting the Linkup!
Blessings,
Pam
I love the idea of a mental health day! It sounds so rejuvenating! I’m glad your husband was willing to help you accomplish that! I linked #80. Thank you for the chance to share. Have a great week!
I have always been a big advocate of mental health days and taught my kids about them early on! I think it helps us to be able to cope better when we can take time out on those days that we just need a break…even children. And although some may judge me for this, if my children came and told me they needed a mental health day I would allow them to miss school. They never abused those mental health days or took advantage of them. And even now that my daughter is in college, she still talks about needing mental health days!
What a great example for your kids! I love it!
Yes, I’ve been taking a lot of mental health days in the past few weeks as I dealt with two deaths. I really do think they are healthy and wise to do once in a while. When my father died, my youngest son just wanted to be home with me. Blessings!
I love to color … just saw the question! 🙂
Reading encouraging books and watching movies with my family.
I could really use a mental health day! I just join the YMCA to have little mental health moments throughout the week. It helps me be a better mom to have that time to myself. Good post mama!