How to Take an Effective Mental Health Day Off
Everyone deals with varying levels of stress, which can be particularly difficult to manage if you also have symptoms of anxiety or depression. When you feel like your stress levels are reaching a peak, it may be time to take a break to reset. A mental health day is a day you take off of work or school, and you minimize commitments and/or responsibilities. You can use this time to relax, relieve stress, have fun, and prevent burn out.
One day may not be enough to solve heavy underlying problems, but a mental health day can provide a necessary space to destress, regroup, and gain back energy levels, leaving you feeling less stressed and refreshed. There are significant benefits of taking a mental health day, as it gives you the space to:
Clear your mind
Improve your sleep/get more sleep
Process your emotions
Reduce stress and promote relaxation
Have fun and do what you enjoy.
Choose Your Day: In order to avoid stress about taking a day off, try to schedule a day off ahead of time, or find ways to rearrange your workload. However, if you wake up one day and feel like you can’t work that day it may be a good opportunity to take a day off and make the most of it.
The decision of when to take a mental health day varies person to person. If your employer is supportive and you feel comfortable sharing, you can ask for a mental health day in advance. However, if you don’t feel comfortable sharing, you can always call in sick, use some paid time off, or schedule your mental health day for a day you already have off.
Tips for a Productive Mental Health Day.
Think of mental health days as a tune up, rather than as damage control. Ideally they should be something you can work into your schedule to help prevent burn out or break downs. However, our culture prioritizes productivity over mental health, and people often think they must have to really be struggling to be deserving of a break. Try to think of mental health days as proactive rather than reactive.
Consider scheduling ahead. This gives you more time to plan how you are going to spend it. Since the point of a mental health day is to positively impact your well-being, you can benefit from planning for it. The general idea of the day should be intentional, as opposed to busy.
Truly unplug from work. Often times when people take time off work, they engage in it in little ways such as checking their emails or ruminating about their job. While you are taking a mental health day, try to resist the urge to tune in to work. Limiting your screen time will also improve your mental health.
Honor the need to do nothing. It can be challenging to relax, especially since we live in a culture that pushes us to go go go much of the time. Sometimes a mental health day can be dedicated to staying at home and practicing self-care. Remind yourself that it is okay to relax, and that you deserve a break.
Connect with others. Social connection is an important component of self-care, and reaching out to others, seeing friends who work from home, or calling a loved one can help to ease your stress on a mental health day.
Be in nature. Being outside can be incredibly therapeutic, but depending on where you live it may be harder to feel like you are truly immersing yourself. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with being outside, you don’t have to go on a strenuous hike to let nature nurture you. You can find a park or spend time on the beach, and just relax outside.
Do something creative. Connecting with nature, and others, are key on a mental health day, but it is even more important to connect with yourself and do something that promotes growth. You can journal, draw, try a new craft, work on puzzles, or anything else that gets your mind moving creatively!
