World Mental Health Day 2023

October 10, 2023

It's World mental health day and I live with an often overloaded brain. How can I help myself?

Every Monday the lead of our Org Design team gives us a snippet of mindfulness- and sometimes they resonate more than others.

This weeks was about mental minimalism! Initially my mind went straight to what I have been trying to do for over a year now and that is declutter, remove stuff from my house that I don't need, things that I need to think about and which I feel if I could clear out would be leading to a type of minimalist lifestyle. It will mean less "things" for me to worry about and in turn more space in my mind to be able to cope during stressful times when my anxiety is racing out of control.

I will share what was sent:

The 'Love Mondays' focus this week is all about 'mental minimalism' and musing on the fact 'What if you could declutter your mind, just like you declutter your home, to create more mental space and clarity?'.

We make so many decisions in a day from what we wear, what we eat, how we show up and all of the various other decisions in and out of work that when it comes to completing the big tasks we are already exhausted. The questions today asks us to think about how we lighten our cognitive load.

Consider:
What areas in your life could embracing minimalism bring more clarity and simplicity?

Practice:
Actively decluttering your choices, locking yourself out of social media, and practicing time-bound decision-making to combat procrastination.

Decide to:
Focus your mental energy on the decisions that truly matter.

Take what you need but what I have taken is that making all the decisions I need to in a day is truly exhausting and there are many that could be let go, or even rearranged to not bring clutter everyday.

So last night I did a meal plan for the week and shopped for the food... I don't have to think about this again all week.

My mental health suffers a lot with the overloading and the clutter and so even one or two less decisions per day will help.

I will also spend some time to think about other decisions that could be managed using this mental minimalistic method and therefore help the glorious clutter that is my mind.

If your interested here is what I planned:
Monday: Burgers - all fresh ingredients
Tuesday: Roast Lamb and roast veggies with fresh corn
Wednesday: Beef stir fry with broccoli
Thursday: Chicken with peanut sauce and Nasi goreng rice (I learnt at the cooking school in Bali)
Friday: Homemade pizzas
Saturday: Decide on the day
Sunday: Pasta (maybe bolognaise )