Episode 1003: Time For Mental Health

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1003 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Eric Brotman: I'm Eric Brotman from the don't retire graduate podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasuries to live out your calling, having the ability to plan for the future. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:30] Scott Maderer: that's why and how you can take a day that is both productive and not. Productive in that it helps you with your mental health, but not productive in that it's not a day. Just filled up with all of the many things that you have to do during your life. This will pay off dividends. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:57] If you truly desire to become the person who [00:01:00] God wants you to. Then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true column. In the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:18] And today's episode about investing in others by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why it's important to take time for mental health. Even if you don't have health concerns. I also share with you some actions you can take that don't take long, but actually improve your mental health. And I also share why that time spent pays off in dividends.

[00:01:42] As we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to [00:02:00] support the show.

[00:02:00] Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/. One of the things that I've talked about occasionally on the show is taking the time that you need for mental and physical health care. And today I want to especially talk about taking the time for mental health, even if you don't have.

[00:02:26] Mental health concern or a physical health concern that might cause you to need that. We talk a lot about things like depression and those sorts of things, but there's also mental health needs for just regular old burnout for working hard and spending a lot of time, doing things and needing to take some time.

[00:02:48] Before you get physically sick before you get overwhelmed to recuperate and recover your mental wellbeing and mental health is one of those things that we [00:03:00] often don't take time to. Sometimes it's because maybe you're a single parent household. Maybe your income is the one that everyone depends on.

[00:03:11] Maybe you don't have a lot of sick leave or the ability to take paid leave. And so you save up your vacation and your other time and you hoard it because it's probably limited in some. But even then you need to find a way to use some time for your mental well being, not just using that time for time that you're sick or on the verge of getting sick, but instead, also using it for time to avoid burnout, because that will lead to physical and other health problems that cause even more time off.

[00:03:52] And when I talk about taking a mental health day, I'm not just talking about taking a day off to do nothing. I'm actually talking about taking a [00:04:00] day off in a structured way to help address your mental health. We often think that taking things and doing things for our mental health is going to take us a long amount of time.

[00:04:13] Maybe we are going to have to crash and catch up on all our loss, sleep, this sort of thing. But instead, that's not what I'm talking about. In part I'm talking about making mental health, part of your daily routine, something you spend a little bit of time on every morning and every evening, but then still occasionally taking a full day to spin with some dedicated time.

[00:04:37] On yourself, just like you would for a medical appointment or for healthcare in the physical sense, finding a way to put into your life some days to have a mental health day or a day to recover. Yes. Meditation, physical activity, all of these sorts of things should be part of our daily [00:05:00] routine and those.

[00:05:01] Take that much time, but you also could take a full day and set that aside from time to get yourself in a better head space. So what are the things that you might do? First sit down and let's brainstorm a list of things that you might want to accomplish. You can include in that chores, things like catching up on the laundry, things like maybe decluttering a particular area or cleaning a room or something like that.

[00:05:30] You could talk about catching up on errands. You can also put into this list, things like physical activity going for a run, going to the gym include things like taking a nap, calling a friend, various things like that. Practicing self care activity, like taking a long soaking bath or doing something else that helps bring your mental state into a happier place.

[00:05:55] And then take through the list and begin to pare it down. Odds are [00:06:00] good. If you brainstorm a big, long list of all the sorts of things you might want to do on a mental health day, you're going to end up with a list that's longer than you realistically can put into a day. Or if you want to carve out and use this list to generate some things that you'll do during a week or over a longer period of time, starting to categorize them by time and how much time you have realistically to do that, because you don't want to create a day where you feel like you've got so much to do that.

[00:06:28] Now you're stressed out about getting it all done. And so as part of that, Then you can actually start the routine of a mental health day and in a mental health day, you should always start first with some sort of gratitude journaling, some sort of time to sit down and write out some things that you're grateful for two or three things that you're truly deep, full, great full for.

[00:06:57] And then spend some time, not just looking at it, [00:07:00] not just writing it, but reflecting on. Why are you feeling like you need some mental health time? What are the things that have caused you to have some stress? What are some things that have caused you to be struggling and need this time for yourself?

[00:07:15] Brainstorm some about what it is that you're doing. What do you need to add into your daily routine? What do you need to cut out of your daily routine? What do you want to spend some more time on and less time on. Pay attention to that and acknowledge the feelings around it. And then choose one thing from your lists that you can do that might reduce some of your stress or anxiety, and then choose one thing that helps you in a health way that helps make you feel more physically healthy.

[00:07:50] And then choose one thing that you're just got to do, because it makes you happy. It's something that you enjoy and then actually [00:08:00] execute on that. Spend time doing those things. This. That's why and how you can take a day that is both productive and not productive in that it helps you with your mental health, but not productive in that it's not a day just filled up with all of the many things that you have to do during your life.

[00:08:23] This will pay. Dividends. The interesting thing is if you take one of these sorts of days, every once in awhile, it makes you healthier. It makes you less likely to get sick. It makes you more willing and able to spend time and energy developing and doing the things that you really need to do. And because of that, you'll actually gain more time and energy than you'll spend by taking a mental health day.

[00:08:55] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:57] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired [00:09:00] stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.

[00:09:41] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.