Do you push yourself to the point of exhaustion daily? Do you find yourself thinking "I can just wait until _________"? Do you become easily irritable or angered throughout the day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it is no wonder that you found yourself here, interested in what signs to look for when you know you need to take a mental health day.
I am taking a wild guess that since you found yourself here, you may also be on a journey with a bit of perfectionism and holding high standards for yourself. I invite you to be mindful of the perfectionism and standards that you hold for yourself while reading through these signs. Growth does not always have to be pushing yourself, sometimes growth can be the challenge of authentically staying in every moment even with the discomfort. Which means, sometimes the growth is taking a day off even when you want to run a marathon!
"Sometimes growth can be the challenge of authentically staying in every moment even with the discomfort."
Although these signs are not the end-all-be-all of taking a mental health day, these can help
bring awareness to different areas that you might pay attention to and allow your body to notify you when it is in need of a rest. Here are 5 signs you may need a mental health day:
1. You Get Easily Angered
When stress, anxiety, overwhelm, and everything else start piling up it is normal for us to be outside of our Window of Tolerance and become quickly angered. My favorite example is
getting our belt-loop stuck on a door handle as we are trying to leave a room, it's such a simple mistake but can be the straw that breaks the camels back in a moment of overwhelm and stress. When we quickly become angered, this can impact how we show up in our relationships and at work. If you notice yourself becoming easily angered at things, this may be a sign that you need to take a mental health day.
2. You Dread Getting Up In The Morning
Is your first thought in the morning "UGHHHHHHHH NOT TODAY"? Or something similar? If
you are having these thoughts then it might be a good time to allow your body to have a "not today" day of taking a mental health day!
3. You Can't Focus
When our stress and anxiety levels are high, this can impact our ability to focus and decrease our productivity levels. When our productivity levels are down, we tend to increase our time spent at work and our shame towards ourself for not being able to focus. Taking a mental health day can reset that focus and reignite a passion for your work.
4. Engaging In More Drugs or Alcohol
Do you find yourself engaging in more alcohol or drug use to cope with the anxiety, stress, and overwhelm? Engaging in drugs and alcohol can increase our chances for more long term mental health effects. Taking a mental health day can decrease feelings of anxiety and stress, which decreases the need for drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism.
5. Loss of Interest and Motivation
If you are having a hard time engaging in your hobbies and interests outside of work, then this may be a sign that you need a mental health day as well. The intention of life is to have a balanced life with time spent in many different areas. If we are spending all of our attention and motivation at work and have none left for things we enjoy outside of work, we are not honoring the holistic beings that we are. Taking a mental health day can reset motivation and interest and may even re-spark a passion for one of your hobbies!
Take The Mental Health Day!
You deserve it. Period. Point blank. End of discussion. If you are searching for what signs to look for to know when to take a mental health day, you need a mental health day. Ask yourself what you would like to do on that mental health day. If that is laying in the grass for hours on end, so be it! If that is setting yourself up a massage and then a lovely lunch afterwards, wonderful! Everyone's mental health day will be different as we are all beautifully unique individuals.
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