Mental Health Awareness Month: Permission to Feel Satisfied
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and this year Twinings is partnering with Positive Psychology practitioner and Holistic Wellness Expert Darlene Marshall to share simple practices you can try to boost your mental wellbeing. Mental health is more than dealing with problems. When we recognize that small steps forward can make a big difference we can be intentional about building wellbeing. This month, that journey starts with permission to feel satisfied.
Many of us try so hard to be perfect in our life, work, and wellness that nothing feels good enough. Then, you’re bombarded each day with the suggestion that you should be doing even more, and it can leave you feeling overwhelmed and drained. Research by Dr. Barry Schwartz gives insight into why this perfectionism mindset undermines wellbeing. His work shows that people who get stuck constantly striving for perfectionism have lower wellbeing because they rarely feel good enough.
The good news? People who set a bar for what’s good enough, even if it’s very high, feel a sense of satisfaction. The wave of positive emotions from feeling satisfied fills them up, giving them a boost of energy and accomplishment that fuels them for whatever comes next.
Boost Your Wellbeing Today
Ready for your own wellbeing boost? Here’s a simple practice you can try right now while your Twinings Tea is brewing:
-
List 3 things you want to accomplish today. They can be as grand as progress on a major project or as simple as going for a mental health walk.
-
For each thing on your list, ask yourself: “What would make it good enough to feel satisfied?” Remember that you can have a high standard, but it also doesn’t have to be perfect.
- Throughout your day, check in on each of the 3 things you wanted to accomplish. When you reach your “good enough,” threshold, take a moment to feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Even if you decide to keep striving, feeling satisfied with your work so far fills you up to want to accomplish more.
When you give yourself permission to celebrate the small, satisfying steps each day, you fill your emotional cup and accomplish even more over time without feeling depleted, overwhelmed, and burnt out.
Be sure to check out our other posts from this month for more simple practices that can help build mental wellbeing.
