30-Day Mental Health Challenge

Each week on my website, I bring you new research-based techniques or coping skills, usually from Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.  With so many strategies to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start when you’re working on your own mental health.  So, I’ve got a proposal: For the next 30 days, join me in trying one new technique or coping skill each day.  By the end of the month, you’ll have experimented with a variety of new strategies to master your mental health, and you’ll have an idea of what works for you, where you need more practice, and what just isn’t a good fit for you.  This is a great way to move from the research phase of “how do I make my life better” to the action phase.  

Keep This In Mind As You’re Doing the Challenge

Before we get started, keep in mind that this is not a self-care challenge; it’s a mental health challenge.  A self-care challenge focuses on soothing yourself and improving your mood in a somewhat immediate sense.  By contrast, this challenge is about challenging you to confront thoughts and feelings that might be holding you back.  Expect some of the exercises to be uncomfortable. 

Also, know that most of these strategies aren’t a quick fix.  Don’t expect to immediately find relief from bothersome emotions or thoughts.  When you try some of these strategies for the first time, it’s very likely that you’ll still be bothered by the same thoughts and feelings that you started with.  It’s taken you years (sometimes decades) to develop the unhealthy patterns that are concerning you, and it’ll take a while for these strategies to effectively undo that.  The goal here is to try out some new strategies, see what you like, and then ultimately continue using them consistently until they can actually change your thinking and behavior.  This is the start of a long-term lifestyle change.  

Third thing to keep in mind: There’s no good time to start. If you’re following along when this post goes live, then use the dates provided in this article to keep yourself on track. But if you get off track, that’s okay. Note that we’re not starting on a Monday or on January 1st or on the first day of the month or some other arbitrarily “good time” to start…we’re just starting. If you’re finding this article sometime after it went live or if you fell off track somewhere in the middle, choose to start today. It doesn’t matter if today is a “good day” to start or not. Recognize that there really isn’t ever a good day to start, so start today.

Finally, keep in mind that even if you don’t finish this 30-day challenge in 30 days, it’s still beneficial. Maybe something came up on Day 5 so it actually took you three days to get Day 5’s challenge done. That’s ok! Don’t pressure yourself to do the challenge perfectly — that’s a great way to fail! Just challenge yourself to do the challenge. If it takes longer than 30 days, no problem! No matter how long it takes, it’s still beneficial.

If you’re in, let’s get started.  For a summary of what you’ll be up to all 30 days, grab this PDF download. 

Here are more details on your tasks for the next 7 days.

30-Day Mental Health Challenge: Week 1

Day 1 (February 7, 2021): Start a Gratitude Journal

A great way to support your mental health is to keep a gratitude journal. In previous articles, we’ve discussed why you should keep a gratitude journal, how gratitude improves your physical and mental health, and how to start a gratitude journal. I even gave you 31 prompts to complete a full month of gratitude journaling with no repeats! Check out this article for details about how and why to start your gratitude journal and to grab your journal prompts:

Start your gratitude journal today and challenge yourself to keep it going throughout the 30-day mental health challenge!

Day 2 (February 8, 2021): Identify Your Goals

Your next mental health challenge is to get crystal clear on what your goals are. Consider these questions:

• What do you want to change about yourself?
• What do you want to change about your mental health?
• If you felt calm and confident, what would you do differently in your life?
• If you woke up tomorrow and some sort of miracle had taken away your mental health concerns, how would your life change?

Turn the answers of those questions into goals.

Day 3 (February 9, 2021): Choose a Habit to Break

We’ve all got bad habits we’ve picked up over the years — skipping the veggies, biting our nails, waiting until we’re completely out of underwear to do the laundry…

Consider the goals you developed yesterday and see if you’ve got any bad habits interfering with your success in reaching those goals. Choose a habit to break and then read this article for details about exactly how to change it. Make sure you grab the free PDF download with the article to really help yourself figure out how you’re going to drop this habit. If it were easy to ditch, you’d have already done it, so grab these resources for extra help.

Day 4 (February 10, 2021): Choose a Habit to Start

Now that you’ve started breaking one of the habits that’s interfering with your success reaching your goals, select a habit that would be helpful to adopt instead.

Here’s an example. On Day 2 of the 30-day mental health challenge, you decided one of your goals is to increase self-confidence. On Day 3, you decided that self-criticism is interfering with your self-confidence, so you’re working on breaking that habit by completing a self-criticism workbook. On Day 4, you might choose to add the healthy habit of saying one kind thing about yourself each day.

Check out this previous article for more details about how to add healthy habits, and grab the free PDF download to help yourself get started:

Day 5 (February 11, 2021): Identify Changes You Need to Make

Over the past few days, you’ve set some goals and decided what habits you need to break and what habits you need to add to be able to reach those goals. Now that you’ve started changing your behavior on the outside, your next step is to make some changes on the inside so you can keep these changes going.

Here’s an example: If you want to make an exercise habit, you not only have to start a habit of exercising more often, but you also have to become the type of person who (1) doesn’t push the snooze button, (2) chooses hard things over easy things, or (3) commits to something even when they don’t feel like doing it.

Any change we want to make in our life requires that we make some adjustments to our mindset. Check out this previous article to learn how to make those adjustments. Also, grab the detailed worksheet to work yourself through what personal changes you need to make and how you’ll make them. This is a major part of being able to reach the goals you set on Day 2.

Day 6 (February 12, 2021): Compliment Yourself

Over the past few days, you’ve put in some serious work on yourself. You’ve been thinking hard and reading articles and completing worksheets. How’s it going?? Your commitment is impressive. Today’s challenge is less time-intensive. But don’t be fooled — it’s still a serious challenge.

Today, look at yourself in the mirror and look directly at your least-favorite body part. Look at it hard. Now compliment it. Find something positive to say about it or find some usefulness for it. Here’s an example. Say you really hate your arms. Your inner critic tells you they’re fat or flabby. Look directly at your arms and say, “Thank you, arms, for helping me hug my children each night. I couldn’t do it without you.” If it’s hard to think of something, consider what you would say to someone you loved who was complaining about this same type of thing.

Remember: You don’t have to believe what you’re saying to yourself to still be able to say it. Saying it is part of what makes it become more believable and ultimately what helps silence your inner critic.

Day 7 (February 13, 2021): Practice Breathing

One of the quickest ways to relieve stress and anxiety is to breathe differently. The way we breathe tells our bodies whether we need to activate our fight-or-flight system or whether we’re safe enough that it can turn off. Here’s my favorite exercise:

Count to 4 slowly as you breathe in.
Count to 7 slowly as you hold your breath.
Count to 8 slowly as you breathe out.
Repeat for 3 minutes.

30-Day Mental Health Challenge: Part 2

How did it go this week? You did some serious work! Congratulations! Even if it took you more than 7 days to get through these 7 days of challenges, you’ve shown your commitment to improving your mental health. What an accomplishment! Next week, I’ll be back with the details for your next 7 days. Don’t miss it. In the meantime, for a summary of what you’ll be up to all 30 days, grab this PDF download. 

Talk to you soon,

Dr. Finch

P.S.    Remember, this is education, not treatment.  Always consult with a psychologist or therapist about your mental health to determine what information and interventions are best for you.  See the disclaimer for more details.