What are micro-profits for mental health?

We are beginning to understand the importance of taking care of our well-being and mental health. And yet we are also bombarded with information about what it means and what it might look like. It can be overwhelming at a time when we are often already overwhelmed.

So how do we make this task manageable and achievable? That’s what micro-profits in mental health are all about. Microprofits for mental health, based on sports psychology concepts of extreme performance, focuses on small, doable steps you can take every day, in just a few minutes, to take care of your well-being and mental health. The understanding is that by making these small steps or small changes, improvements, additions or changes in your daily life, these small moments or micro-gains will come together to create overall big changes that will benefit you, your well-being. and general mental health.

What are micro-profits for mental health?

Microprofits in mental health can mean many things. In the book Microprofits for mental health: 50 small actions that will make a big difference to your well-being. There are 50 microwins described, and there could be many more. Every day you will have many opportunities to take small steps to take care of yourself, meet your needs, and improve the way you feel, think, and take action.

You can explore micro-profits in any of these areas (and more!).

• Be careful: There are many benefits if you bring more. attentiveness into our lives – the art of presence and observation – for example, learning to walk mindfully, eat or wash dishes. These are actions that you can do every day, but try learning to take a moment to notice how you are thinking and feeling in that moment, noticing each of the five senses, and being completely in tune, just for a few minutes.
• Breathing and Grounding: Learning to use your breath or the ability to ground yourself in moments of overwhelm are incredibly underrated skills that we can all lean on. For example, try taking a moment to pay attention to your breathing and begin to gently slow it down. Slowly inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth, inhale slowly for 4 counts, noticing how your belly rises outward as you do so, then hold your breath for a moment or two, and then slowly exhale for 4, 5, 6, 7…
• Be compassionate: Being able to speak to yourself gently and kindly to combat the critical inner voice that many of us have is a wonderful gift you can give yourself. For example, the ability to stop at a difficult moment and say to yourself: It’s complicated; or it hurts, and I’ll get through this; or I can take care of myself through this; or It’s difficult and I can learn from it.
• Rest and Sleeping Fine: Many of us struggle to relax and get a good night’s sleep. One small micro-benefit is the ability to give yourself permission to rest—permission to take a day off, finish work on time, go to bed early, do something just for yourself. Sometimes we can take a break, but all the time we feel criticized for everything we should be doing – take a break and allow yourself to fully enjoy it and relax.
• Establishing social connections: Our fast-paced world is so busy and busy that sometimes important and meaningful connections get lost. Taking a few minutes to reach out to someone important to us, respond to a message, reconnect, or make a meaningful connection can be very helpful.
• Movement: Movement is very important for our well-being. While this can be achieved through big steps such as taking up sports or active hobbies, at the micro-profit level we can also make small changes. For example, how often do you sit, stand, or work in an awkward position? Try to notice this and change your position, walk around, stretch, or change your posture. It’s just a small thing, but remember how all these little moments add up to impact the way we think and feel, our well-being and our mental health.
• Purposeful action: How often do we avoid, procrastinate, and forget to do something for ourselves or just something fun? There are so many small, intentional steps we can take. Do you have a task that you are putting off? What small step could you take to move forward with this challenge? What if you completed this small task today?
• Taking care of your emotions: By taking care of how we feel, making space for our emotions, communicating, processing them and letting them go, we can begin to work on all of these using our micro-gains. You can start by simply noticing and naming what you feel and where you feel it. Only this small step can be effective.
• How do you think: It is very helpful to observe how we think and how we respond to our internal thoughts. For example, can you take time to notice what is going on in your mind? Do you talk to yourself kindly, jump to conclusions, catastrophize, worry, ruminate, avoid, or try to suppress thoughts? Are your thoughts calm or crazy? Are they stuck on one thing or jumping around? Starting to notice and study the patterns in our thinking is the first step to starting to respond to our mind differently.
• Focusing on you: There are many micro-gain steps that you can focus on just for yourself. Pay attention to what you need: are you hungry or thirsty, do you need to move, do you need a break, are you in pain or do you need help? Can you make time for something just for yourself—a favorite book, a song, a walk, flowers, coffee, a candle, a scent, or a lunch spot?

There are so many ways that the concept of micro-profits for mental health can be brought into your life. Try this micro win today:

Take a moment wherever you are. If you can, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Ask yourself what small thing you could do right now take care of yourself. Should I have a drink? Write to someone? Take a break? Play your favorite song? Make it small meditation? Go for a walk? Send yourself some compassion? Make this moment work for you. Keep it small; keep it possible. Incorporating the concept of micro-profits into your life means you can always wonder, “What small step could I take right now to take a little more care of myself?”