{"id":3979,"date":"2020-03-31T09:19:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T14:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/blog\/?p=3979"},"modified":"2020-04-22T12:06:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T17:06:46","slug":"3-keys-to-improving-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/2020\/03\/31\/3-keys-to-improving-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Keys to Improving Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3980\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3980\" style=\"width: 265px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3980\" src=\"http:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Sumetra-Picture1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"178\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mental health is crucial today&#8230;and everyday!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s so much going on in the world today, and there\u2019s one thing I believe is important to discuss \u2014 mental health.&nbsp; It\u2019s a topic that many find difficult or challenging to discuss.&nbsp; Personally, I think it\u2019s because when people think mental health, we can quickly think negative thoughts.&nbsp; So today, I want to talk about improving and maintaining good mental health.&nbsp; Before I share a few recommendations to improve mental health, I want to share something with you that I don\u2019t typically talk about.&nbsp; I feel this is a safe place so let me be very transparent about why this topic is so important to me.<\/p>\n<p>I went through a very difficult time some years ago and decided to see a therapist.&nbsp; While in therapy, I shared that seeing a therapist meant something was wrong with me.&nbsp; She shared that it was more about having a safe place to release \u2014 a time for me to share things that were on my mind that I didn\u2019t feel comfortable sharing with others.&nbsp; My time with her was so helpful and life changing. A couple of the recommendations I am going to share about improving your mental health, are inspired by my time with her.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>1. Prayer and Meditation<\/strong><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3982\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3982\" style=\"width: 247px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3982 \" src=\"http:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Sumetra-Picture2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"247\" height=\"151\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A quiet place enables meditation and time to talk with God<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I like to say, quiet the noise.&nbsp; Now more than ever you have to focus and silence negative thinking.&nbsp; Meditate on positive things.&nbsp; Prayer is nothing more than a conversation.&nbsp; I get so many people asking me about the right way to pray.&nbsp; I won&#8217;t go into detail here.&nbsp; I will say, just like the time with my therapist, I look at prayer as a way of release AND staying quiet long enough to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B9_9WkLHIA5\/\">hear from God<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>2. Journaling<\/strong><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3981\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3981\" style=\"width: 248px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3981 \" src=\"http:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Sumetra-Picture3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"165\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3981\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Journaling provides reflection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is one of my favorites.&nbsp; I like to write out my thoughts and even scriptures, poems, etc. that inspire and encourage me.&nbsp; It\u2019s anamazing since of ease and relief to write and journal at least two times a week. It\u2019s also very therapeutic to go back and read them years later to see just how much growth has transpired over the years.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>3. Words of Affirmation<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>This is so powerful. Speaking life over myself and telling myself I am fearfully and wonderfully made is what helped me to embrace&nbsp;<span style=\"font-size: 1.5rem;\">my&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1.5rem;\">natural beauty.&nbsp; I had heard often that I wasn\u2019t the prettiest or the sexiest and it started to effect the way I saw myself.&nbsp; Through looking in the mirror and speaking beauty and strength, I became strong and confident.&nbsp; This helped me become a beauty influencer and inspire others to embrace their natural beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a process in improving mental health, but it is possible.&nbsp; These are just a few things that I do often and it works.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B9CMsCdHMtN\/\">Remaining positive<\/a> and full of faith in times like this is critical to your physical and mental health.&nbsp; If there\u2019s something that you\u2019re not doing out of the things I recommended, give it a try.&nbsp; You\u2019ll thank me later!<\/p>\n<p>Faithfully,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sumetrareed\/?hl=en\">Sumetra Reed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s so much going on in the world today, and there\u2019s one thing I believe is important to discuss \u2014 mental health.&nbsp; It\u2019s a topic that many find difficult or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,975],"tags":[265,620,525,1003,1002,258,130,53,23,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-3979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogger-corner","8":"category-lifestyle","9":"tag-beauty","10":"tag-black-girls-rock","11":"tag-blogger","12":"tag-coronavirus-anxiety","13":"tag-covid-19-coping","14":"tag-funky-junky-feature","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-uncle-funkys-daughter","17":"tag-unclefunkysdaughter","18":"tag-vlogger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3979"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4045,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions\/4045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/chatbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}