1. JOURNALING

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It's simply writing down your thoughts and feelings to understand them more clearly. And if you struggle with stress, depression,  anxiety, or *insert your mental health state/condition*... keeping a journal can help you gain control of your emotions, understand your thoughts better, and improve your mental health state overall. This makes journaling an incredibly helpful tool for managing our mental health. Journaling has helped to raise my self-awareness, to get to know myself better, and made me more compassionate with myself as well... through the practice of freewriting and reviewing my day in the evenings, and then reading my entry after I am done so that I could reflect. Journaling can help you manage anxiety, reduce stress, and even take care of the symptoms of depression. It also helps to improve your mood by:
 

• Prioritizing your problems, fears, and concerns and addressing them in an objective manner.

• Tracking symptoms daily so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better manage them.

• Providing a space for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts/behaviors/patterns.

Visit JOURNALING for more information on this practice, I started small like with the other practices by journaling for 10-15 minutes at first and once a day usually at the end of the day.  More guidelines on the page. 

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2. MEDITATION 

Meditation is the practice of focusing one’s mind for a set period of time. It’s about sitting down and being comfortable with your immediate state of being, whatever you may be feeling, and also focusing on your breath to stay present. While there are many forms of meditation, a common result is a feeling of relaxation and inner peace, which can improve your mental health.  The meditation style that I found most effective is mindfulness meditation where you are focusing on your breathing and the physical sensations of your body but also having an open awareness of your surroundings through other senses like sound and smell.

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In the beginning, I didn't think I could do this practice due to the hyperarousal mode (also hypervigilance) from my C-PTSD but I've been practicing mindful meditation since April 2022 now I can't go a day without it as I desire the process and result.  A nice 10-minute meditation just gives my mind a break from the usual sensory overload and focuses on what's in the here and now which is also a great way to start the day upon waking. As helpful as it has been in my mental health journey, it also improved my focus for my skate sessions. Check out the MEDITATION page for more details on the mental health benefits and I've provided some guided meditations as well.

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3. SKATEBOARDING
 

Skateboarding provides both mental and physical benefits... this practice has been incredibly therapeutic for me. So far, it has helped me to heal from my grief, to identify my traumas, grounds me by staying present on my board while having open awareness, and the multi-sensory experience while skating that I find extremely soothing. The most therapeutic part for me is simply rolling around/cruising in an empty parking lot or the skatepark. As a new-ish skater,  I chose to work on getting comfortable on my board working on the foundations instead of jumping straight into tricks. Getting comfy on the board has helped to build my confidence mentally and physically, which means just spending quality time with my board as often as I can. In between my work as a creative professional, taking care of my house, and my son... I skate whenever I can. 

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Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned skater (or you are thinking of picking up skating)... understanding how to have skating as part of your mental health management can benefit you greatly as it has for me. I didn't pick it up for this purpose but it was healing for me within the first month on the board, I will give more details on the SKATEBOARDING page

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4. SELF-MASTERY

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In the definition found in Merriam-Webster dictionary: "The ability to control one’s own desires or impulses: self-control, self-discipline." This has been an integral part of my mental health management as challenging myself daily and creating routines has helped to condition my mind (strengthen my willpower), things that are the opposite of comfort to flex your mind which in turn also helps with your physical wellbeing. Things like committing to long-term practice such as the aforementioned points of journaling, meditation, and skateboarding... it all takes a long-term commitment to benefit you and you will get better over time. These practices will help improve your mental health as you get them into a routine eventually. You'll see some of the same practices mentioned in the self-care section as well. Here are a variety of practices that I do daily to attain self-mastery in different areas of my life:

 

• Journaling

• Meditation

• Intermittent fasting (14-16hr fasts)

• Cold showers

• Exercise

• Eating well by learning about nutrition and leveling up my cooking skills

• Doing one thing a day that pushes me out of my comfort zone

• Learning philosophy to reframe my mind, to manage my emotions and thoughts better

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Will elaborate more on those practices and their individual benefits on the SELF-MASTERY page.

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5. SEEK KNOWLEDGE 

As someone who loves to learn, I can't stress how necessary this is to help manage your mental health by keeping your mind sharp, fulfilling any curiosity that you may have, and learning to better yourself through knowledge and practice. Lifelong learning is the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for both personal and professional reasons. Time is our most valuable nonrenewable resource, I feel that devoting our time to learning about things that we're curious about rather than being constantly engrossed in social media or other distractions is a productive use of our time and brain power. As you learn, your brain undergoes important changes, including creating new connections between neurons called neuroplasticity. These connections become stronger the more you practice. Acquiring new information and skills has always been a positive contribution to my mental health as it doesn't leave a lot of room for rumination or fixation on thoughts, learning simply uplifts my mood and makes my brain happy.  Learning on your own is so accessible now with the wealth of information at our fingertips.

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One thing I've been learning about regularly is about understanding different types of philosophy, the ones that resonated with me the most are stoicism and existentialism which feels practical.  Both are about self-improvement and things that can be done within your control.  Philosophy is available to us in different formats teaching us about those who came before us, understanding their hardships, and what we can learn from them. To reframe perspectives about our past + present + future, how to deal with adversities, to be steady in a chaotic world, and how to be an overall better person so that you're able to help others outside of yourself (like your friends, family, community, industry, etc.). More about learning and how it benefits your mental health on the SEEK KNOWLEDGE page.

 

6. SELF-CARE

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Self-care is more than just a catchphrase. Self-care is essential for our mental, spiritual, and emotional wellness. A term that has been used a lot in recent years, seems like it would be a simple concept and that we are all already doing it to a certain extent but self-care done with mindfulness is not as common. It's a busy world that we live in these days and chances are that you're already doing a lot and there are countless distractions (especially the one you've got in your hand loaded with apps meant to induce addiction). It keeps our minds distracted with things outside of ourselves, I know that I'm more aware of that a lot more now. It prevents us from raising our self-awareness and working on ourselves, for example, managing our mental health or learning new skills for our benefit. 

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There are different types of self-care, taking care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually... it's important to find out how to take care of those individual essential needs and find the balance that works for you. Start small with just taking 5-10 minutes at a time to take care of yourself in different ways. Sometimes you might need more self-care in one specific area to restore balance or find relief from a stressor in your life. Take the time to note these on a document/paper to see what's important for you and what self-care activities you may like to implement in your everyday. Some examples of my  daily self-care activities:
 

• Eating well (eating mindfully for your body - no diets)

• Skating

• Exercise (Walks, HIIT, Yoga + Skate specific workouts)

• Make time every day for your interests

• Meditation 

• Digital breaks 

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Will break down the different types of self-care, the practices mentioned above, and more on this SELF-CARE page.

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Those are my thoughts on the MNSTR Method, I hope that you'll try some of the practices sometime. With any type of practice, it helps to apply intention implementation... meaning to be quite specific on how you will go about doing that one practice like planning the time, duration, place, and frequency, for example, I do a guided meditation with some light stretching for 10 minutes next to my bed on the floor first thing in the morning after I wake up. Doing the practice several days in a row will eventually become a routine if that scheduling works for you.  I have shared a video book summary about good habit forming based on the book ATOMIC HABITS.

 

If you have any thoughts or questions about this page, feel free to CONTACT with the subject line: MNSTR Method. And lastly, please share this project with your friends and/or family who may benefit from this information. More relevant info is available on mental health in my ARTICLES section, filled with different media shares and topics of interest that have helped me along the way.