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Mental Health comes with its challenges, and many are faced with the pressure to succeed in the face of that. However, with it being a subject still shrouded in stigma and negativity, it is easy to forget your potential to succeed. As well as this, many often neglect the importance of excelling in your mental health and how that should come first. People aren’t often shown that mental health and ‘excellence’ can coexist and that there is not only one understanding of excellence or mental health. Neither of these two experiences are a ‘one size fits all’, so why should we treat it as such?
Understanding that there are different forms of excellence, relieves the pressure to a degree that one faces when trying to achieve it. There is a connection between perfectionism and mental health, for some it stems from the need to prove themselves and succeed on terms that aren’t their own. How do you define excellence? What do you feel like you need to be successful?
Excellence doesn’t always look like a job with a six-figure salary or being known worldwide, etc. Being excellent is not only about performing to a high standard at work, school, or at a certain hobby. It is also referring to healthy functioning. You could go out and do the grocery shopping for the week, or dedicate a day to self-care, or even have a phone call with a friend and you would have achieved something that day. Our small victories are still a marker of excellence.
But most importantly, those victories and that progression are unique to you and shouldn’t be based on another person’s.
Progress isn’t achieved overnight, and you do have to put the groundwork in and acknowledge there will be bumps in the road but try to remain resilient and hopeful.
There is a quote by John Green that perfectly summarises the theme of this article. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t”. This is so important because with mental health, the internal struggle can be just as hard or at times harder than the external one. There is often an internal dialogue that tells you what you can and can’t do. Those thoughts are amplified by the stereotypes that surround certain conditions.
It is clear these thoughts need to be challenged, so for every time you’ve been frustrated by your tendency to overthink, recognise your ability to engage in information with such depth and focus. It’s necessary to teach yourself to see the beauty in your struggle and the world around you. This perhaps explains the increased popularity of mindfulness therapy and inspired apps such as Calm and Headspace over the last few years.
The topic of mental health has prompted many of us to think on how we can better care for ourselves or recognise the signs of declining mental health early. Improving our sleep pattern, our diet, and communication habits with friends and family are so integral to better mental health.
These things are essential because before you can be good for your future plans and aspirations, you need to be good for yourself. Excellence starts at home and whilst you may feel stuck in the moment and wonder if things will get better, they will. Trust and realise that your best is yet to come.
