I've been working for years on not taking myself so seriously and pray a lot.
Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
71–80 of 138 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#721. love someone, and become their sheltering rock.
2. engage in an (intense) outdoor activity (sports, for example).
3. spend less time in front of tv (either to watch a movie, or the news, or play video game, etc). ideally, you'll spend no time at all.
4. eat and drink healthily, laugh uncontrollably.
5. do not be anxious about anything (see philippians 4, and especially ecclesiastes 12, useful if read non-religiously but with the context of the whole book in mind).
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#73Weightlifting in the morning.
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#74I have a motto, “It’s really hard to be depressed if you eat, sleep, and exercise well.” Whenever I’m struggling, I drop everything (within reason) and focus all my effort in those 3 areas. When I do that, it doesn’t take long to have the energy and clarity to deal with whatever other problems I may have in my life.
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#75Meditation
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#76I have a motto, “It’s really hard to be depressed if you eat, sleep, and exercise well.” Whenever I’m struggling, I drop everything (within reason) and focus all my effort in those 3 areas. When I do that, it doesn’t take long to have the energy and clarity to deal with whatever other problems I may have in my life.
Sadly it's really difficult to do all three well :(
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#771. love someone, and become their sheltering rock. 2. engage in an (intense) outdoor activity (sports, for example). 3. spend less time in front of tv (either to watch a movie, or the news, or play video game, etc). ideally, you'll spend no time at all. 4. eat and drink healthily, laugh uncontrollably. 5. do not be anxious about anything (see philippians 4, and especially ecclesiastes 12, useful if read non-religious…
-Have several goals in life (career, family, etc.)
-Have a support system (friends, family, relatives, etc.)
-Have several hobbies
-Exercise and sports
-Travel
-Give back (charity, etc.)
-Read
-Stop eating carbs
-Take regular 30-60 sec. cold showers (shock therapy)
-Meditate
-Take regular walks
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#78First, the physical: sleep well, eat well, practice sports
Second, the surroundings: analyse your immediate surroundings, and what/who is causing stress. Toxic friends, too much alcohol, etc.
Third: find a higher peace-bringing meaning. Wether it is a goal, or friendship/love, or even religion.
Also: work on redundancy of your mental health. Have your 3 pillars of strength in a healthy state: work, belonging (love/friendship), hobby. If 2/3 are good, then you have the strength to work on the third. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. 100% work-driven is not healthy, and actually counter-productive! Eg if works goes bad, then you have a crushing nothing going on for you. Then good luck improving your work situation while feeling crushed. Make your mental health resilient.
I also highly recommend you seek professional helpers: sport coach, psychologist, or just talking it out with friends regularly.
Another great helper is having habits. Take the habit of scheduling a meeting with a friend once a week. Take the habit of running on Sunday evenings. Habits can be the autopilot of your mental health.
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#79I'm currently struggling with parenting an 18 month old child as an introvert. As a 50 year old first-time parent who had the benefit of lots of quiet alone time for literally decades, and possibly got a bit too used to it. :/ My sanity is eroding and I hit a wall every day. I also found that I don't have time anymore to keep up with technological developments like I used to, which is unfortunately eroding my value a…
It gets easier, my 3 year old is "all grown up" now. I actually already miss the baby phase, it happened so quick.
> keep up with technological developments like I used to, which is unfortunately eroding my value as a developer
Not sure why you think this is so, there hasn't been much change in the past few years. In any case, I don't think keeping up is important for seasoned developers. So you skip a few version of React and pick up the next shiny thing that comes in a few years, I don't think it really matters.
Re: Ask HN: How do you work on your mental health?
#80I have a motto, “It’s really hard to be depressed if you eat, sleep, and exercise well.” Whenever I’m struggling, I drop everything (within reason) and focus all my effort in those 3 areas. When I do that, it doesn’t take long to have the energy and clarity to deal with whatever other problems I may have in my life.
Did you watch Stutz Method?
He proposes that depressed patients work first on their bodies (eat, exercise), relationship (do not retreat from humanity. Don't be alone) and mind (diary, reflection).
That would give them back "life force" to begin working on themselves.
Make sense to me.