Author Matt Haig asked people for their best mental health advice – 23 favourite responses
The coronavirus vaccine promises brighter days ahead but with the country back in lockdown again, 2021 currently feels very much like 2020.
Which is why we were particularly grateful when author Matt Haig asked this on Twitter.
What is the best mental health advice you were ever given?
— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 5, 2021
It prompted no end of very helpful and illuminating responses, of which these are our favourites.
1.
Thoughts are not facts.
It’s still tough for me to always wrap my head around it but it helps me stay out of dark rabbit holes at times.
— Meredith (@KiwiBreeder) January 5, 2021
2.
Other people’s opinion of me is none of my business.
— Jo Billington (@MsJoBillington) January 5, 2021
3.
This too shall pass.
— David Ames (@semadivad) January 5, 2021
4.
Pick a favourite local tree and observe it through the seasons. Take comfort and solace from the cycle of nature: the buds, the leaves, the fruit, the fall. Here’s my lovely hornbeam tree, earlier this week pic.twitter.com/eKknzBIUFM
— Jo Lake (@Joanne_Lake) January 5, 2021
5.
You can’t do it all on your own.
— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) January 5, 2021
6.
Mental health nurse told me to “swallow your frog first thing in the morning” meaning you have something horrid to do but you keep putting it off & it ruins your day, if you do it first thing it won’t be as bad as you expect & you have the rest of the day to do something nice.
— Julie Skinner (@Ladyjuliejools) January 5, 2021
7.
Exercise helps.
— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) January 5, 2021
8.
Try not to ‘catastrophise’, try not to look more than a couple of weeks ahead. Sage advice from @lailarouass x
— Matthew Wright (@Matthew_Wright) January 5, 2021
9.
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
— 😷 Nexy 🇪🇺 😷 (@fCruelet4u2r0e) January 5, 2021
10.
Clean something. A drawer, a room, whatever. Make order out of chaos. I also had a therapist who kept asking me “what’s the worst that can happen” and over and over until I ran out of “what if” excuses for being afraid of doing something.
— Donna Lynne Champlin (@DLChamplin) January 5, 2021
11.
A lot of the baggage you’re carrying around isn’t yours – it’s your parents’. Leave it lying on the ground.
— ZÖMBY WOOF #FBPE 🇪🇺 (@ZombyWoof4) January 5, 2021
12.
That happiness is not a constant state you will achieve “one day” and stay there. It’s more like this… pic.twitter.com/UiKz6knTcX
— Claudia Tanner (@claudiatanner) January 5, 2021