What can you get done on your worst mental health day?

anxiety depression mental health movement movementformentalhealth seasonal depression Aug 28, 2023

I was chatting with a Consistency Camp client about how you see influencers on IG or Tik Tok drinking their perfect morning elixirs and doing their perfect morning mediations and doing their perfect morning journaling...

But what about the rest of us who do not live perfect lives?

What about the rest of us who have shitty mornings because your kids woke you up because of a thunderstorm?

Or the power went out last night and you woke up all sweaty and couldn't fall back asleep?

Or you woke just feeling terrible about life and the thought of an influencer having a beautiful Social media-worthy morning made you roll your eyes?

My mornings are not beautiful. They're not perfect.

I do wake up early and do something for myself before I start my work day, but it's not a perfect morning. Ever.

Our dog is 16.5 and sometimes I think I am going to get to the gym super early and end up being 15 minutes late because I needed to take her out or clean up an accident.

Sometimes I miss my first alarm and find out that I didn't set a second alarm and it's 30 minutes after I was supposed to wake up.

Sometimes I have an early work call with someone in Europe and don't have enough time to make it to the gym and back.

Sometimes I didn't get great sleep because my husband was traveling and I felt depressed while he was gone, and I wake up the next day and he's not there, and I still feeling awful.

So what about those days?

Those days make up a lot of life.

The imperfect, raw, real days of life.

I have a saying that I remind myself on those types of days. I actually needed to use it this past weekend.

"Jaclyn, what can you get done on your worst mental health day? Do that and just be fine with it."

Today is Monday, and I haven't been to the gym since Tuesday of last week. What can I get done on these types of days?

Bike rides. Daily bike rides. We live in California now, and bike rides on the beach help my mental health. Even if it's just for 20 minutes. I've gone on a bike ride and been fine with it.

I'm not increasing my strength with a bike ride. I'm not getting closer to my 200lb squat goal with a bike ride. But I am still showing up for myself.

I'm doing something instead of nothing.

I'm keeping the habit of doing daily exercise.

I'm casting a vote for the type of person I want to be: someone who moves their body every day.

And you know what? Going for a bike ride is fun. It's not hard. It's easy and it's fun, and it's something I can do on my worst mental health day. It doesn't take a lot of convincing to get myself to go for a bike ride on my worst day.

Now, you may not live in California. That's okay. I actually used to ride my bike in Chicago too!

And you may not own a bike. That's okay. You gotta come up with something else for you.