Mental Health October: Exercise and Body Image

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My @liveCandid tip to stay strong: Mix it up. Obviously, right now I can't train with my team but I like to go for walks or a jog to get some fresh air. I might do some sit-ups, lunges, and jump rope. And then as time goes by I find myself looking at online workouts and dance workouts too to mix it up. #emergestronger #livecandid #throwback

A post shared by Simone Biles (@simonebiles) on May 16, 2020 at 8:38am PDT

In the summer of 2008, I was on vacation with my family at Disney World. After a long day at the parks, I spent every moment we had in the hotel room watching the Beijing Olympics. This is when I fell in love with watching gymnastics!

I remember watching Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin and the rest of the women’s team absolutely destroy their events – doing flips! spins! splits! tumbles! the rest! (I don’t know gymnastics terms!) I was enthralled! I wanted to be as strong as them, fly through the air like them, be as confident as them, the whole thing!

While watching one night, one of my family members commented on how chubby the girls looked. Why were they wearing leotards when their legs were so fat? If they worked out so much, why weren’t they all skinny?

My brain started short-circuiting. They’re some of the strongest athletes in the world! It’s all muscle! They responded, Eh, is it worth being so strong if they look so chunky? I wouldn’t want to look that heavy.

I’ve spent most of my life trying to reckon with these conflicting values. Do I want to be strong and healthy? Or do I want to look thin and “beautiful”, according to traditional values?

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Mental Health October: Social Media

My social media use has changed drastically during quarantine. As I’ve spent more time indoors, on my couch, doing nothing, I’ve also found myself mindlessly scrolling on various social media feeds now more than ever, even if everyone else is just at home, on their couches, doing nothing as well!

I’ve made lots of changes to the way that I use my phone and social media, both before and during quarantine, in order to reduce the amount of stress that they trigger. Many of them are very small changes, but all together, they’ve saved me a lot of anguish – and I hope they can be helpful to you too!

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happy little reminder 💚 should i make this a sticker and a print? . . . . . . . #prints #homedecor #giftidea #artist #art #smallbusiness #microbusiness #typography #printmaking #printartist #popart #lettering #calligraphy #portraitart #digitalart #type #letters #house #womenoftype

A post shared by Viv Metheny (@vivmetheny) on Aug 5, 2020 at 11:36am PDT

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Mental Health October: Spiraling

One bad mental habit that I often fall into accidentally is spiraling.

You know the like: if I don’t finish this problem set, then I won’t understand the material, and if I don’t know the material, I’ll fail the exam, and if I fail the exam, I’ll fail the class, and if I fail the class, I’ll fail out of school, and if I fail out of school, I’ll be saddled with thousands of dollars of debt without an degree, blah blah blah…

This habit can become very stressful very quickly, and is almost never productive or useful. It’s truly just a waste of time and energy!

As hard as I try, I can’t stop my spiraling thoughts entirely – but I can become more aware of when they pop up and work hard to fend them off. I’ve learned some of these tactics in therapy, and tried others based off of my own research on the internet – read about them below!

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