Shower Thought

It’s been freezing cold lately – quite literally. And my lovely (but old and drafty) flat has been feeling the chill. It means that getting out of the shower is one of the worst parts of getting up in the mornings (along with it being dark when you wake up this time of year, but that’s a whole other blog post right there). Every morning I seem to do the same thing:

• Wake up.
• Snooze alarm
• Lay in bed scrolling through various social media apps for as long as possible without being late.
• Run to the bathroom for a shower.
• Do that little dance – the one where you stand on alternating feet in the shower, trying to keep as much of my body under the stream of hot water as possible.
• Get out the shower – wrap a towel around me and just stand there – dripping & shivering in the middle of the bathroom clutching the towel around me – for a minute thinking about how cold I am and that it’s impossible for me to ever be warm again and dreading the thought of having to shed this towel to get on with the rest of my morning routine.

The last few mornings I’ve been thinking about this last step. See, it’s this weird thing where as soon as I start moving, and towelling myself down, I naturally get warmer – both cuz I’m rubbing the towel over me, drying myself off, but also because I’m actually moving, and doing something. This is the part where I start to make a good point relating to mental health, rather than just reminding you how hygenic I am.

See, it’s easy to be paralysed – whether that’s shivering under a towel in the morning, being overwhelmed with too many things to do with your day, or just feeling like where you are now is where you’re always going to be. But just by trying something – anything – to help yourself, you’ll start to notice that you’re making progress. In my weird little example, it’s drying myself off and moving – and the more I do, the quicker I dry, and warmer I get, and more able to face the day.

But it could be that you’re feeling overwhelmed with having a million things to get done and seemingly no time to get them done in – or too many pressures from too many places all at the same time (like, why is it that EVERY teacher thinks their subject’s homework/revision is SO much more important than every other teachers? I digress). But in that situation, it could be a case of making a list of all the things you need to get done – right down to the really basic things like brushing your teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast, making your bed. Once you’ve ticked off a few tasks from your list – no matter how small – you’ve got a bit more momentum in you, and it’s easier to start attacking bigger tasks. You know you can do a bunch of small things, so why couldn’t you do one big thing?

Or in the example of feeling stuck where you are right now – maybe it’s a case of taking some steps, however small, towards taking control of your life & your mental wellbeing. Do something, even if it feels scary, and when you’ve done it, you can look back and realise that you’ve done it once and can do it again, or take on a new challenge. Maybe that’s pushing yourself to try a new coping technique or speaking to a teacher/family member/GP about the way you’re feeling. Bear in mind that it might not work for you, and that’s ok too; sometimes it’s just as much about finding what doesn’t work for you as what does.

I guess my challenge to you is to take that trickiest step, and start doing something – get that momentum going, and you never know where you might end up.