Mental Health Load Management - How Full is Your Teacup?

In the physiotherapy and fitness world, simply put, load management is about understanding and being aware of how much you are training in order to make ‘gains’ and to prevent injury. For example, increasing your training load form three times per week to seven times per week increases your risk of injury.

Using the concept of load management, this post will be about mental health load management - understanding what makes you happy, well rested and being aware of when you need to say no or stop, or if we reframe positively, to say yes and go to rest, rejuvenation and wellness.

....a wealth of mental reserve to draw on and one where I am feeling calm, at peace, rested and grounded.

So, flip this concept of physical load management around to mental health and we can paint it in this light.

The way I try to take care of my mind is by imagining I have a lovely teacup. This teacup represents how full of wellness and good mental health I am in. For example, a teacup brimming with a hot delicious tea of choice, is one where I have a wealth of mental reserve to draw on and one where I am feeling calm, at peace, rested and grounded. In contrast, a close to empty teacup is one where there are challenges with your ‘groundedness’, maybe there are flurries of thoughts, you are physically and mentally exhausted or there is more reactivity to situations.

So, how do you start being aware of mental health load management?

First, know yourself to identify what fills your own teacup. Write down what you enjoy doing and what keeps you feeling refreshed. It can also be important to identify items on your list as low energy demanding/high energy demanding and low refreshing/highly refreshing. By identifying what an activity demands of you and how much it adds to your mental health cup, it means in moments where one is pressed for time, you can prioritise one to two things that do not sap energy but fill that teacup up...a lot!

Give this a shot to see what fills your teacup.

Personally, practicing yoga, spending quality time with my partner, family and friends, reading a book/journaling (with a yummy tea!), gardening and a good night's rest are my rejuvenating activities. These are my low demanding and highly refreshing ‘go-tos’ on my list, as I can do them all from home at any time and they give me a huge sense of relief and grounding.

Sometimes it takes a few moments of the teacup being empty (burnouts) before it is clear what you need. Sometimes, despite trying your best to fill that teacup to the brim, things are still not panning out smoothly. Remember, be kind to yourself, be patient to let yourself actively grow and seek help if needed. It is only with small steps and mini moments of awareness and engaging with internal balance that we can find our feet to be able to make that we'll deserved hot cup of tea.

(I love teacups but your own version does not have to be a teacup! It could be a large sturdy mug, a maple tree, bucket or a cave with cosy items nestled inside. Your ‘cup’ is your own to find, fill and understand)