What’s your “go to” method for a mental health reset?

I either talk to my wife, a family member or a long time friend. Watch a funny movie, or play a video game with my son. Getting out of the house helps, even if it's just to the store.

I am a multi-symptom chronic pain veteran. Six years ago, wife purchased a Golden Retriever for mem(us) in hopes that he will help divert my mind with the stresses of the constant pain and times of feeling down and over-whelmed. The pills I take don't come close to relieving the pain, however, my buddy "Dakota" has been a Godsend. He is a happy way to help divert my mind and we even get down on the floor and play with each other. SO, my advice to other Veterans, buy a free-spirited playful dog. you won't regret it! God knew the Angel to send me!!

I exercise, meditate, talk to my VA therapist but my go is my Ballroom Dancing. Ballroom dancing improves mental acuity throughout a dancer’s life – and that there are also substantial benefits to those who start ballroom dance as adults. Ballroom dancing can help enhance memory, alertness, awareness, focus, and concentration. It can prevent the onset of dementia and significantly improve spatial memory in elderly patients. Participating in an activity like ballroom dance helps create more intricate neural pathways, which can ward off weakening synapses that often come with old age. Among younger dancers, the results can also be significant. Swedish researchers studying teenaged girls with stress, anxiety and depression saw a decrease in anxiety and stress levels among those who took up partner dancing. They also saw marked improvement in mental health and patients reported being happier than those who did not participate in dancing. Partner dancing can also decrease loneliness among all age groups, because it’s a goal-oriented social activity that brings like-minded people together.

Whenever I get "down in the dumps", I pick up my fishing pole ad go fishing. It does not matter if I even catch fish, just being there near the water, in the quiet, is all I need to get well. There is something soothing to me about that particular situation.

ED

Just being out in nature - hiking, biking, walking, kayaking or reading a good book while sitting in the lounge chair on the back porch. I need to see our natural surroundings.

For me it's either a walk or a prayer or both and sometimes is putting on some favorite music.

Reading, journaling, getting out in nature or by the Ocean. Meditation & prayer. Sometimes a good movie & snacks.

Walk in the park Wednesday. To reconnect, decompress, slow down and appreciate the beauty that surrounds me I try to stroll (not speed walk) in the park near my house to ground myself in my restless mind and body. Paying attention to the little things like the trees wrestling the wind, the sound of the river running, a butterfly flaunting its wings and turtles communing in search of crumbs from visiting onlookers. It reminds me how many worlds exist within my own and how natural ebbs and flows of life are. Whether listening to music or nature it calms my spirit and makes me happier. #walkintheparkwednesdays

Hello! I'm not a veteran. My spouse is a military veteran. My spouse is a military veteran diagnosed with Vascular and Frontemporal Dementia along with other health conditions not of service injury. I work outside the home. I'd like to say to anyone out here who knows Vascular and Frontemporal Dementia. You know it is a terrible disease that alders the mind of your loved one and there's no cure for this. It's like two personalities in. I had never heard of Vascular Dementia until my spouse was diagnosed. There be times he'd seem like he part of who he was before. And there's time when I don't know who he is? It's like he's another person. He not know this and is not aware of his personality change. This is the disease and it affects everyone differently depending on which side of the brain strokes occurred.I work with Althiemer, Lewy body and Dementia patients but never worked with a vascular Dementia patient until my spouse. He's peaceful and he's a lot of work. With this disease. My spouse do not think anything is wrong. My spouse does not believe when his VA primary and or Neurologist explain to both of us what's going on and has happened inside his brain. My spouse thinks it's not true. This disease has rob both of us from living. I am my spouse wife! I am my spouse caregiver! And who I? A lonely person! My go to for stress relief is my flower garden outside and plants indoor. Taking care of my plants and flowers in my garden gives me so more inspiration, peace and calmness to enjoy the silence of digging into the dirt and listening to the sounds of birds chipping for me is enjoying the smaller things of the living in which I can make change. This disease my spouse has can not be changed or reversed. There is no peace within!! And working in flower garden is fuel my soul . I hope this was and is okay to say

I have a shop in my house where I go to be by myself. I turn on my TV, grab a sander and start working on a piece of furniture. Refinishing furniture gives me something to do with my hands while checking out mentally. My family knows this is my time to regroup and then come back to my responsibilities refreshed both physically and mentally.