The Art Of Being Okay: 14 Small Life Fixes That Make A Big Mental Health Difference
You don't need a full life overhaul — just these tiny shifts in how you operate.
Natali Hordiiuk | Unsplash Sometimes the most profound shifts in our mental health come from small, intentional adjustments we make each day. The art of being okay is about building a toolkit of simple practices that help you navigate the ups and downs with more ease and self-compassion.
Whether you're going through a rough patch or simply looking to strengthen your mental health, these small life fixes offer practical ways to reclaim your sense of balance. Think of them as tiny investments in yourself that pay dividends over time, helping you build a life where being okay isn't just possible, it's your new baseline.
Here are 14 small life fixes that make a big mental health difference:
1. Write out your day's challenges and opportunities each morning
Journal through your solutions to get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Starting your day by externalizing problems on paper does more than organize your thoughts; it actually frees up mental bandwidth for better problem-solving.
Research found that expressive writing about stressful events improved working memory capacity by freeing up mental resources previously occupied by intrusive thoughts. When worries and unresolved issues cycle through your mind on repeat, they consume cognitive resources that you need for decision-making and daily functioning.
2. Be curious about your emotions instead of being overwhelmed by them
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Creating distance from your emotions will nurture your emotional control. When you feel anxiety creeping in or anger bubbling up, your instinct might be to either push it away or let it consume you. The practice of decentering involves stepping back from your immediate emotional experience to examine it from a more objective perspective.
Studies reveal that decentering dampens the impact and distress associated with psychological stressors by allowing you to notice difficult thoughts, feelings, and memories from an objective self-perspective without getting stuck in them. By cultivating curiosity about why you're feeling what you're feeling, you transform from someone drowning in emotion to someone who can watch the waves from the shore, creating space between you and your reactions that makes all the difference in how you respond.
3. Walk every single day for at least 30 minutes
Even if it's on the treadmill. Just move your body. A 2024 study of nearly 100,000 adults found that people who walked at least 5,000 steps daily were less likely to experience depressive symptoms, with those hitting 7,500 steps being 42% less likely to suffer from depression.
Walking boosts your mood by increasing blood flow to the brain, triggering the release of endorphins and serotonin, and calming your central nervous system's stress response. Start small if you need to, even 10 minutes counts, and build from there. Your brain and body will thank you for simply showing up and moving.
4. Put more effort into thinking about what's going right in your life than what's going wrong
This doesn't mean ignoring serious problems, but shifting your daily mental energy toward creating the life you want instead of obsessively dissecting everything that feels wrong.
Research from the University of Liverpool found that rumination, which involves dwelling repetitively on problems and their causes, is one of the most significant pathways from life stress to depression and anxiety. When we get stuck in cycles of negative thinking about our mental health struggles, we can inadvertently trap ourselves in patterns that worsen rather than resolve our distress.
5. Decide to stop feeding your worries
Turning away from worry to focus on the real world is a practice that will change your life. When you commit to letting go of worry, you're not abandoning problem-solving or preparedness. Instead, you're recognizing that most worries never materialize and that the mental energy spent on catastrophic forecasting could be redirected toward experiencing and engaging with your actual life, not the imagined disasters playing on repeat in your mind.
Cognitive behavioral therapy studies have found that individuals can learn to temporarily let go of worrying and refocus attention back on the present moment, a technique that proves 70 to 80 percent effective in significantly reducing anxiety symptoms.
6. Refuse to buy into the idea of being a victim
When we over-identify with our struggles, we can create what researchers call an "illness identity," which becomes a barrier to recovery. Individuals who progressed from viewing themselves primarily as a "patient" to seeing themselves as a "person" showed improved functioning over time, suggesting that maintaining a problem-focused identity can actually be detrimental to mental health, research shows.
7. Lift weights regularly
The physical and cognitive benefits are documented and substantial. Do not physically weaken. Strength training is one of the most powerful interventions for protecting your mental health and cognitive function.
Research found that resistance training significantly reduced symptoms of depression across all ages and health conditions, with participants experiencing moderate reductions in depressive symptoms regardless of how heavy they lifted. The mental health benefits extend beyond mood, with findings showing that regular weightlifting decreases anxiety, improves self-esteem, and creates an immediate sense of accomplishment after each workout.
8. Allow yourself to be human
Many of us hold a grudge against who we were. Find a way to understand that what you did was for a good reason at the time. You’re human. Forgive yourself.
Higher levels of self-forgiveness are related to well-being and serve as a shield against depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to research. When we carry unresolved guilt and shame about past actions, these emotions create a cycle of self-condemnation that can lead to significant anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
9. Be aware of energy drains
Enforce firm boundaries to ensure your energy levels aren’t stolen by other people, bad news, bad food, and cheap sources of dopamine. Your mental energy is a finite resource, and protecting it requires conscious awareness of what depletes it.
Research shows that without healthy boundaries, your nervous system exists in a state of hypervigilance, triggering chronic stress responses that leave you perpetually exhausted. The solution is to set intentional boundaries around who and what gets access to your energy, limiting news consumption to specific times, curating your digital environment, and recognizing that saying no to energy vampires means saying yes to your own well-being.
10. Avoid insulin-spiking food like bread, refined sugar, and pastries
This ensures your mood remains stable, and you’re less likely to get into bad thinking habits due to physical imbalance. Your blood sugar doesn't just affect your energy levels; it directly shapes your emotional state.
Research found that diets high in sugar induce sharp fluctuations in blood sugar levels, leading to mood swings and anxiety, as rapid changes in glucose activate the stress response and increase cortisol secretion. When you consume refined carbohydrates and added sugars, your blood glucose spikes, triggering an exaggerated insulin response that can lead to acute hypoglycemia, leaving you feeling irritable, anxious, and emotionally volatile.
11. Lean into your quirks instead of hiding them
Don’t allow the need for approval from others to make you weird and uptight. Get into the habit of showing us who you are — warts and all.
When you suppress your true self to gain approval from others, you create internal conflict that manifests as anxiety, depression, and chronic stress. Research has concluded that authenticity is strongly correlated with higher self-esteem, well-being, and happiness.
12. Jot down a few things you appreciate
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Reminding yourself of what you have will lift you, but it also makes you more receptive to receiving more positive things. Taking just five minutes to jot down what you're grateful for might sound overly simple, but the science backs up its effectiveness.
A study of gratitude interventions found that participants who practiced gratitude reported significantly better mental health, greater life satisfaction, and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to those who didn't. Practicing gratitude trains the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, with brain scans showing greater activation in areas associated with positive emotions three months after starting a gratitude practice.
13. Take regular breaks to stretch and move
Take regular stretching and movement breaks. Your body and mind weren't designed for marathon sitting sessions. A study from Columbia University found that breaking up prolonged sitting with just five minutes of walking every 30 minutes significantly improved mood, reduced fatigue, and boosted energy levels compared to sitting all day.
14. Develop a closer relationship with breathing
We can hold our breath when fearful, which reinforces mental ill-health. Breathe properly, through the nose, and take 3 slow, long breaths when you get emotional.
A comprehensive review of breathing practices found that slow diaphragmatic breathing showed positive effects on stress reduction across multiple studies. The next time emotions surge, pause and take three slow, deep breaths through your nose, letting each exhale be slightly longer than the inhale.
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient. He's the author of the Mastery Den newsletter, which helps people triple their productivity.
