The Benefits of Checking In With Yourself

Checking in with yourself is a big part of practicing good mental health habits. It allows you to really know who you are, and what you need, and being able to take some time just with yourself is a very healthy thing for both you and others around you. But what are the true benefits of checking in with yourself? How could taking 10 minutes just to ‘talk’ to yourself really do so much for you? Here are the details you need to know. 

Realizing What You Need

The first big benefit of checking in with yourself is being able to work out what you need, based on how you feel, or how the day’s events have made you feel or react. Without taking a bit of time to close your eyes or take a deep breath and ask yourself, ‘What’s happened?’, you might find it much harder to work out what’s going on, or what you need from yourself or those around you. And this directly feeds into the next major benefit: 

Choosing a Course of Action

One of the major benefits of checking in with yourself is being able to decide what happens next. Once you know how to check in and see how you’re feeling, you can then determine what the root cause of the problem is, which is a key part of approaching your health in a productive manner. 

Indeed, if you’re worried about something like your health, you can ‘check in’ to see where that worry truly comes from. For example, if you’re stressed about how hard you’re finding it to hear people these days, the next step could be looking into hearing aids and even common hearing aid issues that could also be a part of your experience. Simply put, once you know what’s wrong, you can decide what feels right in order to fix it, and come up with an actionable plan. 

Letting Yourself Be Grateful

Finally, checking in with yourself isn’t just about working out how you feel and what you need to do about it. There’s a third step that brings the biggest benefit of all your way: taking time to remember what you have in your life, and what you can be grateful for. 

Because once you’ve unlocked all of your emotions about why you’re upset, or not happy, or simply a bit worried, you need to pack things back up (in a way) and end on a good note. Otherwise how will you stop overanalyzing your emotions, especially if you’re about to head to bed and get a good night’s sleep? 

Checking in with yourself is very much a process, and it’s essential for both your mental and physical health. It helps you to stay in touch with how you’re feeling, and instead of just sitting on or bottling these feelings (which can make you ill), you have an outlet for them, which can soon evolve into a plan of attack for your better self. 

Photos by Felipe Borges, Valeria Ushakova, and Breakingpic

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