When it comes to the changes she's made to see gains in her mental health, Tina Majorino is becoming more open.
The 37-year-old Napoleon Dynamite star opened out in the "My Good Day Face" series for Mental, which debuted today, about the advancements achieved in her mental health journey despite having struggled with anxiety her entire life.
Majorino acknowledged that COVID was a turning point in her understanding of how to handle challenges more effectively.
She said to Mental's founder Amy Keller Laird, "People's mental health has really suffered, and being as we don't have a lot of care for such things in our nation, the impacts of lockdown and the collateral damage of COVID have been extremely devastating."
"Even though things are returning to "normal," I don't really believe that we will ever define that word the same way again. Both [my brother] and I have expressed how we are tired of going through unheard-of incidents. They are all. It can all be so overwhelming with the news, social media, our daily obligations, and our relationships. I've obviously had to change how I operate to get by."
One of the reasons Majorino and her brother Kevin began their podcast No Pressure to talk about wellbeing and mental health was the epidemic.
"Considering issues that both of us are passionate about, discussing mental health and lessons we've learned about how to better care for our minds and ourselves... I sincerely appreciate it, "She spoke.
Since we live in an era of knowledge, Majorino continued, "it can feel tremendously overwhelming when everyone around you is telling you what to do to feel better or look better." When you start thinking, "I won't feel better about myself or snap out of this funk until I do something radical and huge," it may sometimes turn into feeling helpless.
The former Grey's Anatomy star claimed that her regular therapy sessions had changed the way she views herself and how to safeguard her mental health. She also gave her doctor credit for helping her understand what self-love really meant.
"I don't believe I ever fully comprehended what that meant. But I think I've managed to understand how that appears and feels to me "explained the actress. "It's challenging to be human. And I've had a tough time. The difference now is that I genuinely believe that I am picking up skills that will help me for the rest of my life. There will always be tough times. But now I'm confident that I can manage things, no matter how they may appear."
Majorino has acquired a number of useful techniques, such as daily meditation, outdoor exercise, boundary-setting, practising gratitude, saying "no" when necessary, and staying in touch with her friends. She continued by saying that at the top of her list of mental health resources is acceptance.
Accepting the fact that when I take care of myself, I will certainly disappoint someone at some point, and that's okay, said Majorino. That it's acceptable if some of the choices I have to make for my own survival turn me into a villain in someone else's tale.
