October 10 is World Mental Health Day. According to the World Federation for Mental Health, it is a day to “celebrate awareness for the global community in an empathetic way, with a unifying voice, helping those feel hopeful by empowering them to take action and to create lasting change.”

My contribution to the cause is to use and show people the ACT Matrix so they can promote their own mental health and show it to others. 

To do that, you can do the mental health loop.

Draw this diagram, otherwise known as the ACT Matrix.

Ask yourself, “Who is important to me?” Recall your important people and jot them down in the lower right. Next ask, “What kinds of yucky stuff (like fear and anger) shows up inside of me and gets in the way of what I want to be doing?”. Jot that down in the lower left. Now ask yourself, “well, what do I do to get away from that yucky stuff that I don’t want to have?” ( scrolling on facebook is a great move to get away from stress ). Finally, ask yourself, ” What can I do to keep moving toward who is important to me?” ( call a loved one, visit a friend, etc.).

You have just done a mental health loop and you have flexed yourself up a bit. The more you do it, the more you notice. The more you notice, the more you can use what you have to get you where you want to go. You may also come up with something new.

Bonus points if you show it to someone else!

Here is a video where I walk you through the mental health loop.