National Renewal Day: How Self-Improvement Can Boost Mental Health

National Renewal Day is a national holiday that’s celebrated on May 4th, and National Renewal Day dates don’t change from year to year. A legacy of the self-help movement, it is an annual observance held in celebration of fresh starts, goal setting, and embracing change.

The spring season, a symbol of new beginning, can be the ideal time to engage in self-renewal, potentially offering an opportunity to reset, reflect on what you would like to change in your life moving forward, and set new goals to advance those efforts for the future.

Self-renewal does not necessarily need to involve serious changes or an entire makeover of your personality. It can be as simple as taking some time to rest and recharge or identifying aspects of your life that you want to improve. Focusing on yourself can have a number of mental health benefits. In today’s go!-go!-go! culture, it can sometimes be easy to lose sense of what you want out of life. 

Temporarily pausing to evaluate what you appreciate and what you would like to change can help you become a more authentic version of yourself, which can spur personal development and improve your self-esteem. A licensed therapist can help you reflect on your life and make changes in areas that are important to you.

Large and small ways to celebrate National Renewal Day

Below, discover actionable strategies to employ on National Renewal Day and beyond.

Self-reflection

Taking time to reflect on yourself can involve thinking about your thoughts, behaviors, and emotions to understand what motivates you and how various parts of your life, like your career and your relationships, may impact you. 

Self-reflection, particularly through journaling, can increase your sense of self-awareness and renew your confidence, integrity, strength, and power, but it can also be difficult to objectively do on your own. 

If you are having a hard time incorporating self-reflection into your everyday life, you may want to start by asking yourself some of the following questions:

• Which parts of my life currently bring me the most joy?

• What are my positive habits? Which habits aren’t as beneficial?

• What are my values?

• What does happiness look like for me?

• What do I seek from other people?

• What motivates my choices in life?

• What would I like to change about my life right now? What about in the next week, the next month, the next year, and the next five years?

• Do my behaviors align with my moral code?

• Am I doing what I want to do with my life, or am I doing what I believe others expect me to do?

• What do other people expect from me?

• What do I value about my connections to friends, family, and other loved ones in my life?

• What are the most important life lessons I have learned so far?

• What are my three favorite things about myself?

• What made me happy when I was a child, and what makes me happy at this point in my life?

• How would I describe my own history?

• What is healthy about my relationships with other people? What is less healthy? How can I adjust potentially unhealthy relationship patterns in my life?

• Do I trust other people? Do I trust myself? How can I incorporate more trust into my life?

• What life challenges am I currently experiencing?

• In what areas of my life am I having trouble setting and maintaining boundaries with other people?

• Is there anything I am unable to give myself?

Self-improvement

It can be helpful to approach healthy lifestyle changes with a growth mindset. Your drive for self-improvement does not have to be motivated by a belief that you are currently deficient in some area. Rather, you might remind yourself that it can be important to look for ways to develop into a more complete and authentic version of the person you are. 

One of the most effective ways to pursue self-improvement may be to set meaningful and tangible goals for yourself. These goals can be defined using the SMART method, which generally stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

• Specific: What do you want to accomplish? Think of this step as creating the overall mission statement for your goal. For example, if you have decided you spend too much time and money on eating out, your specific goal could be, “I want to cook and eat more of my meals at home.”

• Measurable: How will you know when you have met your goal, and what metrics will you use? For the above goal, you might define “more” as two-thirds of your meals, meaning you will have met your goal when you are eating at least 14 of 21 meals a week at home.

• Achievable: It may not be healthy for your self-esteem to set yourself up for failure, so when thinking about your goal, consider what might be required to achieve it. If you would like to cook more at home, you might need new kitchen supplies, cookbooks, and a meal planning and grocery shopping routine.

• Realistic: For many goals, it might not be realistic to expect them to be achieved right away. If you are currently eating most of your meals at restaurants, it might be challenging to immediately transition to eating two-thirds of your meals at home. It could be helpful to set milestones in achieving your goal. For example, you might start out by cooking five meals a week at home, then gradually work your way up to more.

• Time-bound: Based on the milestones you’ve set up, determine a date by which you want to achieve your goal. For instance, you might say, “Six months from today, I want to be cooking two-thirds of my meals at home.” 

Self-care

Self-reflection and self-improvement can require a lot of mental and emotional energy. The importance of self-care can be indispensable in trying to renew yourself using these methods.

Self-care can be more than self-indulgence. It can be a form of monitoring your emotional, physical, and mental health that may enable you to recognize when something in your life is affecting your ability to function and take care of yourself during those times. Self-care activities can include the following:

• Exercising regularly

• Meditating

• Eating nourishing foods

• Journaling

• Engaging in mindfulness practices, embracing one’s faith, or seeking other spiritual care

• Enjoying a relaxing spa day

• Digitally detoxing by updating online profiles as preferred

• Taking breaks, whether from work, school, parenting, relationships, or the day-to-day grind

• Practicing gratitude

• Planning a date night with a friend or significant other

• Spending time with loved ones and people who make you feel good about yourself

• Taking a long, hot shower or bath

• Reading a book

• Keeping up with doctor and dentist appointments and other aspects of your physical well-being

• Engaging in an activity you enjoy or taking up a new hobby

Finding support while practicing self-renewal

Taking a long, hard look at yourself and implementing strategies to improve your life can be difficult, even if you’re regularly engaging in self-care. If you are hoping to find some assistance with self-renewal, talking to a mental health professional may be helpful. Among other tactics of self-renewal, a licensed therapist can help individuals determine renewable energy sources that are suited to their particular life and goals.

Pros of online therapy — regardless of National Renewal Day dates

Those with busy schedules may struggle to find a way to make in-person therapy a part of their lives. Online therapy can provide a more convenient way to receive mental health treatment while cutting out commutes and time spent in waiting rooms. You can attend sessions from the location of your choice at a time that fits your schedule and choose between video conferencing, phone calls, and in-app messaging for each appointment.

Effectiveness of online therapy

Research has indicated that there doesn’t seem to be a significant difference in efficacy between online and in-person therapy. One 2017 study found that completing a course of online therapy generally resulted in improved mental health outcomes for people with a variety of mental and emotional concerns. If you believe you’d benefit from professional guidance as you pursue self-improvement, online therapy could be a beneficial option for you.