19 Amazing Mental Health Goals to Start Your Healing Journey

Although I am a self improvement blogger by profession, I am in no way a mental health professional. See my disclaimer for more info.

Have you been struggling mentally? Here are 19 mental health goals to set so you can work toward healing internally.

Are you at a point in your life where you feel like you’re not getting very far? Like you know you could be doing better, but you’re still struggling to find the light?

I get it. We all reach that point in our lives. I started feeling this way during my junior year of high school. I realized that I was lacking in just about every area of my life and I was ready for a major life change. I sat down and set some mental health goals. From then, I’ve been going through my own self-growth journey.

I want to help you do the same. In this post, I’ll share with you all about setting mental health goals so you can embark on your healing journey.

This post is all about mental health goals.

Why should you set mental health goals?

Alright, so first we should probably talk about the importance of setting mental health goals.

In general, you usually set a goal along with a plan to complete a larger project. For example, if you’re starting a business, one of your first goals might be to invest in a course for entrepreneurs.

The same idea applies to your self growth journey.

When you decide that it’s time to learn more about yourself and become a better person, it’s a great idea to set some goals to help you get through the process.

Here are some reasons you should mental health goals:

1. To set on your self discovery journey
2. To have smaller, actionable tasks that will help keep you accountable 
3. To have things to work toward 
4. When you accomplish one, you feel proud. This will encourage you to continue to persevere through your self growth journey!

How to set mental health goals:

Now that you know why you should set these goals, let’s talk about how to set them. Get your coffee or tea because it’s going to take some time, thinking, and self-reflection!

How’s your life right now?

Think of every possible area in your life: 

1. mental health
2. emotional health
3. intellectual health
4. physical health
5. relational/social health
6. financial health
7. spiritual health
8. professional health

I want you to think of the good and the bad. Spend as long as you need evaluating all of these aspects of your life before you move onto the next step. 

Which of these areas need improving?

Whether it’s your mental or spiritual health, think about which aspects of your life that really need attention. These are ones that you’re going to zero in on and set some specific goals for.

Once again, put some thought into this. No one is rushing you! Take as much time as you need. 

How are you going to improve these aspects?

What specific parts of them need attention? For example, say you’re lacking in the social part of your life. Are you having trouble holding conversations with people?

If that’s the case, that’s probably something you’d want to work on.

Here, we’re going to set something called SMART goals. When you set a SMART goal, you set your goal in a way so that you’ll be more likely to achieve it.

This kind of goal should follow these 5 criteria:

• S: Specific — is it detailed?
• M: Measurable — can you track it?
• A: Achievable — is it reasonable?
• R: Relevant — does it align with your values and lifestyle?
• T: Time-based — how long will it take to accomplish?

For more on SMART goals, read this post.

How will you track your goals?

It’s important to set goals, but it’s just as important to track them.

This is because you might get inspired and set all these different goals one day… But then before you know it, you haven’t made any progress toward them because you haven’t been tracking them!

Keep reading and I’ll show you different ways to track your mental health goals.

How to track your mental health goals:

If you’re serious about any goal, you should track it. This will help you hold yourself accountable so you don’t stop making progress toward your goals. Also, when you start to feel unmotivated, you can look at the progress you’ve already made and feel a boost of motivation.

So, these are some ways to track your goals:

1. Use a habit tracker
2. Use a digital platform like Notion
3. Use a physical notebook
4. Use a digital journal

Tips for setting mental health goals:

Before we get into the goals, here are 3 tips for setting mental health goals. I believe this will help you on your self growth journey!

1. Get an accountability partner

With any goal, you’re eventually going to feel unmotivated and discouraged at times. I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s bound to happen. You won’t feel motivated 100% of the time.

(Which is why self-discipline is powerful, but we’ll talk about that in another post.)

Getting an accountability partner can help with this. This is a person who will help keep you accountable when you’re feeling negative about your goals. They will give you words of encouragement to let you know that you are capable of achieveing your goals.  

2. Don’t focus on the negative

I get it — I’m still learning this as I go though my self discovery journey. But please try to focus on the positive instead.

When you’re working toward something major, it can be easy to get distracted by the negative moments. Then you only focus on those and how you’re seemingly not growing. 

That’s toxic. 

You have to look at it the other way. Instead, look at the progress that you’ve made so far! For example, say you’re trying to read every day but you haven’t read in the last 2 weeks. 

Your goal was to read every day and finish one book every month, but you’ve been slacking. Don’t feel bad about this. Instead, look back at your previous habits. 

Did you used to read for pleasure at all? If your answer is no, then you should be proud that you took the steps to start working toward your new goals.

3. Start today!

Yes, everyone wants to wait until a new month or new year to set and work toward goals. But that’s not effective. 

If you’re feeling really motivated right now, why would you let that spark die?

Even though motivation isn’t everything, this spark will definitely get you through the beginning steps of accomplishing your goals. 

Alright, how about we get into these goals?

19 Mental Health Goals:

1. Stop playing the victim mindset

Do you feel like the universe is against you?

Do you ask questions like, “Why do bad things always happen to me?” or say “Of course this happens to me.”?

If you have these kinds of thoughts, you probably have a victim mindset. This means that you don’t think that good things happen to you. Instead, you believe that you fall victim to all the negative things in your life.

I’m here to tell you that you need to get rid of this mindset quickly. Not only will these thought patterns make you feel worse, but they’ll eventually become reality. I believe that if you constantly think about something, it can (and will) come true. 

So you really don’t want to use that to your detriment. Instead, try to think more positively. When you feel one of these negative thoughts coming, immediately shut it down and say:

“Things don’t happen to me, they happen for me.”

It’s true! You may not realize it in the moment, but in the future, you’ll look back and realize that whatever happened was meant to happen.

2. Pay attention to your triggers

What is something that triggers you and causes a physical reaction?

Is it:

• Someone trying to gaslight you?
• Someone trying to manipulate you?
• People arguing?

Then, think about the actual reaction itself. 

For example:

• Clenching your jaw
• Breathing heavily
• Getting distracted easily 
• Tearing up

Instead of avoiding these reactions, allow them to happen. If you don’t, you’ll just bottle everything up and either have a huge emotional release or have small emotional wrecks. I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.

Get this: sometimes, you may not even notice that these triggers are happening. Especially if they tend to happen pretty often. So, I want you to start paying attention to them and try to figure out what they mean.

3. Write in a journal every day

Journaling is by far one of the most healing things you can do. It’s a great way to decompress after a long, stressful day. Or even talk about how you want your day to go!

Either way, I think you should consider journaling because it’s another form of emotional release.

There are so many different ways to journal, including bullet journaling, art journaling, and so much more. I’m going to talk more about this in a different post!

FREE DAILY JOURNAL

This journal is my favorite because it includes a section to mark how you’re feeling before you start writing, plus just enough lines to let all your feelings out.

Journaling is absolutely one of my favorite ways to practice emotional/mental self care, and my free daily journal can help you do just that.

Click here to get the FREE journal now!

4. Express your emotions

You need to express your emotions because if you don’t, it will affect how you walk through life. You probably won’t be as happy as you could if you didn’t allow yourself to cry your heart out after that last breakup. Or if you didn’t punch your pillow after your dog tore up your laundry basket.

(I might be speaking from personal experience.)

Depending on the kind of person you are, you may be more or less likely to express your emotions — whether that’s in public or private.

Here are some factors that affect this:

• Age
• Ethic group
• Gender
• Family upbringing
• Personal experiences
• Your personality (a combination of these factors)

5. Try to listen to sad music less

I know you’re saying, “But I like to listen to sad music when I’m feeling down.”

I totally agree! But, when this is all you listen to, you’ll probably start to feel its effect on your mood and lifestyle. Even if you’re not actually sad, your brain will convince you that you are.

And while you’re listening to these low-tempo songs, you’ll probably think of negative, painful memories because they match the mood of the music. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t listen to sad music at all. I’m saying you shouldn’t do it on purpose. 

I remember when I was in a period where I would intentionally listen to sad music to go along with my negative emotions. Then, when I started my self growth journey, I started listening to more uptempo music that had a more uplifting feeling.

That’s how I realized that I wasn’t as sad as I thought. It was just the music I was listening to that was making me feel that way.

6. Learn to say no 

You don’t have to say yes to everything. When a friend asks you to hang out, think about it first. Don’t immediately accept their invitation.

I’m saying this because you might later regret your decision. If you say yes too much, you’ll start to feel like you’re a people pleaser. This is one of the worst kinds of personalities to have. 

You’re not doing things or making decisions for yourself if you people please. Instead, you’re subconcisouly trying to satisfy the needs and desires of those around you. But that won’t do you any good — not in the long run, at least.

Think of the opposite of this also. 

If you’re constantly saying no to everyone, how to you expect to grow? You really don’t know how many great opportunities you’re passing up. That’s why it’s so important to sit and think before making a decision. 

You may not want to, but it’ll definitely do you more good than harm!

Overall, you need a healthy balance of saying “yes” and “no.” Don’t say “yes” too much, but don’t say “no” too much either. 

7. Give acts of kindness

“Hold up — this can help my mental health?” Yes, it sure can! See, when you think of giving someone a compliment or a gift, you might think that the only person who benefits is them. 

But you’d be wrong. Being kind to others is not only free, but freeing. You do a good deed and it makes you feel good inside. 

Plus, you know what they say: What goes around comes back around.

Here are some acts of kindness you can do today:

1. Buy flowers for your favorite person 
2. Take lunch to your significant other
3. Compliment someone in your environment 
4. Offer to help clean with/for someone
5. Pay for the lunch of the person behind you in line
6. Give words of encouragement to someone who’s struggling
7. Write a gratitude letter to a friend or family member

8. Write gratitude letters

This is another goal that you might think is more beneficial for other people. But, in hindsight, it actually feels quite therupeutic.

A gratitude letter is a letter that you write to show your gratitude and appreciation to someone you love. 

This could be for your:

1. Mom/dad
2. Grandma/grandpa
3. Brother/sister
4. Aunt/uncle
5. Friends 
6. Cousins
7. Teachers (even previous ones)
8. Boss

As far as what to include in a gratitude letter, I’d say just write from the heart. 

It’s kind of similar to free journaling. You start with a pen, some paper, and your brain. 

I admit, it might be a bit intimidating at first because you have absolutely no idea what to write. But I encourage you to just start writing and the creativity will naturally come as you keep writing. Before you know it, you will probably have written a good 500 words!

THINK: Who’s your favorite person? Tell me in the comments!

9. Spend less time in your bedroom

My high school counselor told me to do this when I was a junior. I was hesitant because my room is my sacred, safe space. I go there to sleep, relax, eat, work — you name it. 

I do everything in my room, so I really didn’t want to get out of there. But, I started my self growth journey and I realized that constantly being in my room prevented me from growing. I hardly spent time with my family because I was couped up in my room. 

So, I gradually started spending more time in the living room with my family. I’d work on my blog, eat, and watch TV in the living room. 

Now, I’m so glad my counselor gave me that advice. At this point, I barely spend any time in my room. I really only eat and sleep in there.

That’s it!

If you find yourself spending the whole day in your bedroom, I encourage you to spend less time in there. Even if it’s for 30 minutes every day, spend some time in your living room, front porch, or in your backyard. It really feels great not being in the same spot all day. 

I know that this can be different based on your individual circumstances, so please take this advice lightly.

10. Practice your favorite hobbies

Have you ever been asked, “What do you like to do for fun?” and then just looked up with a blank stare?Yeah, me too. That’s probably because you don’t have any hobbies!

A hobby is an activity that you enjoy doing during your free time.

Here are some examples:

1. Crocheting 
2. Researching 
3. Reading 
4. Cooking 
5. Writing 
6. Listening to podcasts 
7. Watching TV
8. Spending time with family
9. Skating 
10. Bird-watching 
11. Listening to music

It’s great to have hobbies so you can have a way to decompress after a long day. They also help bring a sense of community. These should be things that you do simply for fun!

Don’t try to earn money from them because at that point, they feel like work. And you already know what work isn’t really all that fun.

I want you to do more of what you love and try to do less of what isn’t so enjoyable. Of course you can’t really control certain things like work and school, but I think you get the gist.

RELATED POST: 23 Best Relaxing At-Home Self Care Activities

11. Listen to encouraging podcasts

One of the best things you can have throughout any journey is encouragement. This will really help get you through your lowest points of your growth journey. My favorite way to do this is by listening to podcasts.

I feel like podcasts have been getting more popular over the last few years — and for good reason! They create a sense of community because they’re divided into categories with different topics. There’s a podcast for every topic you could think of, from gardening to gaming.

Like I said, motivating podcasts like The ReaLysst by Alyssa Howard are great for getting you through tough times.

12. Keep your own promises (to yourself)

Look, it’s already bad enough that people can’t keep their promises. What’s even worse is if you make a promise to yourself and continue to break it every single day. Over time, you’re going to be more disappointed in yourself than in anyone else!

For example, you say you’re going to start waking up at 7 in the morning. You set this goal so you can get more done every day. Before you know it, though, a month has passed and you’ve only gotten up at 7AM three times.

What happened? You broke your promise! You need to hold yourself accountable just like you hold everyone else accountable. 

If you want others to show up for you, you have to do the same for yourself first.

RELATED POST: 9 Best Self Care Activities for Mental Health

13. Practice forgiveness

Do you consider yourself a forgiving person? Or, are you more likely to hold a grudge because somebody wronged you?

If you’re not very forgiving, I think you should work toward building a more forgiving personality. This is not only for them, but also for yourself. 

You see, when you forgive someone, they can take that apology however they want. It’s up to them to believe it and continue their relationship with you. But if you don’t forgive them, you’re hurting yourself.

It takes more effort and energy to refuse to forgive someone than to not forgive them. You don’t necessarily have to forget what they did to you — especially if it was really bad. But you’ll definitely thank yourself if you forgive someone who did you wrong.

Is it fair? Not really, but we’re not children anymore. Nothing is really fair anymore to be honest.

I challenge you to forgive someone who has hurt you. You may not even do this directly to them. As long as you forgive them in your heart, you’ll start to feel that burden lift off your shoulder.

FREE SELF CARE ACTIVITIES LIST

Would you like a free self care activities list?

I know it can be difficult to think of different self care ideas, so I did the work for you! 

I created a FREE list of 81 self care activities that you can enjoy.

To get the list, simply click here. 

14. Let people go

Have you ever heard this phrase: ‘Some people are in your life for a season, but everyone is in your life for a reason.‘ Keep this in mind when you’re evaluating your relationships.

This can apply to ANY kind of relationship in your life:

• Family 
• Friends
• Significant other

Sometimes, keeping someone in your life will do more harm than good. I know it can be hard to let someone go. Trust me — I’ve been there before. 

You don’t want to lose them because they make you laugh during hard times. They might the best of your best friends. But eventually you’ll fall out with some people.

That’s just how it is!

Don’t be discouraged by this, though. The quote that I said above has some real meaning. It means that some people are only in your life for a certain period of time, but no matter what, everyone has a specific purpose in your life.

For example, say you date someone for 2 years, then you break up. You might think that those 2 years went to waste. Is that really the case?

I want you to think about this in a more positive way instead. Maybe that person taught you how to be more vulnerable. Without that person in your life, you wouldn’t know how to do something so crucial in a relationship. 

So, keep this in mind when you’re thinking of letting people go from your life.

15. Spend less time on your phone 

When was the last time you checked your screen time on your phone? Do you check it at all? Do you even know what screen time is?

Over the last 4 or so years, we, as a society, have been spending more and more time on our phones. Arguably an unhealthy and unnecessary amount of time might I say.

There’s so much we could be doing with all this time we’re spending on our devices:

1. Spend time in nature
2. Work on your mental health
3. Get an education
4. Start a DIY project

Don’t get me wrong; as an 18-year-old, I spend way too much time on my phone too. But I will say that we can all try to spend less time on our devices. 

16. Be more confident in yourself

Has anyone had these opinions about you?

• Lazy 
• Loud
• Quiet
• Underachiever 
• Overachiever 
• Opinions about your:
  • sexuality 
  • music taste 
  • education level
  • sense of style 
  • religion

If you really want to grow, you need to stop letting other people’s opinions affect how you feel about yourself. At the end of the day, you know yourself the best out of everyone. Nobody knows you better than you.

Your opinion of yourself is the only one that matters.

Think of it this way: “If you wouldn’t take advice from them, don’t care about their opinion.”

If that didn’t convince you, here’s another take: Celebrities have millions of dollars, right? They usually donate to charities and organizations that are near and dear to their heart. They try not to make their donations public, but it does happen sometimes. 

And when that happens, people will see the amount and feel like they have to publicly share how they feel about it. The celebrity — Taylor Swift, for example — could have donated $400,000 to a cancer organization.

A whopping $400K.

And you know what people would do? They would still complain! That really goes to show that you can never, ever satisfy everyone.

There will always be someone who has something negative to say. You have to do you and live for yourself — nobody else.

Many times when you feel like people are judging you, that’s not the case. In fact, that’s actually you judging yourself from their perspective. This is usually a result of unresolved traumatic or negative experiences.

So how do you fix this?

I can’t exactly say it’s simple, but you need to do some internal work. Figure out what’s causing this extreme self-analysis — so much to the point where you think people are judging you.

17. Don’t engage in gossip 

Do you find yourself engaging in gossip? Well, you might want to do this less because it’s affecting your mental health. I know it may be fun and all, but it’s really not doing you any good.

It’s definitely more common among POC communities (speaking from experience) and I’ll say, it’s exhausting.

Ask yourself how you feel when you engage in gossip. Do you actually like doing it? Or, are you just so used to it that you don’t really feel anything?

18. Get more sleep

I honestly think getting more sleep could fix so many problems that we have. We young adults tend to go to bed late and wake up late, too. That’s makes a bad sleep schedule and we need to fix it.

A healthy sleep schedule has countless benefits like:

1. Increased energy levels 
2. Improved mood
3. Healthy heart
4. Stress reflief
5. Restored immune system

19. Create a healthy work-life balance

My fellow workaholic, I see you. I started working on this post around 11:50 AM and it’s 1:51 PM as I write this. I’ve been working 2 hours straight without taking a SINGLE break. 

I was only planning on writing about 8 headings, but now I’ve almost written the whole post. 

How does that happen?

Well, part of it has to do with my current creativity levels.

Also, I’m just naturally a workaholic and I don’t know how or when to take a break. 

I fear that if I take a break — even for 5 minutes — I’ll lose my flow and won’t feel motivated to get back into it. I constantly think, “Let me just finish this real quick!” or “I only have 10 more minutes!”

Don’t get me started on the nonstop business mindset. I seem to never know how to stop thinking about my business. I think about my blog before I go to sleep, while I sleep, and even when I wake up. 

All this to say: you need to create a healthy work-life balance. If you don’t, you won’t be able to show up as your best self in either your professional or personal life.

This is usually an issue if you’re self-employed because you create your own schedule. There are many pros and cons to this. A major con is that if you’re a workaholic, you’ll end up working until 2 in the morning if you allow yourself to.

That’s not healthy. 

To figure how to balance these important aspects of your life, read this post.

Let’s recap!

We made it to the end of the post!

Today, we talked about the 19 mental health goals to set to grow internally:

1. Stop playing the victim mindset 
2. Pay attention to your triggers
3. Journal every day
4. Express your emotions 
5. Try to listen to sad music less
6. Learn to say no
7. Give acts of kindness
8. Write gratitude letters
9. Get out of your bedroom more often
10. Practice your favorite hobbies
11. Listen to encouraging podcasts
12. Keep your own promises (to yourself)
13. Practice forgiveness
14. Let people go
15. Spend less time on your phone
16. Be more confident in yourself
17. Don’t engage in gossip
18. Get more sleep
19. Create a healthy work-life balance

Please remember to take time to take care of yourself!

For free self care activities, check out this post.

In the midst of chaos, don’t forget to smile, 

DeMarcus – your self care buddy

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This post was all about mental health goals.