Mental Health Box

What is a mental health box?

A mental health box could also be called “bad day box”, “self care box” etc. It doesn’t even have to be a box – just a selection of different items that can help you when the bad day hits.

For me, it is a box which has a range of items in that may or may not help me feel a bit better when I’m having a bad day.

What can you put in it?

Examples of what could go in a mental health box:

-notes/cards from loved ones

-comforting scents

-sweets

-your favourite book

-a list of your favourite songs

-photos of loved ones

-colouring book

-simple art activities

-quotes

-plain paper

-list of things to do

What is it for?

For me, the beauty of this box is having lots of things all together in one place. I won’t reach for it that often but when I do, I usually feel better afterwards.

How to make one

Grab a box – for example a shoe box – and decorate it. You could use photos, paints, pens, magazines. For mine, I used pages from old copies of the Happy News and stuck these on an old box. It’s now looking a little worse for wear but I still love it, knowing it is personal and unique to me. You could decorate it with quotes, stickers, pretty tape, anything that makes you feel happy. Of course if you don’t fancy doing this, you could just grab any box you have at home and use that.

What’s in my mental health box?

Here is a little tour of my mental health box.

• a colouring book – I love colouring and I always have at least one colouring book in my mental health box. Currently it is the one pictured above
• colouring pencils
• a puzzle book – this distracts me and I enjoy doing it
• ‘creative kindness journal’ by Emily Coxhead – this is by the author of the Happy News which I have written about here. This journal is designed to foster kindness towards yourself and others.
• a wellbeing journal – similar to this one (notice a theme?)
• a small notebook which I have written different quotes in over the years – sometimes when you are having a bad day you don’t want to read anything too long, and just a few simple quotes can help your mindset
• mental health zine – ‘one hundred things to do when you feel a bit s***’ – this zine was made by Natalie Porter, I couldn’t find the link but it was from Etsy several years ago
• highlighters
• homemade glitter jar
• a bag of quotes – similar to this
• crystals – I don’t personally believe in any spiritual benefits of crystals but I like how they look and feel

Do you have a mental health box? If so what is in it?

Do you have any other ideas for what could go in one?

If you don’t already have something similar, do you think you will make a mental health box?

I would love to hear from you in the comments!