What’s one of your mental health habits others could benefit from?

Looks like mother nature is where it’s at.

Welcome to Ask the FJ Community. We’ve tapped our brilliant community of creatives – writers, artists, designers, stylists, makeup artists, photographers – and asked them some of the questions that have been bouncing around our heads during isolation. For the fifth instalment, we asked: “What’s one of your mental health habits others could benefit from?”. We think it’s so important to help each other keep our mental health in check right now, and we hope you enjoy their answers as much as we do.

Jade Leung, stylist and FJ contributor

“Exercise and time in the garden or outdoors.”

Hannah Cole, writer and FJ contributor

“I used to overfill my weekend schedule with one coffee date after another, hopping from one end of the city to another. Now Sunday is a dedicated home day. I cook, I laze, I write, I swim. It’s a day to get myself back on track and reconnect with family. My anxiety is all the better for it.”

Olivia Hart, writer and FJ contributor

“Getting outside at least once a day and breathing in the fresh air, it does wonders.”

Sabina McKenna, writer, artist, curator and FJ contributor

“Exercise, eat whole foods. Take a break from social media, take a break from alcohol. And focus on the things you can control. But also just feel what you feel and ride it out rather than trying to escape your emotions.”

Indah Dwyer, writer, model and FJ contributor

“Well, I’ve always kept a journal and so that’s an innate way of keeping me feeling in tune. More recently I have been writing poetry, which has turned into songs. So I guess I find ways of expressing myself privately through so many forms of creativity. Everyone can do that.”

Maggie Zhou, FJ intern

“Realising that there aren’t good or bad emotions. Angry isn’t bad, sadness isn’t bad. Allowing yourself to feel everything, without judgement, is a brave and very human thing to do.”

Vic Anderson, makeup artist and FJ contributor

“Listening to a podcast on my drive home instead of the radio. I spend a lot of time in my car travelling between jobs, so podcasts help me switch off from work and the news.”

Carlos Mangubat, stylist and FJ contributor

“Writing in a journal, maybe documenting this experience could be interesting or a reference point for future work. Drawing, something to take the mind off everything that’s going on. Exercise! Even a little is better than nothing!”