How I Mental Health by Kristen Bell

1. My definition of a mental-health day is every day. I don’t like the idea that a mental-health day has to stick out among all the other days of the year.

2. I unwind by sitting in a pile with my family on the couch, usually watching some animal show. Snuggling gives me the greatest sense of calm.

3. My happy place is doing puzzles.

4. On a good day, I deal with rejection by brushing it off; on a bad day, I deal with rejection by getting in my own head.

5. The not-so-great coping mechanism I had to abandon is crying. Good crying is a great release; sad crying—I actually have to put a time limit on myself. I feel a lot.

6. When I’m being pulled in many directions, my first reaction is always “Okay, how much can I get done?” But I often overwhelm myself and need to set a boundary.

7. To calm down, the workout I turn to is yoga.

8. I clean my house and I pick up after my kids every day to help me feel grounded.

9. When I can’t sleep, I take a Hello Bello sleep gummy.

10. If I’m stressed before bed, I vent to my husband because I don’t want those thoughts or feelings seeping into my dreams or nightmares; if I’m stressed when I wake up, I meditate.

11. When my partner/kid/family is driving me crazy, I start to sweat because I want to meet their needs, but I also want to meet my own. I’ve found that taking little breaks— 20 minutes alone in a room, as silly as that may sound—has helped me a ton.

12. The one person I know I can always be myself with is my dog. There’s no judgment, just love.

13. I feel the most confident when I’ve put on lipstick.

14. When negative self-talk is filling my head, I reset by reading the news because it’s always going to be worse than what’s in my head.

15. The best piece of advice my therapist has given me is “Do something nice today and don’t get caught.”

16. The TV show I watch to de-stress is “Dateline.”

17. My mental-health mantra is “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt said that, and I might get it tattooed on my lower back; you never know.

This story appears in the April 2021 issue of Marie Claire.

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