Try These 8 Unique Methods For Boosting Your Mental Wellness

There’s an odd comfort in admitting you’re a mess. That maybe the self-help books stacked beside your bed haven’t cracked the code, and mindfulness apps have only made your screen time worse. I used to believe that mental health lived inside neat solutions—exercise, green juice, a therapist once a week. But for some reason, my brain doesn’t respond to convention. So I started testing weird ideas, and, surprisingly, some of them actually worked. Here are a few that you can try on your own:

1. Wear the Same Outfit Every Day for a Week

Decision fatigue is real, and it’s sneakier than you think. By eliminating just one category of choice—like what to wear—you can free up real estate in your head that you didn’t know was being rented. I tried this after reading that Barack Obama and Steve Jobs did it, but I kept it chill: just black jeans and a grey hoodie, no grand ideology. By Day 4, I felt lighter in the mornings, less twitchy before coffee, and oddly more creative, as if my brain finally had bandwidth for better things.

2. Learn the Art of Pointless Walking

Everyone hypes up walking like it’s a miracle cure, and I used to roll my eyes—until I started walking with zero agenda. No podcast, no Fitbit, no destination. Just me, my feet, and the universe not caring what I was doing. It’s disorienting at first, to move without intention, but that’s exactly why it works. You stop trying to optimize, and something in your chest unclenches.

3. Shift Your Career Goals

Making the decision to shift your career path and return to school feels a bit like jumping off a moving train—equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. You’re not just chasing a different paycheck; you’re rewriting a narrative you’ve outgrown, reclaiming the right to evolve. Online learning offers the kind of flexibility and credibility that makes reinvention more than a daydream. Through programs that offer psychology degrees, you can explore the nuanced ways our minds process emotion and thought, equipping yourself to support others as they navigate their own mental and emotional storms.

4. Give Your Bedroom a Makeover

Sometimes, giving your most personal space an update can completely change the way you feel everyday. I added a salt lamp, banned my laptop, played thunderstorm audio, and sprayed lavender on my pillows, and not only did it lift my mood, it also helped me sleep better. It may sound like an insignificant change, but it trained my brain to see the space as sacred. Creating a sanctuary gives your anxious mind something to believe in.

5. Put a Plant in the Shower

Not beside the shower. In it. I bought a pothos vine and let it hang from the curtain rod like jungle decor. Every time I stepped in, I felt like I was bathing in a secret forest. The unexpected greenery softened the sterile vibe of tiled walls, and something about washing next to a living thing reminded me that I’m part of nature too, not just a tired brain with a job.

6. Commit One Day a Month to Being Unreachable

I call it “Ghost Mode.” One day a month, I become entirely unreachable—no texts, no Slack, no guilt. I leave a cryptic away message (“Off brewing potion. Back tomorrow”) and disappear into analog life. The mental reset from detaching, even just for 24 hours, rewires your sense of control and boundaries. People adapt. You return clearer.

7. Start a Secret Creative Project You’ll Never Share

There’s a quiet kind of liberation in creating something with no intention of showing it to anyone. No likes, no feedback, no pressure to be good—just you and the act of making. I started writing short, absurdist fairy tales on sticky notes and hiding them in library books; no one knows, and that’s the point. When you let yourself play without performance, your brain gets space to breathe, stretch, and remember that not everything has to be useful to be healing.

8. Borrow Someone Else’s Daily Routine for a Week

We get so tangled in our own habits that we forget other ways of living even exist. I once copied the morning routine of a retired jazz musician I found on YouTube—slow drip coffee, handwritten to-do list, trumpet warm-ups at 8 a.m.—and it cracked open a part of my day I didn’t know was stale. Temporarily adopting someone else’s rhythm lets you step outside your own neuroses and see life from a different angle. It’s a form of low-stakes identity tourism that gently disrupts your autopilot.

The world will keep churning out conventional advice like it’s mass-produced. But your mind? Your mind is a thrift store of strange treasures, and sometimes, the oddest trinkets offer the deepest comfort. So go ahead, be weird. It might just save you.

Discover the transformative power of meditation with Rachel Wixey’s Center for Wellness, where inclusive, practical guidance awaits to help you embark on your journey to enhanced well-being.