Key Takeaways:
- Mental health gifts are gifts designed to improve one’s mental well-being.
- There are mental health gifts for various people, including men, women, children, employees, therapists, and people with mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
- Mental health gifts can also be a form of self-care.
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Do you have a friend, co-worker, child, or teenager struggling mentally and emotionally? Letting them know you care is one way to show support. You might want to check out these mental health gifts that will relieve their stress and boost their happiness! You can also grab these items for yourself.
Mental Health Gifts for Self-Care
You can’t take good care of others if you take yourself for granted. Know a teacher, kid, or teen who needs these gifts for mental health? Check these out.
Self-care Ideas for Teachers Handout
Teaching can be mentally and emotionally draining. Here’s a beautiful resource that shows a colleague simple self-care methods, such as going for a walk and getting a foot rub!
Self-care Activities for Kids and Teens Handout
Our printable resource includes 101 ideas like discovering your passions and doing something fun.
Yoga Mat
Starting a yoga habit offers relief from daily stress. This yoga mat has good quality and a thickness that’s perfect for beginners.
Mental Health Gifts for Stress
Pressure, responsibilities, health problems, and conflict in relationships contribute to stress. Whatever situation is stressing your loved one out, these gifts improve their ability to cope.
Stress management coping skills handout
Squeeze a stress ball. Get out in the sun. Watch a comedy. Here are more strategies to share with someone dealing with a difficult challenge.
Leather Journal
Made with smooth-finish paper, this leather-bound journal is a safe space to release negative thoughts from your mind.
Just Breathe by Dan Brule
This book shows how controlling your breath can relieve stress, improve your performance, and optimize your health.
Mental Health Gifts for Anxiety
The best mental health items for someone with anxiety are those that interrupt their worrisome thoughts. Be sure to include gifts that make them feel calmer.
Anxiety coping statements worksheet
These are statements that replace negative thoughts with realistic thoughts. Examples include My feelings are allowed to be here. Anxiety is not the boss. I am in control. Download this sheet, print it, and put it in a frame!
Calm app subscription
Calm is a mindfulness app that helps to increase focus and awareness. With this holiday gift, your loved one will appreciate the power of meditation.
Weighted blanket
The pressure of a weighted blanket can ease symptoms of anxiety, plus it makes it easier for you to fall and stay asleep.
Mental Health Gifts for Him
Whether it’s for your brother’s specific interests or your guy best friend who needs a bit of a pick-me-up, choosing the right gifts for mental health for the men in your life can truly improve their well-being.
Bose Quiet Comfort Earbuds
Noise-canceling earbuds can easily improve mental well-being by allowing him to listen to music anywhere. Listening to music has been shown to stimulate feel-good chemicals in the body such as oxytocin [*].
Winter Robe
Having a plush, spa-like robe will help him relax, especially in times of stress. This robe is perfect for hectic days and can even regulate his temperature for a more comfortable night’s sleep, which is known to be better for mental health.
Microgreens Growing Kit
The men in your life may be focused on their healthy eating habits, which makes the Hamma MicroGreen Growing Kit perfect for their gut health. This kit provides a satisfying indoor garden experience, which has been shown to improve mental health [*]. Microgreens are also considered superfoods and are nutritionally dense enough to contribute to mental health.
Mental Health Gifts for Her
The women in our lives deserve more than just recognition for their hard work and effort. Giving them something that can help their mental health is the perfect way to say thank you for all they do for us.
Mental Health Planner
Mental health planners can give your mom, sister, friend, girlfriend, or wife useful information to help them reach their goals. It also helps her discover trends that are relevant to her mental health by tracking moods, energy, healthy habits, and life stressors.
Aromatherapy Bath Bombs
Aromatherapy has been shown to have many benefits, including pain relief, improved mood, and an increased sense of relaxation [*]. Gift her with an aromatherapy bath bomb to help her relax after a long stressful day.
Affirmation Cards
Affirmation cards can help her challenge and reframe negative thoughts, increase self-esteem, and reduce anxiety. By gifting her with these cards, she’ll be more confident, less stressed, and have an overall better sense of mental well-being.
Mental Health Gifts for Therapists
Therapists need mental health breaks too! If you know a therapist who could use a break or two, get them any of these mental health gifts.
Self Therapy Checklist Pad
Therapists aren’t immune to feeling depressed or anxious, though they may know how to manage it more effectively. Gifting them this step-by-step self-therapy checklist pad can guide them toward clarity.
Positive Affirmations Jar
Positive affirmations are a sure way to make therapists feel better. A positive affirmations jar can help promote mindfulness, relaxation, and stress relief. If your therapist needs to take a step back from life, this is a simple but effective way to do it.
Brain Art Flower Print
Art can be beneficial to our mental health. Giving therapists any kind of art you think they will appreciate can go a long way in helping them improve their mental well-being.
Mental Health Gifts for Employees
Employees work hard to excel at their jobs and provide for their families. Sometimes the pressure of making ends meet can be taxing, especially in terms of mental well-being. Here are some gifts you can give a hardworking employee to help them relax and unwind.
Essential Oils and Diffusers
There’s nothing better than coming home to a house that smells relaxing. Essential oils and diffusers are an excellent way to show your hardworking friends and colleagues that you value their well-being.
Breathing Lamp
Breathing lamps can encourage a more meditative mindset as they help employees control their breathing. These lamps come in various soothing colors and transition gently from lightness to darkness. Employees can match their breathing to the cadence of the light, which helps slow their breathing rate to a relaxing pattern.
Healthy Snack Package
Eating well is essential to mental well-being. Whether you are a manager, colleague, or friend, you can nudge your fellow employees into more mindful eating habits by giving them a healthy snack package. They’ll see a difference in energy and productivity thanks to better eating.
Mental Health Gifts for Kids
Good mental health is essential to healthy child development. Not only does it help children build positive communication, social, emotional, behavioral, and thinking skills, but it also lays the foundation for better mental health and well-being later on in life. Here are some gifts you can get kids for better mental health.
Therapy Putty
Therapy putty (or theraputty for short) is a brightly colored, non-toxic putty that teachers and occupational therapists often use. Gift it to any child who wants to have fun and feel better.
Weighted Stuffed Animals
Weighted stuffed animals are great for kids who need comfort and calm. They come in a number of styles and sizes and also have multi-sensory therapeutic components. They are great to help kids relax before bedtime.
Gardening Kit
Children are using all of their senses when they garden. They taste, smell, touch, see, and hear. They can use everyday tools like pencils and scissors, among other fine motor tasks, thanks to the motor skills they acquire from planting and digging.
Summary
The best mental health gifts are more than just ordinary presents given to the people in your life. They truly help improve well-being, whether you are giving aromatherapy sets to your siblings or therapy office decor to your therapist. Give them to someone today to help reduce their stress levels and help their overall mental well-being!
References:
- Harvey A. Links Between the Neurobiology of Oxytocin and Human Musicality. 26 August 2020.
- Hassan A & Deshun. Promoting adult health: the neurophysiological benefits of watering plants and engaging in mental tasks within designed environments. 6 October 2023.
- Ali B, Al-Wabel NA, Shams S, et al. Essential oils used in aromatherapy: A systemic review. August 2015.