Mental health is key. Self-awareness precedes that as a fundamental skill that is an asset to have. If you have self-awareness, you can get a better sense of whether you have good mental health or monitor how things are changing. Fundamental skills are ones that are heavy multipliers of all other good things.
One thing I want to point out is that therapy can be good, but it is also, I mean...there is always a cheap way to do it. Be real and robust about what you are getting. There are people who go to massages at over $100 for 25 minutes, but that say they need it for exercise recovery. Say that you like feeling pampered or saying that you can spend that much money or whatever it is. Other people just stretch or have a foam ball. Or make a massage machine.
The cheap way to do is spending time alone and not doing anything. Do that for at least an hour each day for 60 days. Cheap does not mean easy. Some people use training wheels and some do not. It is right for some and not for others.
People who process auditory and external can benefit, but frankly, that cannot be the only thing that helps everybody. It is such a personal thing. It is the difference between saying that everyone needs exercise and everyone needs a personal trainer.
If you really want to improving, having a really good personal trainer can be huge, but when you are starting out, you are pretty ignorant of what is good or not. You have to research what goes into it, and also combine that with what helps you. If you do decide to hire someone, hire someone good. But my whole process is that buying something is oftentimes presented as required when it is actually nice to have.
If I want to learn BJJ, I could get a gym, do stuff on my own, find a partner to work out with and use videos. The thing to do would be to try it out...cheaply because that is a skill involving other people and instruction. Mental health is the same way, a skill, so it would probably be good to start paying for some things until you learn the basics. But you can also learn everything you need to know online...I should say I know I can learn everything I need to know online and I know that to be true for me, but it is not true for most people, and not true for many people. BJJ is a physical thing. Mental things can be transmitted on a phone, via book, audio, reading, written, and others.
I am performing some gymnastics here, but actually it is becoming clear []