Mental Health Awareness Nail Art

This week has been pretty tough on me and I am not ashamed to admit that. When people have a cold it’s okay to call out of work or school. But if you are having problems with your mental health many people just think you’re having a bad day and tomorrow you’ll be fine. 

These nails are not just to spread awareness to mental illness but to remind me to keep fighting, to never give up, and most importantly help others like me so they don’t feel so alone.

Each design means something else, so I’ll tell you how to do the background of the nails and then go into what the design means. 💕

Background: water color inspired 

1. Paint one coat of white base coat.
2. Get a neon pink, teal, lavender, and yellow acrylic paint
3. Using a nail art brush or a small paint brush mix paint with a small amount of water. You want it dilated to give it a water color appearance. 
4. Randomly place the colors onto your nail. It’s okay to let it drip down your nail.
5. Repeat at least one more time... I repeated twice to make it more opaque.
6. Add a quick dry top coat.

Thumb: 

Butterflies on this finger have the meaning oh my support system. They carry me when I don’t feel like I can go any farther. They remind me I am loved.

Pointer finger:

When many people think of ribbons they think of pink ones for breast cancer. Well mental illness also has a ribbon and its lime green.

Middle finger: 

1:5 American adults suffer with mental illness. They’re people out there that still believe mental illness is fake or only certain groups of people can have one. It’s not true! No one is immune.

Ring finger:

The semicolon is a big symbol for this community. Authors use semicolons to continue a sentence when they could’ve stopped it. This goes for people  that have been or going through suicidal thoughts but chose to keep going and fighting through....You are strong and can over come anything💚💚

Pinky finger: 

Butterflies have a symbolic meaning of endurance, change, hope, and life. These words remind me of what I am capable of.

When I usually do my nails for the blog I make sure the nail art is the right direction so it looks good in pictures. But these nails are not just a cute design. They have so much meaning to me.  I have to look down and see them, to help me through my rough days.

I am not here for people to feel sorry for me. I am here to shed light on mental illness. That it’s okay to be honest and fight the stigma. When I was looking for inspiration for this nail look I came across an infographic from National alliance on mental illness (Click here to view website) and it might help someone out there understand the severity of mental illness and why it is so important to bring awareness.