Do the words “mental health” make you uncomfortable? What comes to mind when you hear or see those words: illness, crazy, not right, schizophrenic, nutjob, Bipolar, loco, loony bin? Yes, mental health is about all of those things…. sometimes, and for some people. But did you know that everyone of us has issues of mental health? It’s scary but true!
Here are three keys to understanding what it takes to have good mental health.
1. The first key is to know that our mental health is on a continuum or a range of health just like our physical health.
Have you ever come down with a cold? The symptoms might begin with a slight sore throat, then a runny nose and sneezing. At any point, during this range of symptoms you may not be sick, just experiencing a symptom. Sometimes you may only get the first symptom and get better or skip a few and go straight to bed; sick.
Our range of mental health is kind of like that. For example, I explain to some of my clients who are experiencing anxiety that we all have anxiety. Some of us have more anxiety than others; some less. Sometimes even those of us who have less than others, may feel more anxiety in certain situations. Then again, some of us can sit on that feeling for so long that it takes us over and our lives.
2. The second key is to recognize that each and every emotion, like anxiety, is just one of the many emotions or feelings that make up the package of being human. Then we can learn how to manage our emotions versus attempting to control them or have them (apparently) control us.
3. The third key to unlock the door to good mental health is to remember that physical health affects mental health and mental health affects physical health. It’s something we tend to forget or put aside in our busy, busy lives.
So what are you doing to maintain your mental health, improve it or change it?
How about we start our personal mental health program right now.
- Exercise and capture those endorphins.
- Eat as healthy as possible.
- Find things to laugh about.
- Rest our minds.
- Breathe in some Nature.
- Reach out to someone; family, friend, maybe even foe.
- Drive the train of our thoughts to a positive destination: to what’s good about you, today, our job, the weather, anything!
What else could you add to this list?
Hey, Mental Health Day is every day !!!
If we’re going to have a healthy world, we’ve got to start with ourselves. Peace in; Peace out!