It’s fair to say that in today’s society, one of the biggest problems we are facing is mental health. Mental health has been a severely neglected part of human development for quite some time.
The history of mental healthcare is gruesome and even now, there are still people who practice illegal procedures. I don’t know about you, but what that tells me is that it is time to take charge of your mental wellbeing in any situation.
Increasing Mental Flexibility
Have you ever watched a game of sportsball where the player with the ball is suddenly encountered with an opposing team member? It’s pretty common. If you can, take a look at how the person is looking around: are they nervous or are they adjusting their plans?
That’s what mental flexibility is: shifting the way we think in response to different situations. Life changes constantly and, as I’m sure you have heard, you can be a reed and bend in the wind or you can snap like straw.
So how do you increase mental flexibility?
The easy answer is change. You have to change your routine, go meet new people, experience new things, and put yourself in new and sometimes scary situations. The more that you do this, the more you will be able to make quick decisions and adjust to life changes.
Engage in a Growth Mindset
Out of all of the steps, this one is the easiest to say and the hardest to do: stop limiting yourself. A growth mindset looks at every ‘failure’ as a potential to grow. You see yourself as ever-evolving and capable of learning more or new things.
But how do you start that change? With a LOT of positive self-talk. It will feel weird and you might creep yourself out. Take the time to encourage yourself in failures and celebrate your developments!
Meditate and Tend Your Thoughts
A quote from Thich Nhat Hanh, a meditation master, puts the mastering of your thoughts and the vulnerability of meditation into one sentence:
“Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness.”
Meditation is the practice of being in the current moment and allowing your mind and body to be open to the world around you. Hearing, smelling, sensing everything around you while also being open to the thoughts and emotions that arise.
Meditation is a lot like tending an unruly garden at first. Your thoughts might be everywhere, emotions flying at you from every side, and for some reason the theme song for the Wicked Witch of the West is playing.
It’s okay!
Little by little, concentrate on only one thought. Think about holding it in your hands: what have you learned from this thought and does it help or hinder you? If it helps, keep it. If it hinders, it’s time to let go of that thought.
Logically Process Emotions
Emotions are fickle things based on a chemical response to a situation. This chemical response occurs because of your personality, history, traumas and more. Does this invalidate the emotions? Nope!
However, in order to take care of ourselves, we have to logically process emotions without allowing the mind to take over and dive into the feeling rather than the situation. Logically working through your emotions can be very difficult: there may be emotions that you didn’t realize were locked away.
It is important to deal with these emotions slowly, logicing through basic questions of who-what-where-when-why before diving deeper into how the emotions are connected to your situation or thoughts.
Take Care of Your Health
In this case, physical health is what I’m talking about. Mental health doesn’t just randomly get better just because you start doing a few steps towards mental health. The mind and the body are connected so in order to keep your mind healthy, you need to keep your body healthy.
A big example of what can tank your mental wellbeing is pain. Chronic pain can lead to memory loss, loss of appetite, depression, irritable behavior, and more. One of the best ways to care for chronic pain is through using medical cannabis. Marijuana Doctors is the perfect resource to find out more!
Conclusion
Mental health is not something to put off until the last minute. Your mind is precious and has to be taken care of just like your body does. This means you have to work out your mind, work through thoughts and emotions, and also take care of yourself physically.
The more you follow these five steps, the more you will see your mental space free up. There will be less concerns, you will be able to adjust to situations more easily, and you will be able to assess your thoughts and emotions far more easily than you have ever been able to!