Mental Health
Mental health may seem like a hard thing to conceptualize, but actually, there are several very clear facets to good mental health. These include managing and eliminating negative thinking, building strong relationships and support systems, finding ways to fill your life with purpose and enjoyment, and seeing that you nurture your inner life, or your spirituality.
The first step to achieving good mental health is by eliminating the negative thought patterns that hold you back. This may be as simple as strengthening your time, stress and anger management skills, or it may be as critical as seeking treatment for a mental disorder, such as depression or anxiety. Either way, you cannot achieve mental health without first addressing the barriers that keep you from it.
Because we are social creatures, good relationships, social skills and support systems are important to our mental health. This is not merely for extroverts. Introverts need strong relationships as well, but ones that respect their need for space. Finding like-minded, compatible people whose company we enjoy and values we respect is very beneficial to good mental health.
We have all hear the old adage “work hard / play harder,” which actually does address the human need for purpose and enjoyment. In the work we do, we want to be inspired and use our talents in order to be effective in our work and make a difference. In the recreational activities we engage in, we crave the purest, healthiest enjoyment possible. Both of these things are essential to good mental health.
And finally, in what is arguably the most important aspect of mental health, we have a need to nurture our inner life of spirituality and intuition. This can be a complicated matter as it deals with matters we do not fully understand or agree on, yet exploring these ideas and coming to an understanding of how we feel about them creates a noted sense of wholeness within us, making it the glue that holds our mental health together, so to speak.