Mental Health has been around since the dawn of time. It is only recently getting the attention it deserves, with the labels, causes, and treatments we can understand.
Mechanical Health is my term…. it’s things like diet, exercise, hydration, or deep breathing, etc.…things that we can mechanically do to improve our health.
The analogy I like to use for illustrating mechanical health is our automobiles. Most people have been taught that proper and regular oil changes are smart, and can lead to a longer lasting car, that runs better, and is more reliable.
But how many of us “change our own oil” in the figurative sense, to build, foster, and maintain proper mental health the same way we do our cars? Surprisingly, the people I talk to in my journey as a consultant, most admit to taking better care of their cars than themselves.
Digging into mental health, I simplify all the complexities that come with it for the sake of this BLOG, into 2 categories. The first is mental health that is clinically diagnosed, sometimes requiring medication, hospitalization, and long-term therapy. Clearly very serious, and, very common in the world around us. The second is mental health that isn’t in this category, but comes from regular, daily stress, manageable anxiety from situations, and priorities being a bit lopsided.
It’s this second area that I would like to spend some time. It is easy to let it overwhelm, and become more of a clinical situation, and equally, it is easier to get it under control. This is the “oil change” area of our lives that we can exert control over, and yet most don’t do anything at all, or anything sustainable about it.
How often have you set a weight loss goal, only to give up? How often have you joined a fitness center or bought fitness equipment, only to let them both sit idle? How regularly do you join a group in a happy hour setting, and the first half of that happy hour is spent complaining about work or bosses? Did you ever explore the reasons behind those actions? Did you ever wonder what got you there? If that were your car, and it began to run less efficiently, or make strange noises, wouldn’t you take it in, and take corrective action regardless of the cost? So why not with ourselves?
The answer may lie in what people view as mental health issues. Some view them as only those that are clinical and ignore all that contributes to mental “poor health” in one’s lifetime. The fact is, stress from your environment, or frustrations with weight gain, disappointments from careers, family pressures, etc.…. they all create a poor mental health environment inside of each of us. This poor mental health is cumulative, it adds up, it stacks up. It begins the minute we are old enough to interact with others and is with us our entire life. It doesn’t have to just be a clearly negative experience, such as not getting a promotion, or losing a job. It can be feeling stressed from a demanding job or family demands, taking a deep breath, looking on the bright side, and putting those negative feelings to the side. It seems like a positive approach to a negative stimulus, but what happens, is the negative feelings don’t move to the side, they take up long-term living on the insides of our bodies.
The outward manifestations of the inner negative residents can be things like chronic pain, headaches, fatigue, acne, ulcers, or an overall sense of despair. Again, would you let your car go through all that, and just keep putting the negative back into its engine or fuel tank?
So, what can be done?
Believe it or not, the answer is easier than you think. You just need to open the door and show the negative energy where to exit your internal storage units in your body. Once they leave, you can fill those storage units with something more positive.
When is the last time you practiced 20 minutes of positive mental health for 3 consecutive days? How about 5 days? 10 days?
Most people have the best of intentions and can recognize they need to change something. That is why most start fitness programs, or diets, or join a yoga program. They know something needs to be done, but just can’t stick to it, because those programs are not natural parts of their everyday life. I would suggest that diets, fitness, and yoga come second…let them be the “new residents” that move into the old homes of the stored negative energy in your life.
Many of my consulting clients benefit from my 5-day challenge. It’s less of a challenge and is 5 days of taking advantage of a natural part of your everyday life, so it is not a new commitment you need to make and fit into an already stress filled life. Everyone must sleep. My 5-day challenge is to simply get your own copy of our Guided Meditation – RELEASING STORED NEGATIVE ENERGY. Download it once, and it is yours for a lifetime. Then, for the next 5 days, enjoy the 20-minute listen before you go to bed.
Think of it like “tucking in your car” each night for the next 5 nights…. bet you will do it then! Seriously, 20 minutes for the next 5 consecutive nights as you lay in bed will change your life in such a tremendous, positive way, that you will be ready for what comes next.
Enjoy!
