Mental Fitness: Are You In Shape
Good day friends. I hope that this message finds you well as we kick off another workweek, and continue to count down the final days of spring and school as summer quickly approaches. The month of May is nationally recognized as Mental Health Awareness month, and this is the time in which many people learn and share their own stories about mental health.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI 1 in 5 Americans experience a mental illness in the course of a year. Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions or disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors. Mental illness can begin at any age, from childhood through later adult years, but most begin earlier in life and the effects of mental illness can be temporary or long lasting.
The Mayo Clinic MC lists the following as factors that may increase your risk of developing mental health problems, including:
- Having a blood relative, such as a parent or sibling, with a mental illness
- Stressful life situations, such as financial problems, a loved one’s death or a divorce
- An ongoing (chronic) medical condition, such as diabetes
- Brain damage as a result of a serious injury (traumatic brain injury), such as a violent blow to the head
- Traumatic experiences, such as military combat or being assaulted
- Use of alcohol or recreational drugs
- Being abused or neglected as a child
- Having few friends or few healthy relationships
- A previous mental illness
Let’s face and accept the truth, if your chances of having some form of mental disorder are 1 in 5 you are either living with a disorder, working to overcome one, or working your way towards a mental disorder currently. Mental Illness affects us all and if it you have not had a personal experience with the disorder, there is a good chance that your family, friends, co-workers and others around you are experiencing some form of mental ailment. The good news is that help is available.
Although I am not a clinical expert on this topic, I am deeply rooted in the doctrines of personal development and the practices that lead to sustainable positive change. Just like a person who wants to improve their physical condition by way of a diet has to increase healthy eating and develop a workout routine, if you wish to improve your mental condition you will ned to adapt to the practices that will help you achieve the desired results. Here are some things that you can do to make sure that you maintain the best level of mental health possible as you work to improve and maintain your mental fitness.
- Meditation – This is the act or process of spending time in quiet thought, and it is essential to getting to know yourself better. Meditation also known as prayer, allows you to enter a place of quite reflection as you connect with the most important thing in this world…yourself.
- Socialization – Social organizations are a great way to combat anxieties and stress as they in most cases bring like-minded people together to participate in thoughts and activities that promote a common goal or focus. Getting involved will allow you to learn different perspectives and find other people who have, or are currently going through similar situations and can help you along the way.
- Reading – Reading is a great way to learn more information about a topic of your choice. Knowledge is power and the more that you can learn about a condition and its cause/effect balance, the better equipped you will be to manage situations as they occur. Clearly you must agree if you have read this post thus far.
- Writing – Your ability to create and change the world starts with ideas in your mind, and the action of capturing these thoughts and ideas happens through writing. No matter if you keep a daily journal or a single notebook that you write in from time to time, your ability to share your thoughts and feelings with yourself can help you through situations, and prove to be testament to situations that you have overcome. Learning to control your thoughts is a great way to insure that your thoughts are not controlling you.
- Relax – Sometimes we just have to let things go, and relaxation is the best way to do this. When you relax you take your mind off of the things that may be affecting you negatively and you are able to reduce levels of tension and anxiety to do so. Stress is a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium, and we can combat stress head on by accepting a situation for what it is and positively working to control what we can.
- Seek Help – If you can’t seem to improve on your own, seek professional assistance to help you along your way. Regardless if you are an athlete, entertainer, or the President of the United States, everyone needs to have other people that they can rely on to develope them in areas where they need help.
Mental Health America has provided several screening tools to help you identify if you are suffering from a mental disorder and the actions needed to improve a condition. If you are feeing insecure in any area of your life, please follow the below link in effort to improve your mental fitness…afterall it is possible. mental health screening
make the rest of your life the best of your life