Be Kind to Your Mind
Learning How to Be Kind to Your Mind
May is Mental Health Month or Mental Health Awareness Month and this year’s [2021] theme from the American Counseling Association is “learn to be kind to your mind”. This may seem like both an obvious and confusing idea. So many people on this planet carry around enormous amounts of stress. As a counselor, I have come to understand the impact that severe and chronic stress, or even chronic negative thought patterns, can have on one’s mental health. Mental health professionals share a commitment to combat the stigma that is placed on those who experience mental health challenges, as we have learned that every human being on the planet is susceptible to the impact of stress. Nonetheless, the stigma of having mental health challenges is so powerful, that people often deny their own struggles, while others are judged for accessing help. The challenges of the last several years have had a huge impact on the mental health of humanity at large and yet, over and over again, I have had so many tell me that they feel they “should be able to handle” their stress better and completely on their own, to boot.
I am sure that many have heard the phrase “it takes a village” to raise a child and this is also true for adults. It takes help for adults too, in order to feel fully supported in their efforts to manage all that it takes to survive on this journey through life. So where did the village go? Human beings have thrived within a tribal unit and/or village since the beginning of time, but over the last several hundred years, with the ever changing and evolving economic and socio-cultural changes, humans have lost a great deal of emotional, spiritual, and financial support and, with that, the day-to-day concrete assistance they once were able to depend upon. The vast majority of humans are now taxed with more and more demands to handle stress by themselves and within their much smaller family units versus working together as a tribe or village to survive and thrive.
With this said, mental health struggles are becoming more and more prevalent and the stigma that having struggles or seeking help are seen as shameful has caused a large segment of individuals to avoid seeking the support of counseling. The stigma has also prevented many individuals from seeking the support of their friends and loved ones when they are struggling. Unfortunately, the stress of the current pandemic has significantly impacted all of us in so many ways, further challenging our ability to feel a sense of stability in our day-to-day lives. Those who have a great deal of support are truly blessed and are often more able to handle life stressors, but are also not immune to the various factors that impact mental health. Just about all of humanity has been impacted in some way by this pandemic and the necessary mandates for social distancing, which has significantly reduced the degree of contact many individuals have with their close family and friends as well.
So, how can we take action and learn how to be more kind to our minds? The following is only a short list of suggestions. I would like to challenge each individual reading this blog to make a list of their own ideas for promoting compassion and kindness towards themselves and others and towards building a greater sense of well-being and balance within their lives. Each step you take motivates further steps towards wellness. Motivation comes from action!
Some Tried and True Tips for Wellness:
1) Take good care of your physical health, to improve your mental clarity, emotional well-being, and physical vitality. This includes regular exercise, healthy nutrition, drinking lots of water/staying hydrated, getting outdoors, etc.
2) Do all that you can to ensure a good nights rest.
3) Begin to notice the influences of what you view online, on TV, and on social media and how this impacts your tendency towards self-judgement, as well as your tendency to judge others. Commit to take action to reduce exposure to both, as such exposure can fuel high stress levels.
4) Take notice of your thoughts intermittently, throughout each day and notice any negative thoughts that surface. Remember that you alone have the capacity to notice your thoughts as they occur and therefore the capacity to challenge negative thought patterns, with the other half of the truth you may not focus on. The positive half!
5) Put yourself in the “moccasins” of others. Recognize the challenges that others face and remind yourself of a time that you may have struggled similarly. Compassion of self leads to compassion towards others. Commit to the practice of both.
6) Practice deep breathing, stress reduction and meditation techniques, all of which you can search on youtube videos or on phone apps. Sit back and let others help you to learn to relax your mind, body and spirit, while receiving a healing treatment.
7) Consider the benefits of daily gratitude practice and practice daily.
8) Practice kindness to others regularly, while setting strong boundaries with others and toxic situations.
9) Remember to reserve enough time for the above “no brainer” activities, and support your own mental health and wellness, as this commitment can open the door for amazing possibilities.
10) Share any mental health struggles you have with your primary care doctor and consider the benefits of working with a counselor. A counselor is someone with whom you can speak to confidentially and work towards improved clarity and to move towards healing.
So, are you willing to “Be Kind To Your Mind”? Remember that we are all unique individuals and as such, your specific ideas for what will promote your own well-being, will be extremely beneficial for you to consider. Allow yourself to dream about what you want to do, what activities you enjoy and what lifestyle changes you could make to support your general well-being and happiness. Juggling all that we are taxed to juggle presently as human beings, without a commitment to our own wellness practices, is a set-up for chronic stress. The power to move towards daily wellness practices lies within each one of us alone and also with our willingness to seek the support we need from others. The choices that we make each day, carry the power to deliver pain or discontentment to our lives, or to help us to maximize our sense of peace and wellness.
What choices will you make? What ideas do you have for maximizing your well-being? You are the master of your life and you get to decide.
Take Good Care,
Hope Fontaine, LCSW
Therapist at Black Mountain Counseling Center