Waking Up To Getting Fit Mentally
Awareness and Balance, Know Yourself and Love Yourself
Get Fit physically is seen everywhere over a couple of centuries for everyone in organizations, writing and media, with guidance in physical exercise. Very little has been done mentally except for the severely ill, and nothing has been done in guiding mental/emotional exercise. An important reason is that physical exercise has more of a common base for guidance. Mental/emotional exercise can vary tremendously among individuals in a group. The process for Get Fit Mentally needs to be personal through self-help with guidance in a group.
PREVENTION:
Lets parallel physical exercise for prevention of illnesses with mental exercise. Recognition of personal emotions and feelings is the goal of mental exercise. A small group is ideal for sharing our experiences of emotions, building trust, and not for those with severe illness (yet). A suggestion is to have each close their eyes and allow a feeling, such as anger, to pervade them. Then they open their eyes and see the anger expression on others’ faces. It often brings a healthy smile and a child-like feeling of playing. Then the group talks about it. You can try this with shame, regret, fear, anxiety, etc.
AWARENESS & ATTITUDE
Cause for a thought may have some relevancy in rationality and science, but little to none in emotional feelings — even though the present mental health system looks unnecessarily for causes and overwhelms the patients. Exercises to become aware of various emotions and feelings within are the greatest tools for truly knowing oneself. It is never instant success. As with all exercises it takes practice, practice, until they become habitual. The smile after awareness is a critical attitude in gradually learning to love yourself more. In fact, smiling more not only helps attitudes, it helps smoothing wrinkles as well. At 87 I can vouch for that.
BALANCE
There is no right or wrong in emotions, only balance and imbalance. As a manic-depressive I’ve had a wide imbalance in my early life between manics and depressions. I struggled to achieve a balancing — that is, a continual process, a slow and aware swinging pendulum as seen in Lady Justice. Supreme Court Judge, Nancy Gertner, wrote often of “Balancing the Pendulum”.
There is also a need to balance the rational mind with the emotional mind. Neither should take control, although we need a healthy swinging pendulum between them. In the past (my experience in the 1960s) there was not much acceptance of emotions, and an overwhelming promotion for the rational mind. Thank goodness, the pendulum is swinging with more balance for emotions in the present. The problem of confusion with racing thoughts represents an imbalance between the rational and emotional mind.
What’s Next?
I’ve been talking with the YMCA, Quincy MA, about the possibility of a Get Fit Mentally program, with mental/emotional exercises to help build fitness of mind. We would start with a small group of seniors for testing. Also, my counselor, Norman Sweet and I, at the Neponset Health Center, Boston, are talking about the idea.
Governor Baker of Massachusetts has talked of expanding prevention of physical illnesses. I will write him to consider prevention of mental illnesses through exercises.
