In the name of mental health …Amen!

As children, we all got our regular immunisations based on the WHO recommended schedule, of course, majorly because our parents were so religious about it. And then we grew up assuming we are all in the pink of health in well armoured bodies.The other constituent of health..our body’s fellow traveller….our ‘mind’ missed the immunity boosts and we grew up into adults vulnerable to the plethora of mental fragilities.

But hey, all is not lost…we are just a few fries short of a happy meal.

Let’s schedule those booster shots for our treasured minds.

1. PICK UP THE PEN TO HEAL — CATHARTIC WRITING

The written word can heal. If you’ve every written in a journal and found it helpful, then you’ve experienced the benefit of Cathartic Writing. A catharsis can be thought of as a healthy emotional release that helps you to heal from some kind of pain. It can be grief, trauma, fear, or any uncomfortable emotion. Writing about your ups and downs of your daily life can help you to get perspective on your experiences and find lessons in them. Keeping a journal is a constant and clear way to remind yourself that YOU — and nobody else — are the author of your own life story.

“People are not disturbed by things but rather by their view of things.” — Albert Ellis

Journaling usually involves exploring issues and it can literally correct the course of your life, strengthen immune cells called T-lymphocytes and has been shown to be associated with drops in depression, anxiety, and increases in positive mood, social engagement, and quality of close relationships. The practice has very real physical health benefits for the people who do it. It’s an amalgamation of personal, rational fact-based reporting along with an exploration of your sometimes-irrational, always-important inner feelings. In this way, writing removes mental blocks and allows us to use more of our brain power to better understand ourselves and the world around us. The idea is to get the cluttered thoughts and feelings out of our head and onto paper; the goal is to help us make sense of things, gain new perspectives, and typically to experience a cathartic release (i.e. a healthy emotional release).

This one’s worth picking up a parker for!

2. GOOD OL’ RESTORATIVE YOGA — ANTI-ANXIETY POSE

This pose is about ‘being’ and not ‘doing’… and actually easier than turning on a tap.

The Legs Up the Wall Pose is an inversion pose in which you lie on the floor next to a wall and place your legs together vertically against the wall. The Sanskrit name, Viparita Karani, comes from viparita meaning reversed or inverted and karani meaning action. The pose is a restorative and relaxing pose as it inverts the typical actions that happen in our bodies as we sit and stand. It provides stress and anxiety relief .The pose is simple and can be performed for extended periods of time.

Viparita Karani

Begin by sitting on the floor with a wall next to your side. Pivot your body so the backs of your legs are now touching the wall. Bring your sitting bones flush to the ground and as close to the wall as possible so your torso and legs create a 90-degree angle. Relax your neck and place your hands on your belly or to your sides with palms facing up. Focus on your breathing and with each breath release any stress or anxiety, starting from your feet and down through your body. Stay in the Legs Up the Wall Pose for five to 20 minutes. To come out of the pose, gently press the bottoms of your feet into the wall and roll to one side, making sure you support your legs until they reach the ground. Stay on the ground for a few seconds until sitting up so as to avoid lightheadedness.

Lets’ go:

• Wind down before bed — some find it beneficial to aid sleep or insomnia.
• If you’ve been on your feet all day (or the runners out there!) — kick your feet up, and relax your legs.
• Inversions are thought to aid mild depression and anxiety due to calming effects.
• Calm down from stress!

It’s great to relax after work or at the end of your day.

3. BOOT PERFECTIONISM…JACK UP THE CONTENTMENT

If life is a canvas, then insisting that every brush stroke be perfect (perfectionism) can be detrimental to your mental health. Recent research has indicated that healthy perfectionism is a myth: It has been closely linked to a variety of anxiety disorders, depression, and neuroticism

Perfectionism can allow us to aim high and achieve great things. However, perfectionists are doomed to failure, because we set ourselves standards that are not attainable for humans. We will never meet our goals, to the detriment of our mental health and wellbeing. When we go online, we’re surrounded by platforms that appear to be full of other people meeting these goals. Intellectually, we know it’s all a lovely lie, but emotionally it’s a struggle. Feelings seem like facts.

Several aspects of life are particularly prone to perfectionism. Read this list to identify where yours comes from:

1. Performance at school or work — e.g., a carpenter who spends all day trying to get the exact measurement and never finishes her project.
2. Neatness — e.g., a homeowner who sees dust on the mantelpiece and believes that this means that the house is disgusting.
3. Appearance — e.g., someone who takes hours and hours every day to get ready before going anywhere; or someone who won’t date anybody who isn’t perfect.
4. Organization — e.g., a traveler so concerned with packing a suitcase just right that they rearrange it over and over again and miss their flight.
5. Writing — e.g., a student who finishes only the first page of a 10-page term paper because he keeps rewriting the first sentence.
6. Speaking — e.g., the quiet person at the office who seems shy, but really is too afraid of misspeaking to say anything at all.
7. Personal hygiene — e.g., a self-described “health nut” who refuses to eat any foods that contain saturated fats.

In more than 20 years of research, Paul Hewitt, PhD, and his colleagues particularly psychologist Gordon Flett, PhD, have found that perfectionism correlates with depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other mental health problems.

It is very logical that perfectionism and anxiety go hand and hand. The constant, unrelenting belief that one or one’s work isn’t good enough can easily lead to fear of failure and its consequences and of rejection. Unfortunately, the more a perfectionist worries about such things, the more he strives for perfection to prevent the negative consequences of “failure”. It’s a vicious cycle. Perfectionism can contribute to eating disorders when someone feels she must look perfect. When she feels the need to look perfect and constantly compares herself to others, she is never satisfied that she looks acceptable. Perfectionism can certainly take its toll. When we constantly tell ourselves that nothing is good enough (for most of my life, my motto has been “Good is never enough”), we remove joy from our lives, and we set ourselves up for mental health struggles.

4. Life’s a carnival, Hurrah to it!

We are all unique and because of that we each bring something to the table that only we can bring. Without our contribution something is missing from the fabric of life.Our brains are wired for survival, but also for empathy. We have mirror neurons that fire when we see other people’s pain. Let us learn to love ourselves so we can be more open and compassionate to others.

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” — Walt Whitman

To celebrate life on a daily basis is a way to develop an “attitude of gratitude” that can literally transform our outlook on life and our ability to more deeply enjoy what we already have.

Stop chasing (big time stuff) and celebrate:

• Having someone to cook you a home-cooked meal
• Those great off season deals you lifted
• That heart-to-heart phone call with your sibling
• Your new boss loves you
• Looking forward to a weekend of back to back movie watching
• The bond you share with your childhood buddy
• Meeting a courteous person once a day
• Got appreciated by a fussy client
• Cultivated the skill of listening ( with some difficulty though! )
• The feeling of self — sufficiency a kitchen garden provides

What we focus on is what expands. Is this the philosophy we miss on?

5. Get out of your head - Everyday Mindfulness

It’s not about zoning out but zooming in.

Have you ever started eating a snack bar, taken a couple of bites, then noticed all you had left was an empty packet in your hand? Or been driving somewhere and arrived at your destination only to realise you remember nothing about your journey? Most people have! These are common examples of “mindlessness,” or “going on automatic pilot.” In our modern, busy lives, we constantly multi task. It’s easy to lose awareness of the present moment as when we become lost in our efforts to juggle work, home, finances, and other conflicting demands.

As humans we are often “not present” in our own lives. We often fail to notice the good things about our lives, fail to hear what our bodies are telling us, or poison ourselves with toxic self criticism.

Human minds are easily distracted, habitually examining past events and trying to anticipate the future. Becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings and sensations may not sound like an obviously helpful thing to do, however learning to do this in a way that suspends judgement and self-criticism can have an incredibly positive impact on our lives.

Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to, and seeing clearly whatever is happening in our lives. It will not eliminate life’s pressures, but it can help us respond to them in a calmer manner that benefits our heart, head, and body. It helps us recognise and step away from habitual, often unconscious emotional and physiological reactions to everyday events. It provides us with a scientifically researched approach to cultivating clarity, insight, and understanding. Practicing mindfulness allows us to be fully present in our life and work, and improve our quality of life.

In the Groove. Put on some music, maybe classical or slow tempo. Notice the sound and vibration of the notes, the sensations in your body as you listen, and the feelings the music brings up in you. When you notice thoughts arising, gently bring your attention back to the music. Breathe.

Mindfulness works the same way on our minds as resistance training works for our bodies.

Let’s build on those mental muscles… mental fitness is as enviable an asset as is a well toned body.

Zen is not far away.. let’s hit our power zones !!