A healthy mind is on most individuals’ #lifegoals list. Achieving a healthy mind, however, is a constant challenge. Challenges to achieving this include family and work responsibilities, busy schedules, and pressing priorities piling up on top of each other. Although your current situation in life may look a little dreary, it is important to ask yourself these two questions to achieve a healthy mind:
- What does having a healthy mind feel like?
- How do you know when you have achieved it?
These questions will give you the motivational boost needed to strive towards this goal in the future. However, there is no single definition of a healthy mind, as it can mean different things for different people. For example, some individuals achieve mental well-being at different stages of their lives. Other individuals achieve mental well-being while working through personal challenges. With that being said, anyone can achieve a zen state of mind with the following proven methods. Om-ward!
Aim to Feel Right, and Not Just to Feel Good in the Moment
As children, we learn to seek positive emotions as a way to avoid stress and negativity. However, this is an unrealistic goal as it does not include the unavoidable trials and tribulations of life. In order to become mentally strong, it is important to tackle each challenge head on instead of avoiding them. Tackling challenges head on allows you to grow and become wiser and stronger.
Research suggests that true happiness involves having meaningful and valuable experiences. These experiences may involve a range of emotions – both positive and negative. Just as it is important to feel negative emotions, it is also important to feel the emotions that you want or desire. In fact, the only way to engage in meaningful experiences is to embrace both positive and negative emotions. This leads to the next point!
A Healthy Mind Takes the Good With the Bad
Another important step to take towards a healthy mind is the path to accepting every emotional experience. If your mind is conditioned to suppress or disregard negative emotions, this may not be an easy thing for you to do. In fact, the more you reject a negative emotion, the more likely you are to suffer from a more disruptive form of that emotion. This will make it more difficult for you to deal with potential triggers of that emotion in the future.
Hence, instead of closing yourself off, it is important to train your mind to pause and sit with these negative thoughts and emotions. By embracing negative emotions, you will learn how to deal with them better. You may begin training your mind to do this by setting aside time for yourself. Give yourself time to sit with your thoughts and emotions and learn to assert control over how you react to them. Having control over how you react to your emotions also enables you to let them go when you are emotionally ready to. Allow this to happen in your own time, and it does take time.
Focus on The Purpose Before You Do Anything
Many people measure happiness by career achievements, monetary gains and the capability to purchase expensive things. But do you think the joy from these experiences of pleasure (or hedonistic drive) is akin to mental well-being? Long answer short, of course not! In fact, ancient philosophies and modern-day behavioural science prove that the achievement of well-being is much more than enjoying hedonistic pleasures.
That’s right! Earning more money (not a bad thing, by the way) will not contribute to a greater sense of well-being. Instead, it is the gratification from improving the lives of others that will do so. You may do this by strengthening and forging better relationships with both new and old friends, and your loved ones. If you do have money to burn (not literally), you can opt to donate to a worthy cause, or use it to buy gifts for the less fortunate. There is a saying by Gerald Jampolsky. It goes, “Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed.”
Ultimately, a positive and healthy mind starts with acceptance. If you have a habit of avoiding challenges and difficult situations, it’s never too late to change your mindset! Alternatively, you can also opt to work together with a healthcare professional. They will be able to help you identify suitable treatment options based on the severity of your symptoms and your personal preferences.
