As the times have progressed and the world has grown in complexity, the concept of mental health has become more of a prominent feature of our personal lives and our society in general. We have moved from eras when mental health and almost all related to it were virtually non-existent, to mental health becoming a mainstay and a key player in shaping the direction in which our society is progressing towards.
Not only has the world around us changed physically, but it has also shapeshifted in a psychological sense; meaning the amount of mental health adjustment required on a daily basis is a lot more than it was in the past.
As an indicator, this means we require a sterner set of mental health tools, skills and techniques, to be able to navigate our personal and external environments with enough ease and efficiency.
The intensity which our lives demand nowadays, is quite demanding and, sometimes, quite exhausting and on account of that, it is firmly our responsibility to ensure that we are able to fully cope with whatever is being thrown at us, for our mental health. Since a very substantial part of our lives hinges on our well-being mentally, we do bear the responsibility to ensure that we are able to cope, adjust and successfully endure what we have to in order to lead fully functional lives.
One thing we underestimate when it comes to issues of mental health is the progression of our biological age. They say wisdom comes with age; and whoever ‘they’ is, they were right. As we grow older, the accumulation of our experiences is meant to shift and alter our mindsets in a positive, reflective way that shows maturity and an understanding that is different from younger people, for instance. From a mental health point of view, being older is supposed to provide a solid base from which the foundations of our thoughts, actions and feelings stem from. Almost like an old file, we can always tap into ‘what we know’ or ‘how we dealt with a certain feeling’ for assistance in understanding how to address current mental health issues we may be faced with as we go along.
Ideally, the older we get, the better we are supposed to become at understanding life (in general), and especially ourselves. Mental health is very much an internal process and the basic understanding of it is meant to be sourced from ‘within’, before manifesting on the outside, as the behaviour we get to see. This also means, the process of trying to unpack and dissect your inner-self should begin as soon as one has the capacity to comprehend. Internal introspection and self-reflection are rooted in mental health and starting practices such as these from an early enough age can be a very useful tool as you grow physically, socially and psycho-emotionally as well. This serves as mental preparation and also gives a ‘concrete floor’ from which the ‘rest of the house’ can be built, while also providing you with guidance on how to deal with certain experiences or feelings. Understanding yourself (itself) is a mental illness buffer in the sense that it makes you aware of your psycho-emotional intricacies and in that way, alerts you to what interactions, thoughts and feelings to engage in or attend to. Send comments to runsford0505@gmail.com
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