In the last 2 blogs, we saw tools to overcome not-so-good times or low mental states. In this blog, we’ll think about protecting our mental health and mindset.
In this modern digital era, protecting one’s mental health has become and is becoming very crucial. The world around us is rapidly evolving, but we feel like we’re not enough, thanks to social media now that it’s very easy for us to fall into the trap of comparing each other’s lives. And that has led to a lot of mental health issues. Many youngsters especially, as I’ve noticed, who’ve been through the conventional education system, not aware of the big picture, are failing to accept the reality due to their incompetence, which is the result of complete reliance on the skewed system. ( Read the blog: Tragic Drama).
And in this age, not only are we comparing and feeling disappointed but sometimes we tend to think about achieving something through the hack‘s path – we tend to overlook and give up on our integrity and other important aspects of our life for increments in mere metric measures like money and fame. The path of truth & Dharma is the harder one and requires a lot of effort on one’s part. Due to this, we may start questioning truths and our strongly held beliefs like “Good begets good”, “Dharmo rakshathi rakshithaha”, etc. And that’s why protecting our mindset has also become very incredibly important.
So, here are a few ways we can protect our mental health and mindset:
- Remove negative person, words, and actions. Here, “negative” implies anything that makes you feel utterly helpless & uninspired afterward. Avoid such people, words, and actions. This is a key factor in protecting our mental health and mindset. If it’s a family member with whom you stay, make them understand clearly that their words or behavior is making you unhappy. Ask them if you’re happiness is not their priority. They’ll usually say the opposite, then tell them, if you want me to be happy, please stop doing that. Remember, as Robin Sharma says, you can speak whatever you want as long as it is kind. So make clear to them what brings happiness to you. Be mindful of the words you use in both the conversations with yourself and with others. And beware of actions that are not a conscious choice.
- Accept through Awareness. Some people choose to be hurtful to others with their words or actions. It has become their nature. Accept that. It is in no way depicting your weakness or lack of whatever they’re trying to imply. This is for your secondary or tertiary circle of people, not the closest ones. For the closest ones, as mentioned in the previous point, make them clear about what behavior of theirs makes you stressed. Remember, protecting our mental health and mindset is far important than the relationships that are being a threat to the same.
- Consume “healthy”. Not just food, be mindful and observe what you consume both physically and mentally because our mind repeats what it consumes. Mainly, what content you consume. Be it in the format of videos, blogs, newspapers, podcasts, books, or movies. If you can, avoid the newspaper totally. To have context, you can browse the news once a month or so if needed.
- Remove the comparison environment. Uninstall apps like Instagram. You may choose to download it whenever you want to post something and uninstall it immediately afterward. Or if you’re an artist, I recommend hiring a social media manager so that you don’t ever have to use social media (you may install once a month if you feel like to kill some time immediately uninstall after a few minutes or an hour at Max.) because especially you as an artist cannot afford to be thinking about how other’s lives are way better than yours when you need to be thinking good thoughts, ideas that lead to great art. Again, protecting our mental health and mindset is far important than keeping track of the wellness of the people that we know.
- Know your priorities & Which is the wisest choice? Wisdom or fandom? Mental health or whining? Present or Future? I believe my book – The Flower of Fulfillment will help provide clarity as to what aspects are essential to a life of fulfillment.
- Visit positivity. It may be a person or a place. Which person that you know of is a lot wiser, creative, successful, free, and overall fulfilled than you are? Go & meet that person if possible. Or, you can chat or call that person too. What places that you know of had a positive effect on you in your previous visit? Go visit that place. If you are blessed to be born in the land of Bharath, you know we have a lot of consecrated spaces. Visiting such places, especially places that resonate with you, i.e, places that you like, can do a lot for one’s mental health and mindset.
- Replace whining with Gratitude. Gratitude is a super powerful tool in dealing with mental health and mindset. Having a daily habit of gratitude journaling or prayer is good but what is more important is to remember to switch to gratitude when one’s mind starts to tend towards compulsive, comparing, and complaining.
If you’re in a low mental state right now, I recommend you read the last 2 blogs ( Blog 101: When you’re feeling low, read this!, and Blog 102: 4 Essential Tools For Mental health recovery) and then re-read this blog. And as I mentioned in the last blog too, if you’d like to share your situation and reflect on it together, please feel free to ping me.
Thank you
Sanath Kumar Naibhi
