Taking Care of our Mental Health
I saw a meme that said “I would like to stop living through historic events”.
There has been one thing after another that will make the history books, and it’s a lot. It’s a lot to take in, it’s a lot to try to make sense of.
Have you ever heard the term “mental hygiene”? It’s about doing what you can to take good care of your mental processes. An example for me is that I used to watch those "Real Housewives” reality shows. It must have been the train-wreck of it all that drew me in.
I would get fired up, I’d have strong opinions about the people and their behavior. Then one day I realized I was having nightmares about women being mean to other women. That was it, I went cold-turkey. I stopped watching those shows.
What we feed our brains makes a difference. Obviously nutritionally, but I’m talking about what content we consume. Here’s another example, I become very emotional about anything to do with animal suffering. Not in a productive way at all. I go into this space of thoughts like “humans suck, there’s no hope for the planet, I’m powerless to protect all the animals so everything is hopeless”.
Now if I went into a thought process that could lead to change, that fired me up in a good way, that would be something I can work with. But by feeling completely useless and hopeless, I need to be aware that exposing myself to information along those lines destroys my mental health.
Now, you might think “you can’t just bury your head in the sand”, and I would agree. So I adopt, I’ve fostered several dogs, I adopted a hospice cat and another senior cat with health risks.
You see, we can live in a way that makes a difference, but to do that we need to be careful that we don’t destroy ourselves. Knowing yourself in a way that supports good mental hygiene is important.
You might be a person who feels like it’s irresponsible if you’re not up on all current events. You might feel like knowing everything that’s happening is directly linked to being a good and caring person.
I’m writing this to tell you that harming your own wellbeing doesn’t help anyone else. I want you to know that protecting your energy and finding ways where you can make a difference is a lot more productive than doomscrolling on the news of all this crazy that’s going on.
Right now it’s hard to go out and volunteer, or do most of the things I would normally suggest. Let’s try to focus on what we can do. Make healthy meals at home, go for a walk, do some Tai Chi or yoga. Do you have any arts or crafts supplies?
I practiced painting the other day when I had to keep myself from doomscrolling. Maybe you’ve already been knitting your little heart out, try a more difficult pattern. Shift to something you don’t know how to do well, so it challenges your mind. I’ve been taking online art classes.
If you haven’t already taken my meditation course, and you’re interested, here’s the link to the new version. I’ve finally finished the overhaul. You’re invited to join me there. https://coursecraft.net/courses/z94KG/splash
*typos and errors provided for your entertainment.
