Mental Health Awareness Month is a reminder in May that health is not just physical, it’s mental too… and it especially matters in the deep mind-body connection.
Each and every day is an opportunity for growth toward living better wellness and gaining mental health awareness that stems from our deeper insides.
Mental health is spiritual and linked to our spiritual well being that completes the mind-body-spirit in us.
If you grow your spiritual sides, you’re exercising and growing mental health.
…Like lifting weights or your heart rate for your physical body health.
The heart and mind are closely related and getting quiet time allows you to tap into those spiritual feeling-thought areas that make up our daily mental health.
You can think of your spirit as your heart that often refers to your gut feelings (that aren’t actually in the gut). The effect is a gut-heart connection.
We already know there’s a stomach gut-mind connection as most of our happy hormones are made in the gut that affect how we feel and think.
Essentially when we exercise our right to re-route our negative thoughts and flip them to positive and loving ones, we do ourselves a world of good.
We bypass bad thoughts and feelings resulting in some form of misery that’s unessential for us to grow.
Mental health awareness (wellness) allows us to see and observe that they’re related and happening inside us.
It’s deep and not easy to see what our own minds are thinking and even more obscure to see what our hearts are thinking at any moment…
And it’s even more challenging with mental health disorder filters or if temporary inflicted by common states like anxiety.
These ways cloud views, so keeping up wellness and living balanced is what I’m passionate about.
And bringing our awareness to present moments helps us process what’s going on at any time.
Also relationships make great mirrors in what we communicate verbally and non-verbally. 🪞
We can find out what’s going on with us.
And make happy mental health changes, so we’re free to live our most fulfilled lives!
Happiness was not talked about when I was growing up. And wellness was not something mentioned in the Corporate America jobs I held for decades.
So Mental Health Awareness Month is one of the several recognized events throughout the year to keep a reminder going… and to recognize how far we’ve come.
It’s a way to celebrate strides and not go back to our darker ways and pasts.
In the past, so many of us kept our mental health sides quiet and hidden. And generations before, even more so.
We’re a much more aware society, open to growth.
That’s something to healthy celebrate! 🎉
In the end, it’s our personal health that dictates what we can and can’t do…
And if you don’t know why you’ve suffered in relationships that are mirrors reflecting back, you probably have some hidden areas that need healing.
They’re hidden so you’ve never seen them and how getting them into view can change your mental health.
That’s what my journey taught me…
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I saw a bright future forward and ahead, and never thought to look backward.
Until I was stuck. And I reaped opportunities to be in company with healers.
They made me realize forgiveness could bridge the gap to my wholeness.
That removed the subconscious blocks and made them conscious for healing.
Without wholeness that comes from healing, a person is never free from their imperfect past (that we all have no matter how much we enjoyed our childhood).
And if there is a current triggered situation in life, that can be an opportunity to clear out the past cobwebs.
And remove being a prisoner to the ego mind that’ll subconsciously make the situation worse.
That robs joy and happiness.
…In the one life you and I get.
…We’re here to evolve and get better and whole.
And that’s up to each of us.
Best remedies any of us can apply in mental health awareness is self-care that can include: yoga, meditation, nature walks, church, connectedness and all of the above.
And in those moments, you can gather answers to:
Are you healed from your past? Or do you still carry burdens?
…And maybe a current life problem is helping you to get to root causes.
Mental health awareness blockages means there’s some healing needed.
Some signs to look for:
You can’t talk about your past, sob deeply, or get defensive about certain triggering situations or people.
Witness the words you use and say, and if they are being defensive or blaming others.
Have you forgiven those who hurt you? It doesn’t matter if they knew what they did to you or not… OR whether or not they can apologize today. Those would be good if they restored the peace, but usually we’re in situations where we can’t get that closure.
But you can get forgiveness so you can heal and move healthy and happy on.
Doing this in a retreat or healing session with others is good because then you know for certain it happened as you have an event to remember and wasn’t just a few thoughts you had.
Also, do you ruminate on the same past thoughts?
If you do, you have to get closure or clarity, or you’ll always be carrying the burden of feeling stuck.
Clarity feels like peace and maybe even being able to laugh at some of the things that happened that were so traumatic before. They helped you grow to your wholeness and maybe even help others going through similar challenges.
Remember the saying, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
And feeling sorry for those who don’t know any better helps you have compassion for others.
Often it’s mental health that becomes the barrier to do better.
Because hurt people, hurt people.
And when you’re healed, you can see that clearly.
That goes beyond your past, processing, and forgiving and creating a new way to look at the past.
Then you can be the answer to people around you needing answers to their problems.
…And when you do, you can realize how far you’ve come! 🙌
Be well and Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!!