Caring for Our Mental Health: What is Mental Health, and Why Does it Matter?
In this article we will discuss the importance of mental health, why it matters, and how to maintain and care for your mental health! To view this article as an E-Book, Download Here.
What is Mental Health?
Mental Health is a state of well-being that includes the emotional, psychological, and social aspects of our lives. It effects how we think, feel and act. It determines how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.
Positive Mental Health enables people to cultivate and grow their dreams and desires, cope with the stressors of daily life, feel a sense of wholeness in their self, have healthy relationships, and have compassion, empathy, and love for themselves.
Mental Health also affects our physical wellbeing. Feeling good emotional, and mentally allows us to show up for our physical basic needs, such as food, sleep, exercise and hygiene.
Negative Mental Health can impact how you think, feel, and act, and this can adversely impact other areas of your life. It can lead to poor self image, low self-esteem, and poor health due to stress, depression and not being able to meet your basic needs.
Mental Health is More Than Just "Thinking Positively"
Having "good" mental health is more than the absence of neurodiverse issues or "negative thoughts." Rather, it's a state of holistic well-being.
Mental Health is an integral part of your entire health. There is no health, without mental health, as the way you think and feel, affects the way you behave and trickles down into all aspects of your life. How many times have we been in a "bad mood" and done or said something we may not have if we were in a "good mood". Your mental health affects your actions towards others, towards your self, and towards your life.
Mental Health is fundamental to the human ability to think, feel, interact with one another, earn a living, and enjoy life.
Poor mental health is associated with lack of support, emotional stressors, trauma, rapid social change, stressful work conditions, gender discrimination, social exclusion, unhealthy lifestyle, physical ill-health and human rights violations.
What is Toxic Positivity?
Toxic positivity is being positive at all costs. It is the mindset that even when faced with hardship, people should always maintain a positive attitude.
While toxic positivity is often shared with the best intentions, it lacks compassion and can shut down opportunities for connection and growth with others and ourselves.
Here are some signs that positivity has turned toxic:
You dismiss or brush off feelings that aren’t “positive”
You feel guilt or shame for experiencing “negative” emotions
You’re avoiding or hiding from uncomfortable feelings
You only focus on the positive aspects of a painful situation
How Can I Improve My Mental Health?
Mental Health involves the inner emotional world. Consistently expressing the thoughts and feelings of that inner world can help you stay in good mental health. Attending regular therapy can improve mental health, provide coping skills, regulate and manage symptoms, and process daily life stressors and past traumas.
Why Talk About Feelings?
Talking about feelings isn't a sign of weakness or failure, its part of taking charge of your wellbeing. It is about having sovereignty over your emotions, not the other way around. Regularly checking in with yourself and the different parts that are feeling this way, can bring more wholeness and health to your overall wellbeing.
Talking can be a way to cope with the things you’ve been holding on to. Opening yourself up to validating your emotions can lead to you feeling more supported, happy, connected and heard .
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from behavioral therapies. Clients in ACT learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and instead accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives.
With this understanding, you can begin to accept your issues and hardships and commit to making change in your behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives, and how they feel about it.
Finding self acceptance is part of regulating your mental health. It’s much healthier to accept that you’re unique than to wish you were more like someone else. Feeling good about yourself boosts your confidence to make forward moves in life, learn new skills, and expand your world through new friends and experiences. Good self-esteem helps create the foundation and skills for you cope when life presents it's difficulties.
Self Acceptance vs. Toxic Positivity
The difference between self acceptance and toxic positivity is that in self acceptance you acknowledge and accept the issue and its feelings, and use skills to work through it. While Toxic Positivity involves avoidance of feelings and coming to solutions.
Recognize and accept the things you may or may not be able to change but also focus on what you can do.
Work towards the change in small steps.
Enjoy this content?
Share it with a friend and follow us on Instagram @enodiatherapies for more like this and to never miss a blog post!
I've done my research! But you should too! Check my sources against your own, and always exercise sound judgement.
Sources:
ACT Therapy: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy
WHO: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
