It Takes More Than Your Mindset for Mental Health – Holistic Approaches to Mental Health and Why They’re Crucial This Year.
The new year is always an opportunity for a fresh start. Countless influencers encourage us to examine our mindsets to ensure we set a positive tone for the year ahead. While I agree that a positive mindset is important, there’s far more to mental health than positive thinking.
Choose to Be Happy?
There’s a mantra that I’ve heard out there countless times in recent years: happiness is a choice. Many sources have told us that our experience of life is a direct result of our thinking, which we influence by choosing what we focus on and believe about the world around us.
Is this oversimplifying?
There’s no question that our attitude about life impacts how we live. When we expect the worst from people or circumstances, we often find that our experiences match our expectations. If we’ve learned to doubt others, trust doesn’t come easily, which affects our relationships.
But mental health has many facets, and I find it’s important to be careful not to use blanket statements like “Just choose to be happy!” or “Change your thoughts, and everything will improve.” In many cases, this advice is sound and helpful. In some, there’s more to consider.
You’re Not Broken
If you’ve struggled to stay positive no matter how disciplined you are with your thoughts, I want you to know there is nothing wrong with you. You are not broken.
You or someone you love may experience symptoms of depression, anxiety, neurological fatigue, or chronic headaches, which affect your mood. That does not mean that you’re at fault. Or that somehow you are not working hard enough to maintain positive thoughts.
The underlying causes of these conditions can be addressed to bring relief when no amount of helpful affirmations or mantras can. A chronic lack of self-confidence, extreme shyness, and social anxiety are signs of physiological imbalance – it’s not all about your thinking.
Root Causes: Why Mood Is Bigger Than Mindset
Virtually everyone alive today is exposed to environmental toxins that have become an unfortunate reality of this time. While this can feel alarming, we can take our power back when we know what these toxins are, how to minimize our exposure, and how to remove them from our bodies.
Some of these toxins, like toxic heavy metals (which we take in from aluminum food and beverage containers, copper IUDs for women, tattoo ink, and coffee brewed using commercial machines), actually disrupt our neurotransmitters and brain function. This disruption can lead to feeling depressed, disconnected from our emotions, anxiety, and many other conditions that alter our emotional health.
Other toxins that can challenge our neurological systems include fragrances from scented candles, chemicals, and fragrances in common household cleaning products, colognes and perfumes, and air freshener products and plug-ins.
These toxins all contribute to an overburdened system, creating symptoms like feelings of chronic mood struggles. In these cases, there is nothing wrong with your mindset. It’s all about healing your body so your mind can return to health.
Self-care in 2024
The term “self-care” often conjures images of face masks, massages, and afternoons at the spa. The trend is to separate self-care from our day-to-day, as though creating space for restoration has its time and place unrelated to our routines.
If you ask me, self-care is a daily practice. And yes, positive thinking is an aspect of it. Equally important are spiritual health, healthy, supportive relationships, nourishing foods, supportive exercise, and good sleep. All of this adds up to a strong holistic foundation for true mental health.
We cannot separate mental health from other aspects of health – it’s part of our overall well-being. Mental health is more intentional than thinking good thoughts; it’s a daily investment in our overall health.
Especially now, mental health and daily self-care are crucial. Amidst pandemics and global conflict, we’re all being asked to move at superhuman speed with superhuman strength. In addition to a positive mindset, we need a rock-solid foundation on which to build our lives so that we can come back stronger in the face of every challenge. This is how we rise above.
My Favorite Mental Health Tools
Self-care for me involves staples in my routine that I maintain as a matter of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. This adds to strong mental health as my whole being is supported.
I feed my spirit with meditation, prayer, and a regular gratitude practice. Meditation and prayer remind me that there is something greater than me; this keeps my perspective balanced. Spend 10 minutes daily writing about what you’re grateful for and watch your life transform.
My connection to family and friends is the next pillar. Without the connection to my family, my friends, colleagues, and collaborators, I would not even come close to the level of mental health I enjoy. Human beings are designed to be social and empathetic. According to data uncovered in the Blue Zones project, community and family connections are key to health and longevity.
And last but certainly not least: nutrition. As a health practitioner with clients on all continents, I see the power of food and proper supplementation daily. We cannot underestimate the impact of what we put into our bodies on our minds.
Did you know, for example, that certain foods actually boost your mood on a physiological level? Next time you’re feeling low, grab a handful of grapes and notice how you feel after. Feeling run down and spread too thin? Bring in sprouts of any kind for an immediate pick-me-up.
Daily healing tools like celery juice and supplementing with a good vitamin B12 (with both adenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin) also support our nervous systems, directly impacting our mental health.
And a little positive thinking never hurt anyone!
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