Tag: Self Care

Don’t Call It Mental Health

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Relationships, Success

It seems that the idea of mental health permeates Western culture as a requirement of wellbeing and a keen focus for employers and self-help gurus alike. The problem with the term and idea of mental health is that it is innately something that you have or you don’t. To feel that we don’t have it makes us feel that our life and mental state is below par and, therefore, less worthy than those who have it. It can make us feel that we are not enough.

I agree with Simon Sinek that a better term is ‘mental fitness’. It better describes the gradient upon which mental wellness sits. It becomes a scale and a skill to improve. It opens up the idea of working towards mental wellbeing one step at a time, much like building up strength or stamina. It implies a journey and not a binary situation where you have it or not. It allows for bad days and good days and avoids the self degradation that befalls those who do not feel mentally well. This includes those who have experienced war, as a soldier and a civilian.

To Serve First Thrive

Happiness, Health, Relationships, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

Put on your oxygen mask first is the instruction to parents when being given a safety briefing on a plane before the flight begins. The reason is that if you are unconscious, you can not help your child.

Equally, in day to day life, if you spend your time helping others and not looking after yourself, then you will become depleted, and your metaphorical cup will be empty. If you fill up your cup, then you have more to give.

In order to serve, you must first thrive yourself. To give you must first have plenty. This applies to your health, both mental and physical. To help others, you need to thrive so that the energy you give to others leaves you with energy to take care of yourself, too.

You also see the world and other people through the prism of yourself. You see things as you are, not how they are.

Responsibility Is A Privilege

Happiness, Health, Success

This title could be taken a number of ways. Let me explain my meaning. Often in life we see responsibility as a burden, something that we avoid, either because we don’t want to have to devote our time to it or because we already have a lot of responsibility and we would struggle to fit in more.

In either case, the way we see responsibility can either leave us feeling stressed or excited. If we see responsibility as a privilege then we will see it as something we have earned and are capable of. We will feel more confident and able to fulfill the needs of the responsibility.

Essentially, seeing a responsibility as a privilege naturally brings out excitement and makes us want to work to prove we have earned it. It is a completely different mindset, a mindset that can make the work you do more fulfilling. However, we must be mindful of taking on too much responsibility. There are only 24 hours in a day and we all have a limit to the energy we can spend each day. So be selective with the responsibilities you take on too.