Mental health
Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, mental health issues have become more prevalent. Fears and worries are filling the hearts and minds of many of us. Rather than discussing specific methods for dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, fear or worry,
I would like to share some fundamental principles that are important for improving mental health. If you are one of these people who are in emotional or mental difficulty at this time, I hope that you will find this information helpful and I invite you to contact me if you wish to learn more about the detailed work involved.
Is it really Just ‘Mental’ Health?
It is important to realise that a large part of mental health is not so much ‘mental’ as one might think. The word “mental’ implies that it is in your mind. But It is also very much physical. Everything that you feel is in your body. Without a body you would not be able to feel. You will not be able to feel depressed oranxious. What we call a ‘mental state’ has a lot to do with the different physical interactions in our body and is not just thought patterns in the mind.
For this reason, for over two thousand years, Chinese Medicine never separated the body from the mind. This separation is erroneous at its core. In fact, the whole idea of separation, the ideas of right and wrong, good and bad are all judgements which are at the core of negative emotion. The body and mind are two aspects of one whole.
With this understanding in mind, It may be clear that to transform a ‘mental’ issue, you must transcend your physical body and see clearly the essence of who you are as separate from it*. Unless this process happens, one will always move in repeated cycles of improvement or decline in their, mental state without resolution.
The mind:
Of course your mental state is a result of your thought process and the interpretation of life events. Your emotional/mental/physical state depends on whether your interpretations of life events are positive or negative. A positive interpretation will lead to a positive state of mind while a negative interpretation will lead to a negative state of mind.
Your interpretations of life are driven by the way you were conditioned to view life and think. Your conditioning is the result of the way you were brought up, your experiences and conclusions/beliefs youcreated. Most of the time your reactions to life are already programmed by your conditioning and you will tend to repeat the same interpretations and reactions over and over again. It is like a computer program – when installing Microsoft Word on your computer, no matter how much you may try and restart your computer, it will not create a power point presentation!
Taking responsibility:
When you see clearly that your mental state is your own internal process and not inflicted on you by a person or a situation – the patterns that were controlling your reactions would then start to lose their grip. These patterns were created by yourself and you can also disentangle them - Youthen become your own master.
That is good news, because if your negative state of mind was due someone or something else other than yourself, then you would have to wait for someone else to fix it or for the circumstances to change. If that was the case, your happiness will always be dependent, you will never own it. In other words, you must take responsibility so emotionally and mentally you stand on your own two feet.
Becoming the master and decision maker:
Once you become aware of your habit, You will be able to make conscious choices and respondto life events rather than reactto them out of your habitual programming. This is very important because it means that you have a choice. It is very common that people do not see clearly that their state of mind is much more of a choice than they might realise or admit to themselves. So seeing yourself clearly brings the opportunity for conscious choices and change.
The distinction between your self and your body-mind:
In the beginning of this article I mentioned that the mind and body are one. At the same time, as you observe further, you will find that there is another part that is separate from the body-mind. This part is at the core of your being. It is beautiful and perfect. Knowing this, is knowing your self. It is key for transforming mental issues.
Understanding the map of yourself:
Once you have a clear map of your body, your mind and your self, you will be able to navigate easily. Naturally all the parts that are conditioned in your mind-body will slowly drop away and will leave your self to be uninterrupted and clear – the idea of ‘who I am’ will then be different.
So remember, you cannot just fix your mind with your burdened mind. You must see the whole of yourself and all it’s parts for real change to take place.
I hope that helps!
In health,
Gal Mor
*Note that Experiencing the self as separate from the mind-body, although may seem contradictory to the idea of unity, actually is not so. The ability and clarity of perception of the mind and body as different from the self, brings about a great sense of unity and connection.
