Mental Strength is Different from Mental Health
The same way physical fitness is different from physical health.
The majority of us tend to associate mental strength to mental health. And that is an amalgam. The same goes for the association we tend to make between slimness and healthiness. A person can be slim and still be less healthy than a person who is overweight, the contrary is true as well.
Therefore it is important to distinguish mental strength from mental health.
Let’s see it this way: the same way physical strength and physical health are different so is mental health to mental strength. Lifting weights, working out help you become stronger, and have the body shape you aim for. But big muscles and a firm body don’t guarantee that you won’t ever get ill or have injuries. It does at a certain level decrease a big amount of health risks but it is not an absolute guarantee of great health.
Resilience does not always equal mental health
Mental muscle is similar. Being a mentally strong person can contribute in living a resilient lifestyle, facing gracefully some life’s challenges. But it doesn’t make you permanently immune to anxiety, burnout, depression or any other temporal mental illness.
Western distinction mind-body
We as a society have constructed a pejorative association to mental illness and this due in my sense to the western dissociation made between the mind and the body.
When someone has their leg broken do we look at him as if there was something odd about that person? No. Well, then why is it still tabu to open up about topics such as social anxiety, burnout, depression etc..? Because the same way a physically strong person can potentially break their leg, so can a mentally strong person eventually break down. Thanks to social media and the growing global awareness around wellness, things are moving forward. The connection mind-body is gaining the spotlights for the greater good of the humanity.
As Dr. James Gordon (founder of the Centre for Mind-Body Medicine) explains regarding the connection mind-body:
“the brain and peripheral nervous system, the endocrine and immune systems, and indeed, all the organs of our body and all the emotional responses we have, share a common chemical language and are constantly communicating with one another.”
At the end of the day we are spiritual beings having a human experience, we are one whole unit interconnected.
Mental wellness in practice:
The ways to practice healthy mental habits are diverse and adjustable to each one regarding the lifestyle one has. In general it goes from practicing meditation to genuinely feeling gratitude on a daily basis. It can also be a journey into decreasing the tone of that negative nagging voice because as Byron Katie wrote in her book “A mind at home with itself”: our thoughts are non-physical, they are non-existent.
To believe a thought is to exist in an imaginary world however real it may seem – Byron Katie
Until next time dear reader, take gorgeous care of yourself. Thank you for your time, be and stay well.
One love 💜