You guessed it. This article is all about mental hygiene. What it is, why we need to do it, and just a few ways that not attending to the health of our mind can contribute in huge ways to chronic conditions in our physical bodies.
Many of us were taught daily strategies of maintenance and self-care like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular sleep patterns, etc. We’ve been taught to brush and floss our teeth every day, likely since we were kids. We might not have learned or internalized what has been taught and for any number of reasons opted to ignore that advise. Regardless of what we were taught, we cannot escape the messages of accepted wisdom about the basics of physical health maintenance. There is just too much information coming at us, confusing though it can certainly be at times, about how we should be taking care of ourselves.
Have you ever asked yourself then, “For all that we have been told, why does it seem that everyone is struggling to take good care of themselves? Why are there so many products and services that seem to imply that taking care of myself should be difficult?” You’ve either said it yourself or heard someone else say (more than once): “I know I should be eating better.” Or “I should really exercise more.” Indeed, it seems that for all the information we have at our disposal, maintaining good health seems like it should be effortless and natural. Easy even.
For over a hundred years or more of advances in science, medicine and psychology, the myth has been perpetuated that we can treat the different symptoms (mind, body, spirit, etc.) as having separate causes. We have been brainwashed into believing we can separate that which we notice in our body from what happens in our mind. Have an ache in your body? Go to the M.D. Feel insecure? Go see a therapist. Feel guilty? Go to confession. While there are so many gifts that any of these experts and providers may offer you, the unfortunate reality is that they are all too likely content to view you and treat you through the lenses their field of expertise has taught them use.
After a century or more of this kind of health care, we as a culture in the West have largely come to view ourselves and our personal experiences in the same way as well. Because we have been brainwashed to SEE things as separate, we have wound up acting and behaving as though they ARE separate. And when this is the case, if we have an ache in our leg (that is not explained by recent injury), we are unlikely to even consider how our thoughts and social interactions might play a part in the ache. If we have a lingering GI issue, a low back pain that won’t go away, a twitching eye, an itchy scalp, a painful shoulder, high blood pressure, contract cancer or are diagnosed with early onset dementia…we are all too likely to see them as isolated symptoms and proceed with the “standard” treatment for those symptoms.
But in the process, there might be a sneaky thought that begins to slip in: “What if I had done a better job taking care of myself?” You see, right there is where the process of stress begins and extenuate its entrenchment. We may spend a little or a lot of energy entertaining the thoughts about the physical ailment. Perhaps our thoughts focus on work stress, family stress, negotiating problematic relationships, or protecting ourselves from feeling exposed and insecure. Regardless of what we notice our mind focusing on, we are experiencing stress, whether we will identify it as such or not. In fact, for a multitude of reasons, our mind will resist and even prevent us from calling our inner experience stressful, largely because if we did, we then would feel the pressure to make changes, which would only cause more stress.
This mental process that happens in the mind involves all kinds of processes in our brain and central nervous system, which in turn modulate and regulate the hormones, digestion, muscle tension, etc. We cannot have a single thought that doesn’t have some impact in the body, however slight it may be. A thought is, by definition, something that happens in our brain. And our brain, by definition is an organ of the body. What this means, therefore, is that a thought is a physical experience and our thoughts emerge, in large part, as a result of previous physical experiences. Over time, thoughts create physical conditions, and physical conditions create thoughts. Your mental health is your physical health.
Just like you isolate your teeth for brushing and flossing every night to clear out the junk accumulated throughout the day through just eating and living, do you spend even 2 minutes a day cleaning out the junk in your mind? Do you actively sift through the day’s activities and clear out thoughts that don’t need to be kept, thoughts that won’t serve you tomorrow? Do you rinse your mind with the minty freshness of remembering something pleasant, something you accomplished, or something you achieved? Just like the junk that accumulates between your teeth leads to decay and gum disease (not to mention any number of other infections and chronic conditions), the junk that accumulates in your thought patterns lead to decay and toxic build-up. Mental decay and toxic build-up can look like recurring thoughts of resentment, poor self-esteem, distraction and inability to focus, a feeling of boredom of stuckness you can’t shake, persistent conflict in relationships or increasing disconnection. And because what we call your mind is merely a function of the physical brain, this stress that accumulates in the mind becomes a physiological condition the body is required to deal with.
So start to see your mind as a part of your body, treat it with the same care, respect, and attention you would your teeth, your diet, your exercise routine, your daily hygiene. Make a commitment to doing daily mental hygiene. Be curious about how your mind is impacting your body, and how your body is influencing your mind. Notice your how your thoughts change when you care for your body, and notice how your body shifts when you care for your mind. When you learn to do this as regularly as you brush your teeth, your body will thank you for it.
If you’re curious to know more, bookmark this page, and in a few days we’ll be posting more information about the specific ways you can practice good mental hygiene.
