Bad mental health doesn’t equate to having a mental illness. People can have bad mental health days without having a condition, and someone with a condition can have good mental health days.
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Some days, all we need is to refocus, to take a minute to ourselves and breathe. The act of meditation is a fantastic way to care for our mental health.
One of the many studies proving the benefits of meditation was conducted by Biological Psychiatry. They scanned the brains of 35 job-seeking adults. Each were told to practice mindfulness a mere five minutes per day. After three days, the scientists found there was more activity in the area of the brain that processes stress, focus and calmness. Meditation is like a reset button- and we need to be using it more.
But when the bad days accumulate into a bad week or weeks, it all gets so overwhelming one could just scream. A lot of us just push on. If we let that emotion out, it would be easier to properly work through the issues.
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In order to process them, we need someone neutral in our lives. Everyone surrounding us has an agenda, even a positive one. In times of crisis, we often need someone to just sit back and listen to everything we're going through without knowing our context.
Our society's been doing it for generations. Past generations used the confessional. Some do so today, which is really good for their mental health. As for atheists, we need to find a trusted teacher or counsellor or, for people 12-25, someone at our local headspace.
Let’s take better care of ourselves. We deserve it.