Be too busy, but also to have too much time to think
Be too stressful, but also not have a reason to act
Be too tired, but also not to be too much in bed till you can’t sleep
You don’t want to be with many people, but also not to dwell in your inner world
You don’t want to be angry with your kids, but you are
You want to be kind to yourself, but it’s hard
You want to smile
You want to feel the breeze
You want to hear the music
You will
It’s cyclical. The feeling is well known. The energy is down. The anger is higher. The body is heavy or hurts. Something is missing, but it’s impossible to know what. Endless lists that were done in the past floats up again, without any new insight. You don’t even try to filter the reasons. You look at it from the inside and from the outside. Looking from the outside is a skill you developed in the countless times it felt like this in past. The meta look, the external look, was supposed to be a powerful tool, helping you pull yourself up, providing you with a clear fresh perspective. It does not help this time. Your friend is movement, alone time, and patient.
It’s grey. It will stay grey for some time. Don’t fight it, be it. And it will pass.
How do you know it’s deep? When you meet each other after a long time, it feels as if you saw each other yesterday. It feels like routine, with a little warmth inside. You know the good and the bad. It’s predictable but holds interesting updates.
Why it’s deep? because you’ve been to a lot together. Many times you didn’t choose each other, someone else did it for you, but the result is shared values, memories and experiences. Good times and many bad times. Everyone is an open book. No one tries to hide anything. No one can or wants to hide something.
When meeting a group of people with deep connection, there’s a special energy for that. People around this group can also feel it. The trust is high, the laughs are contagious.
You might feel tired after these meetings, but on a deeper level, it fills your battery. It strengthen the core that support your long term energy, not the daily one.
It’s valuable because there are no shortcuts. It’s deep because it’s deep. If it’s shallow, it will never be deep.
“Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. ” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
“Being mentally well means that your mind is in order and functioning in your best interest. You are able to think, feel and act in ways that create a positive impact on your physical and social well-being. ” Singapore Association for Mental Health
Before we start let’s talk shorty on association: There is a negative association to the word Mental. Same as there is still to some extent to words such as Wellness, Mindful, Empathy.
The word Introvert’s association has improved a lot with Susan Cain’s Quiet but I think it’s safe to say that it mainly made introverts feel a bit better or more accurately to get to know themselves better. Outside the Introverted “community” it is still associated to being shy, non-assertive, no social, not daring, not charismatic etc. I am stating it because mental wellness will probably go in a similar route as introversion. And both are only in the beginning of their journey in the path of improving our lives.
So there’s a still a long way for Introversion but back to mental wellness. One of the biggest facts driving the importance of mental wellness is the proven connection between our mental state and our physical state. The most sarcastic Doctor, believing only what she sees in a prestige research magazine will confirm it [see some reference here]. We don’t need research to know that our mood [mind] gets down when we don’t sleep or eat [physical] or that we get sick or feel muscles pain [physical] when are stressed or in the midst of a conflict or a big decision.
Now lets talk some emotions. Emotions are part of our mind, which is a concept many argue about what it includes, how it relates to our brain and body etc., but I think that a good definition might be something like: an abstract layer, buffering between our physical us and the world. We see the world through it and it impacts how we are seen by others. Emotions, therefore, are included in our mind. And the mind plays a huge part in our life, how we experience it and what we achieve.
There are many reasons why emotions are so cool:
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