How do we think about mental health, in a personal way?
Like many things, it is often easier to consider mental health in the abstract or for a group of people.
But, what does it look like in the day-to-day for you?
Have you, for example, identified the kind of mental care you need to give yourself — like you do, say, for your physical health? Do you think about or organize for your mental health differently? Or, does it seem like your mental health is something closer to the bottom of your health-priorities list than the top?
I recently woke up feeling pretty stressed. I was worn out from some pretty active dreams. I was flat, energy-less, reactionary. I didn't feel good — like sometimes when you just don't feel good physically. This has been happening, not regularly, but also not never recently. It's got me thinking.
Do I believe that I'm not being affected by all that is going in my life? Do I compartmentalize things — associating this feeling with that thing and confining it accordingly? Am I imagining that things do not accumulate or aggregate for me, like they do for other people? In other words, I am fooling myself?
It's not like I don't live in the same context as everyone else, that I don't have some sometimes overwhelming concerns about those I care about, about my well-being, about the future, about the surrounding narratives of our country and world, about...the nature of my own existence.
I can suddenly realize — wow, there's a lot going on for me. What am I doing to care for myself?
...finish here.
