How Mental Health Directly Affects School and Work-life Performance
“Happy mind, happy life.”
You’ve probably heard this statement before, but have you taken the time to absorb what it actually means? In our day-to-day hustle and bustle, it can be difficult to empty our minds completely. We have to remember dates, deadlines, commitments, and the like. But what if it were possible to hit a reset button on our minds each night before we go to sleep — so we still remember all the important information, but in a way that is strategically and non-emotionally compartmentalized? Having a happy mind means having a mind that is inherently free from restrictions, free from impositions, able to think creatively, emotionally healthy, wise, and inherently inwardly motivated.
Think about it this way: you take your trash out, and it gets collected weekly. If you’re willing to clean out a plastic bin frequently, then you should be willing to clean out your mental space even more habitually. We know that for as long as we are present on this Earth, time only moves forward. We know that the past and future are both figment, and that the present moment is the only true reality. So why are we still holding onto things that happened, and worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet?
Stress and anxiety is the nature of needing constant control over our surroundings. It’s a human conception, and it’s very justifiable, common, and real. But we don’t have to have it. We don’t have to have anxiety, we don’t have to judge our future outcomes based on past happenstances, and we don’t have to live life from a preconceived vantage point. We don’t always know what’s going to happen. And that’s okay. In fact, that’s great and necessary. It is a clear indication that truly, nothing is ever in our control. We don’t get to decide when the sun rises each morning. We don’t keep our heartbeat sustained. Someone or something else is doing that for us.
Understanding this in depth helps us to realize our constitutional position as being innate loving servants of Oneness, trapped in the various conditionings of the human body.
Negative side effects of not clearing out the mind include: trauma, depression, anxiety, heightened sensitivity (that impacts us negatively because we may not know how to deal with such a gift), bipolar disorder, mood swings, manic episodes, stress attacks, and so on and so forth. Having a regular pattern of one or more of these things is a symptom of an uncontrolled, and therefore, unkept mind.
We exercise the body to keep it strong, and we feed it with beneficial types of fuel, straight from the Earth. Similarly, it is highly necessary (if not even more so) that we manage our mental fitness as such.
Managing mental fitness can be done in a variety of different ways and methods. But regardless of which path you take, all paths should ideally lead to the same outcome: having an outlook on life that is strong, stable, motivated, inspired, forward-moving and thinking, and above all, unconditionally loving.
So what are the methods to keeping one’s mental health intact? Well, the first step is understanding that the mind, body, and soul are all connected. The Holy Trinity if you will, yes? When the mind is taken care of, the body and the soul follow. The rest is true according to each particular method you take. For example, yoga promotes a mind-body connection, and in turn, heals the soul over time. Meditation provides a mind-soul connection, and can heal your body, even to the point of reshaping strands of your DNA. Focus is everything, because what we focus on grows, and if you focus on healing, the results will spread throughout your very being.
So adapt. Evolve. Yoga is good, meditation is good, mantra chanting is good, prayerful thinking is good, and all evoke a sense of gratitude, openheartedness, and oneness.
We don’t have to feel bad. Ever. Understanding our constitutional position as ever-serving beings is true acceptance of the conjoining of our spirit (internal) self, and the bodily conception of (egoic) self. This is duality.
Keeping the inner eye fixated upon the One and giving up the results of our actions unto that Force, we can have bliss, even in this life.
Happy healing.
