Mental Health

Nowadays, I hear the term “mentally ill” being thrown around a lot, which got me thinking about what it means to be “mentally healthy”. If you a imagine a mentally unhealthy person what image forms in your mind? Maybe a guy in a straight jacket acting like a frog or something, well I’ve been considering the term on much more literal grounds. To maintain health, generally, we must practice regular exercise and a nutritious diet. I think the same applies to our brains, your mental intake is your diet.

I know if I could see my brain he may be a little chubby round the edges, but as a nation I think we’d have a mental obesity pandemic. The average “normal” person watches 4 hours of television a day. In a 65 year life that’s 9 years spent trusting a box for your life intake. This is like trusting an anorexic vegan to control a hungry meat-eater’s diet. Just as we control what goes into our body, we should be just as weary with our mind’s exposure, if not more. What you surround yourself with, and hence what is on your mind, has great effect on your experience of life.

Maybe there are some exceptions, but in my opinion most TV is pretty shite, but even if it’s good, why aren’t we experiencing it for real!  The most watched broadcast in the UK is Eastenders… For anyone who doesn’t know, this is a show which literally imitates everyday life. So ironically we spend time that we could be using making our own storylines, to watch the mundane antics of imaginary versions of your local pub crew.

I’m not trying to get in on any weightwatchers for brains scheme or anything, and it would be contradictory for me to say “don’t watch TV” but I just think we should think about our own mental health on similar grounds to the way we consider our physical well being. Although it can be hard to resist the tasty lust of crappy food, I try to avoid it where possible. I think adopting the same thought process for what you watch, read or listen to could be a step towards a “better” or healthier lifestyle.

Take care!

Tools of Ignorance

As a modern people we always carry tools. Despite the weight they sometimes carry, we are not always aware of them. Often we equip tools automatically without thinking. To have a variety of tools can be very useful when digging around day to day life. The other day I was cycling home and I came across a prime example of a tool being used in a manner which is neither useful nor beneficial for the person using it. I was more shocked than offended, but as I made my way home I caught a pretty clear utterance of “*blah blah* bloody tosser *blah blah*”  luckily I haven’t had many people call me a tosser without even meeting me, so it took me by surprise when it happened. I was completely unaware of any tosser signals I might have been sending out, so I stopped and waited for her to catch up, mostly because I was intrigued to know why I’d been spotted as a tosser at point blank on the street. I wasn’t particularly aggravated, but out of pure curiosity when she reached me I asked “Did you just call me a tosser?” Her first reply gave me the blueprints of this whole scenario, along with many other similar scenarios. She replied “You bloody cyclists think you own the place”. I don’t consider myself an avid cyclist, but obviously this woman can’t read into my personal credentials from one glance, so instead she reads into a repertoire of her past experience. This probably isn't a conscious decision but using tools of ignorance she made a seemingly logical assumption. This particular assumption followed the formula of person on bike=cyclist=tosser. Who knows maybe she’s right, but the point is this method of assumption is thrown around far too much, often causing needles negative reverberations. Once we broke through the layer of ‘cycling prick’ that she’d slathered me in, she was fairly polite and a nice woman I’m sure.

An example of this scenario amplified on a larger scale is racism. Someone sees another person, they don’t know them but they do have preset associations on an aspect of their appearance or their being, so they grasp onto a formula. In doing so, they have dehumanized that individual, who is now a representative of their assumptions or past experience. Obviously this isn't the only factor of racism but it’s certainly a core piece.

To have an understanding of the way people use these tools allows you to become immune to the use of them. It is far too easy to react to a negative assumption with a parallel assumption. For example when a woman calls me a prick in the street, it seems natural for me to label her “silly old hag”, when really she is just a person using the wrong tools. If we are not aware of these tools we can (and often do) enter a never ending cycle of ignorance and judgments  which limits our ability to communicate.  So next time you find yourself in a similar scenario, just consider the tools which are in use by yourself and those around you.

Peace!