Mental Fitness

The majority of those who suffer some degree of anxiety, fear or phobia as well as other symptoms of psychological disturbance will agree that their own thoughts are often in chaos, seeming to have central core to help them cling to something firm in principle. Even although offering a subtle anchorage for our minds, the value of the good thoughts of great minds is invaluable and provides us with a mental tonic. For example, 

Albert Einstein
I believe in God – who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of the Universe.  I believe that Intelligence is manifested throughout all nature. The basis of all scientific work is the conviction that the world is an ordered and comprehensible Entity, and not a thing of chance.

Aldous Huxley
Every man who can read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the way in which he exists, to make his life full, significant, and interesting.

Ted Noffs  Creed of the Wayside Chapel
I believe that the universe is sustained by laws of harmony
I see these laws working in the furthest star and the tiniest cell, here on earth.
I believe that it is my task to attune myself to that wider harmony
That governs all of life within the universe:
I then become a creator of harmony myself,
With my own life, within the wider community that surrounds me,
And eventually among the nations of the world……

Frank Smythe – Mountaineer
There are two aspects of Nature that, above all others, have inspired men to poetic and literary heights, and been a source of inspiration to countless millions – the hills and the sea. They share the same mysteries, they speak the same language, they are untamed and uncontrolled by men. In this last, lies a subtle and never -failing charm.

Manly Palmer Hall
The purpose of life is the accomplishment of the greatest good.

Goethe
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. 

Meher Baba
Meet life without expectation, entanglement or shirking; everything can show the way to your goal, but remember that real beauty is beneath the surface.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
Friendship renders prosperity more brilliant, while it lightens adversity by sharing it and making its
burden common.

Remember that tomorrow’s success is founded on today’s preparation and if you are inclined to under-estimate your possibilities – keep constantly in mind that life doesn’t consist in holding good cards but in playing a poor hand well. Anon.

Sally Janssen’s wonderful book “Mental Fitness: A Simple Self-Help Guide”, offers simple and timely solutions. Read more….

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

Prior to any expression or release of energy, there is a contraction and build-up of reserve energy before that outpouring.  This is natural.

However, a build up of energy and no action to release it becomes potential dynamite in the human psyche. Recognition of this condition is known in modern terms as ‘stress’. This build-up of energy without appropriate release can prove detrimental to the nervous system, glandular system, respiratory system, digestion, the heart and the circulatory system. All systems of the body are interfered with when the body is held under tension that is unrelated to the muscular activity or task in hand.

So, when we refer to ‘stress’ it is to unwarranted and extreme tension beyond the degree required in the context of the individual’s actions and circumstances. Stress can refer to physical stress, emotional stress, mental stress or to all three. It is seldom that there is physical stress alone.
Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

We all need mental refreshment of some kind, to restore vitality to both brain and body. The finest way to do this has been time tested over centuries by those who have preserved the art of meditation in their traditional practices. Meditation is an inherent part of any religious or spiritual discipline.  Now it is proving essential in programmes and practices designed to improve mental health and mental fitness.

Meditation is helpful in alleviating symptoms of mental illness; it also offers a vital aid in establishing a healthy condition of mental fitness; and it allows us to access our higher levels of consciousness that relate to our spiritual nature and aspirations. Many famous people in history from Pythagorus and Marcus Aurelius to present day philosophers confirm the value of meditation.

It is meditation that provides us with a temporary mental release from stress, anxiety and depression. Through meditation we learn to experience positive emotions, find the key to our own intellectual development and have opportunity to concentrate upon a new self-image. We experience a widening of our consciousness that brings a fresh understanding of spiritual life. There are many benefits, all of which contribute to our total well being.

Meditation is based upon maintaining stillness that allows all the passing thoughts in the mind to slow down; any disturbances in our emotions to become quiet; and in the stillness of the body to restore vitality according to nature’s design.  We all need a time of quiet when we can extricate ourselves from daily activity and responsibilities and just commune with nature. If we are able to practise meditation in the open air we experience added pleasure.

If you are unfamiliar with any techniques used in meditation it is best to discover the simple principles before you start. These will already be known to those who meditate regularly.

The over riding attitude that should prevail in order to feel all the benefits of meditation is to have a faith and confidence both within our nature as well as in nature outside in the beautiful and miraculous manifested world in which we live.

   Sally Janssen’s wonderful book “Mental Fitness: A Simple Self-Help      Guide”, offers simple and timely solutions. Read more….

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

The urge for self improvement is an inherent quality in human nature, whether this is related to physical achievements, emotional satisfactions or mental status. Although we may try to compare ourselves with others it is difficult except that we may seem to be ‘better’ than some, and yet may fall short of others known to us. However, regarding the quality of other minds and intellects any comparison is futile beyond any comparison we may be able to assess in exchanging information regarding a common interest or study.
Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

The meditation experience is unique to each one of us. Yet it is variable enough to be exciting time after time. It offers a familiar path of retreat providing refreshment you seek for your entwined emotions and mind and also for your soul.

Our supreme experiences are not of mind or emotions but of our soul. They are usually seen to be generated by our spiritual nature when our consciousness comes to rest at a point of illumination or understanding that replaces previous struggles and searches. These deepest experiences are rare and will be remembered, often for a lifetime. 

In whatever degree or guise, realization is always accompanied with a sense of discovering a truth when we find or suddenly ‘see’ or understand a simple solution to a previous complexity or even gain a new perception of old ideas.
Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

Mental concepts are the building blocks in our mental structure of the mind. Whereas passing thoughts are experienced as temporary flashes of thought of various degrees of importance, enduring concepts are vital to our mental fitness and are capable of powerfully influencing our lives.

Ideas and concepts are as seeds, dropped into the fertile soil of the brain.  Some take root and grow and blossom, bearing fruit eventually if tended and cultivated in a fertile and imaginative mind capable of producing productive, healthy thoughts.

There are many concepts freely given to us from infancy. Some of them have the chance to take root and flourish, depending upon many factors both from our choices as well as from outside circumstances.

In the years of early education we are usually bombarded with seed ideas and concepts in such abundance that there is no way we can expect them all to grow. We must be selective if we wish for health and mental fitness. Tending our minds must include weeding out the unwanted. As with any gardening cultivation, this is a demanding and ongoing process.

However, when we are young it is imperative to determine the seed concepts that we find attractive and are willing to nurture to fruition. We have to find our own values, in other words, and remain true to them for our health and mental fitness. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

Major disorders of mind and brain include some of the most devastating conditions that are capable of complete destruction of an individual’s capacities, self confidence and even the will to live.

Although we generally hear of minor ailments of the mind, the most serious mental diseases also deserve our attention. Diseases such as schizophrenia, mania, Alzheimer’s, memory loss and others affect an estimated one percent of the population in the U.S.A and possibly all other developed countries.

Neuroscientists, psychiatrists, nutritionists and scientists of many specialized therapies and modalities are beginning to communicate in an effort to co-ordinate and evaluate research material from different avenues of therapy employed in healing maladies of the mind.

It is timely to arrive at an all embracing investigation that also includes naturopathic therapies and those previously considered as fringe medicine with their drug free methods.

Until there is published an unbiased and comprehensive scientific report of this nature, we must apply our own research efforts as best we can in a search to get an overview of current social problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

Every natural organism requires nourishment and elimination of wastes. It is important that we attend equally to both processes. Even the subtler life of the mind obeys these natural processes. Our mental health is dependent equally upon our attention to nourishment of our brain and body and the nourishment of our minds.

The analogy is apt that we do partake of mental food when we feed into our minds nourishment in the form of facts, ideas and news items that provide our intelligence with thought material to digest according to our individual interest and ability to do so.

What may then be seen as mental ‘wastes’ are the unwanted thoughts and ideas that are rejected.  The healthy function of our minds is burdened by undigested material that must be eliminated as waste from our body so that our minds are sustained in good health and our integrity maintained. Then it is conceivable that healthy, vital thoughts can continue to be generated.

Sally Janssen’s wonderful book Mental health and Fitness: A simple Self-help Guide, offers simple and timely solutions.  Read more…

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

Philosophers tell us that free will of a human being gives an individual the power to determine not only his actions, feelings and thoughts, but whether we will choose to assume an attitude to life that determines our future happiness.

If we are patient and relaxed enough to admit to ourselves the reasons for any unhappiness it will cause an unravelling of any negative knot or stranglehold within our psyche. This can refer to either emotional issues or to mental problems that preoccupy our thoughts and disturb our mental fitness. Even if the cause is not immediately apparent, we really may know the answer, although it may be at present buried in our deeper unconscious mind waiting for us to discover the key.

So sometimes we must be patient, and keep searching for the answer so we can dissolve our dissatisfaction or unhappiness and transform it into positive energy. This may results in a more relaxed state, a general acceptance of things we can’t change or improve, feeling of contentment, or better still, just the feeling of joy and happiness in being alive. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: anxiety, Meditation, Mental Fitness, mental health, relaxation, Stress

My brain is housed within the confines of my bony skull, cushioned like any other sensitive instrument. Here it functions without interruption throughout my lifetime, as do the brains of every other human being throughout their years.

There are few of us who ever seen the actual physical organ but most of us are aware of its walnut-like appearance with the  two halves with their distinct convolutions being separated by membrane.

Scientists say the brain is sexist and that nature discriminates – that a woman’s brain weighs a little less than a man’s. But perhaps it’s another example of the fact that size isn’t all that important. It’s the thought that counts.

The brain is actually the recorder and servant of my thoughts to which it responds to some extent but leaves the greater dictates of nature to assume superiority, particularly in matters of physiological function and for this, we must all be eternally grateful. I really appreciate that I don’t have to think of directing the heart to beat, or telling my digestion to function. It just happens. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Mental Fitness - Brain Care