However, we have yet to admit the dangers and destructive effects of mental pollutants that continue to degrade the quality of our mental fitness and undermine the progress of our modern culture towards the ideal of total human health and well being.

In our society, individual choice is highly respected as a freedom that each of us enjoys and wishes to retain. The principle relates readily to our personal selection of physical health choices that most immediately affect us, but also to our right to read, listen to, absorb or to eliminate unwanted mental thought and ideas. But because our mental choices are transmitted directly into our social life and environment to affect others, it is more complex.

Our mental environment, the world in which we live with our minds, just as surely as our physical environment needs to be free of damaging thoughts and destructive or toxic ideas. The mental environment has no boundaries and consists of complex mix of influences that affect us all in a measure often according our choices or reaction as individuals.  Our sense of awareness  helps to regulate our mental health, by affording us opportunity to avoid negative thought atmospheres and make clear, conscious choices regarding our mental health.

However, unwanted or unselected material easily enters our minds uncensored by our conscious choice as a by-product of what we watch in public entertainment, public press items, and as a result of absorption of energy in group situations where we share the same mental atmosphere.

We are willing to raise our voices individually and as a group to make complaint about physical environmental issues and do so very vocally. But we are either unaware, or not interested in applying the same criteria to mental health and mental pollution. It is time to recognize the damage caused by the toxic mental material found in both group venues and fostered in private mental space.

Once toxic material is identified, it is logical that it will be restricted or prohibited from use. But this is not always the case, either with physical toxic substances or with the subtler poisonous thoughts and ideas that spread mental disease.

But the public remains tolerant, and even encourages continuance of recognized pollutants in our society that are responsible for much psychological chaos, mental breakdowns, drug overdosing and suicides as individuals attempt to escape from the negative influences in which they feel enmeshed.

Science identifies many of these influences such as the damage done to our brains and bodies by toxic fumes, chemicals, drugs and noise. We need to listen and to act upon our scientific knowledge but also to what our scientists of the mind guide us towards in freeing our minds from toxic thoughts and negative influences if we are seriously aspiring to total health of mind and body and avoidance of disease.

When we relax we have a chance to offload our tensions, stress, anxieties and our tight and uncomfortable reactions to life, to people, and to happenings or events.

We have the chance to melt away any physical tension to allow nature to send its energies to heal and vitalize every cell of our body as we breathe rhythmically.

We shut our eyes to cut out external distractions and go inward in our awareness after directing our muscles to be still. Only the rhythm of our breath is evidence of muscular activity.

As the body becomes comfortable, we are able to cast off any emotional stress that prevents us feeling totally at peace. This we do by an attitude that admits that we feel best and most loving when we are not trying too hard, or attempting to bargain with our love, or to be selfish. Just feeling that we can let go all our emotional efforts so that our circulation of our feeling nature is restored and nature can energize us as naturally as it does our body.

Then with our minds concerned only to release effort, we can become a little too self conscious when trying to subdue the habit of thinking or even may wonder what we should be thinking about! To help with this, we return to the assistance we have with respiration, and put our thought only into rhythmic and equal inhalation and exhalation to an easy count and sustain this for a few minutes.

Then, ceasing even the thought of respiratory rhythm enjoy again how you feel.

You may feel light, heavy, calm, strong, shapeless, tingling, vital, or on the verge of sleep.

The remaining time in relaxation is individually experienced but you will be likely to feel many new and pleasant experiences as you give your mind a ‘holiday’ and just be free.

Try it…….

With disregard or rejection of time honoured values in culture, our mental climate is becoming threatening. Classical values are being replaced by thoughts and attitudes that are damaging. Their acceptance indicates a collapse of our social values and principles. It is only the positive, noble thoughts and aspirations that uphold any civilization. Denial of them limits further progress or heralds the downfall of a people.

That may seem exaggerated statement but just think about it for a moment.

Can you depend upon the powerful media outlets to present you with fine thoughts and reports of noble deeds, examples of high moral behaviour and positive news gathering? All indications are that the contrary is the case.

Deplorable values and violent rather than civilized behaviour is the main tone of daily news reports. We are presented withhappenings that are discouraging rather than nurturing quality social life and positive attitudes. This type of mental programming is the basis of a great degree of mental depression in the community.

In our western countries, the criteria for news ‘content’ is sensationalism. Reports are rated and duly welcomed according to the extent of crime, corruption, rape, murder, and violence from domestic issues to the international front. The bias towards negative subjects seems additionally polluted by the focus upon sex of some kind to appease the current addiction and the degraded appetite for perversions of all kinds including unforgiveable harm to children.

If thoughts and ideas are food for our minds then our libraries are available to offer an alternative abundant and wonderful range for individual choice of nutritious and enriching reading matter. Here we are left free to browse and nourish our minds according to our better values and those of our inherited culture. It would seem that as long as ‘hard copy’ books remain available through publishing houses, we will at least retain our freedom of choice of mental nourishment as we insist upon in selecting our food.

To avoid mental pollution that is even more dangerous an issue than pollution of our physical environment we must be alert to withstand efforts to programme our thoughts negatively. But we must assert our freedom to determine for ourselves the quality of material that we consume in our responsibility to develop and maintain health of mind and body by recognizing and avoiding toxicity in all its forms.

This is recognized by psychologists and those who make neurological studies of the brain. They tend to be of the opinion that it is advisable to encourage catharsis or regular cleansing of the subconscious mind. Techniques used for this purpose vary with professionals.

Self help techniques are rather simple, but are effective in helping you maintain some semblance of order in your consciousness. Reducing accumulations of subconscious mental rubbish or even diminishing any negative ideological pollutants, allows better and unencumbered use of our conscious mental faculties.

In self culture and with a desire to maintain mental fitness we must realise the importance of freeing the mind of unwanted thoughts and painful memories of the past. It is only then that we can take full advantage of what is offered by present.

To start with, it is a good idea to ask yourself some pertinent questions . Your answers will usually indicate a need for a personal cleansing process or catharsis.

Do you sometimes feel that your brain has too much information to process?
Perhaps you feel unable to express yourself as clearly as before?
Do you feel less mental freedom to fly with your imagination or create what you feel you would like?
Does your mind wander away from the moment and concern itself with things unrelated to the circumstances and people around you?
Does your memory play tricks or let you down, when once it was wonderful?
Are your dreams a cause for disturbance with unpleasant scenarios?
Are you beginning to suffer from mild physical health symptoms not there last year ?
Are you tired and feeling ‘fed up’ with your life?
Do you still have the motivation to enjoy events and activities as before?
Have times of depression added to your lack lustre life?

If you feel convinced that a number of negative responses indicates a need to sweep away what are often tenacious obstructing thoughts and states of consciousness you will find great benefit from exploring different ways that are applicable by self-help means.

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