Mental Fitness

Do

Relaxation-  Practice lying flat on floor if possible either in quietude or gentle classical music. This requires no thinking but feeling awareness only  – Let nature’s vitality flow through and refresh your psyche

Enjoy a professional relaxation massage – to feel energies renewed

Physical exercise followed by a warm shower or bath with lavender or neroli bath oil

Take a series of slow deeper breaths before you decide to become active again – then deliberately inhale the perfume of one of the natural essential oils that appeals to you

Spend 5 minutes in upright position repeating your personal affirmation that inspires and makes you feel happy and strong

Drink pure water – rainwater if possible or drink a pure fresh fruit juice -sipping a little at a time and consciously drawing vitality

Appreciate being alive – Look around you and focus upon the beautiful forms, plants, sky, trees – to realise afresh how wonderful to be alive to learn and to enjoy nature and participate in the Life Adventure

Finally, promise yourself to remain as long as possible in this pleasant mind set or mood. Let nothing disturb you. Let no one have the power to disturb you. Remain calm in whatever circumstances

Attend classes or participate in sports that are directly helpful in lifting your mood –confiding in your therapist, attending  laughing groups, comedy shows, or, listening to favourite melodic music

Be creative – painting, playing a musical instrument, sewing, crafts, singing or skills in a sport

Seek for a skilled psychologist who will help you without recommendation for prescription drugs, many of which cannot claim to cure and many can prove harmful

Find a healthy natural alternative to The Pill that is one proven cause of depression

Any or all of these are positive self determined ways to overcome depression and you will benefit continuing efforts especially when you find what really works for you personally.

Prayer is the universal ‘advice’ or technique to help lift your mood

Don’t

Drink alcohol – it will not help your depression in the long run

Don’t take antidepressant medications –  many will be detrimental to your mental well being

Don’t remain solitary except to practise your private relaxation but enjoy walks and the company of a friend.

Don’t get in the habit of repeating to yourself or to others “I’m depressed ..” or “I’m feeling bad” – this has a negative effect upon the subconscious mind that relies upon positive thought feed-in.

Don’t continue any old habit – substitute a better one!

Don’t seek solace from food – when depressed is the worst time to digest food and your body will suffer

 Don’t try to focus your mind in reading dutiful learning or study but rather choose to study a subject or hobby of genuine personal interest 

Don’t bombard your brain with heavy rock noises or music that is loud and without melody at this is the cause of much depression.

Don’t burden your love ones or take out your moods upon others if you can confide in a psychologist or counsellor who is trained to be impartial and just listen.

REMEMBER 

You are a special and unique person, created to experience and enjoy life as well as to offer your personal gifts and talents to others. Why waste life time?

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Mind drugs that have been largely experimental over the last decades, are now under severe medical scrutiny by expert psychiatrists.

Having studied the trends, many of these professionals are deeply concerned about the damage that has been done by some drugs – in particular those that are generally prescribed for depression, anxiety and more serious mental diseases.  In fact the evidence leads towards a ban upon many of the psychiatric drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies and still being widely distributed. The special danger to children is of extremely serious nature when psychiatric drugs have now been found to have long term side effects.

Doctors have been willing to take the chemical route in medicating for mental and physical diseases. Consequently most people have a bloodstream consisting of a cocktail of artificially introduced chemicals in addition to the nutrients found in our food.   This factor can add to the complexity of manufactured drugs by making the introduction of every new drug unpredictable.  We have come to a sad impasse if a medicinal drug cannot be trusted to deliver a consistent result. Medical records abound with examples where negative reactions were not anticipated.

Many iatrogenic deaths have occurred through administration of drugs for both physical and mental problems.  In the latter case there are serious reactions that have completely destroyed the quality of life of those who are now disabled in their brain and mental life.

To be aware of the negatives about modern drugs provides us with motivation to seek a better, safer way of health care and alternative methods of treating mental illness that is increasing at such an alarming rate in the community. There are many such avenues being explored by offering less invasive and gentler therapy.

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Mental illness in our young people is a serious problem with 27,000,000 postings on the internet under ‘Mental Disease in Children’.

Symptoms of mental illness range from nervous tension or stress, temper, crying, hyperactivity, digestive disorders, to more serious signs such as hallucinations, nightmares, fear, anxiety, depression, self-arm and intellectual impairment.

Baffled by the extent of psychological disturbances or behavioral irregularities, psychiatrists and doctors are now prescribing potent drugs for many mental health problems diagnosed in infants and children even before the age of puberty. This is a dangerous practice that cannot replace the long term needs and simple disciplines that are possible within a loving home environment.

We are now hearing more about bipolar disease that manifests in symptoms of mood changes that fluctuate between depression and mania, or euphoria.  It is not hard to apply these symptoms to an adult and that possibly many in our population are suffering in this way as a result of stressful modern conditions, but in the U.S. there are 800,000 children diagnosed as suffering bi-polar disease and given drug medication accordingly, even though they are aged less than ten years of age.

In Australia at a forum involving child psychiatrists from Australia and New Zealand, 90% were of the opinion that Bipolar disorder is over-diagnosed and therefore overmedicated. We are fortunate that there is a more conservative attitude that allows common sense to remind us of the many contributory factors influencing young minds and the psychological make up of pre-puberty infants and that our professionals are still capable of being shocked to think that there is basis for a report of bipolar being diagnosed in babies of only 2 years of age.

All psychiatric drugs have a downside, both in the immediate and long term side effects. In addition, many cause severe reactions when withdrawing from their use.

We trust that it is the majority of both professionals and members of the public that remain cautious about exposing children to mind changing chemicals that could stimulate future litigation based on the possible claim of physical violation or medical abuse of children.

Not only for ourselves, but as parents we should demand to know the statistics related to any drug prescribed, as with any other health measure, including vaccinations. We should have this information before allowing action so that we can assess for ourselves the risk and degree of risk of side effects and long term use of any medical technique offered in general use by the medical or naturopathic profession.

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

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If we wish to use self culture we do not want and do not need toxic drugs to be prescribed for us. Unless circumstances are extreme, we also would not want our loved ones to endure a system of medication that is so invasive as to claim to control over our normal brain chemistry.

The accelerating extent of mental disease in communities in Western countries is alarming and indicative of the need for serious study both by lay people and professionals. More and more complicated psychological conditions are being documented and given name. We are gradually becoming conditioned to hear terms that describe some of the many common and increasing mental illnesses that abound in the community demanding some psychiatric care – stress, phobias, psychosis, addictive behavior, drug addiction, depression, bi-polar disease, clinical depression, self-harm, violence, autism, hyperactivity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity (ADHD) Postpartum Depression, Aspergers, Trauma, Anxiety, Compulsive Behavioural syndrome, Schizophrenia, Paranoia, Dementia, and many others.

There is more than adequate evidence about the dangerous side effects of medicinal drugs and those that are prescribed for mental irregularities in particular. Powerful drugs can create chemical chaos in the brain to cause serious side effects, far more damaging than the original symptoms. The safety of hundreds of drugs is in doubt.

Would you allow your child to take such drugs under these circumstances?

Yet millions of children and minors are now receiving medication for psychological reasons and are vulnerable to severe consequences. It is assessed by the U.S. Surgeon General that 20% of American children have mental illness of some kind and that about 5 million children and young adults suffer from a mental illness that threatens or interferes with their daily life. There are over 4 million posts on the internet regarding mental diseases in children alone. Those regarding mental illness in general amount to over 73,000,000.   It is a serious issue.

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

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Mental illness can manifest in a range of symptoms as complex as the physical symptoms of disease and can include discomforts that can relate to both the body and our psychological nature. There have been great advances in the treatment of physical and mental problems since that period in history when ignorance about mental disease was such that patients were incarcerated in dungeons and locked away from society.

Although self-help efforts should always be first encouraged, some serious cases are not possible to correct, except by professional psychologists and psychiatrists. As one seeks for a doctor to help with matters of physical health beyond self-help, so our first search should be to find a reliable professional psychologist whom we can trust to assist with the delicate responsibility of serving as a doctor for our mind.

Remedying any mental disease, once established, is a very complex issue and one which should be approached by any therapist with great sensitivity, caution and understanding.  The most successful therapists would seem to be those who are able to facilitate the restoration of natural balance by encouraging an individual’s innate capacity to identify with their own soul power and to use their inner will, to effect self transformation.

 It is by assisting a patient to become independent that a therapist offers most help. Neither dependence upon a therapist, nor dependence upon drugs, is appropriate. This is a vital issue as many patients are admitted to hospitals because of drug related problems. It would seem counter productive to offer them treatment which substitutes medical drugs for hallucinatory ones. Although drugs are currently routinely administered to patients in psychiatric care, it should be only in extreme cases that such invasive methods are used and only when no other therapy is successful.

Mental disturbances can be overcome. There are many therapies on offer but do not rush into therapy without fully understanding what is involved. In the meantime, begin with self acceptance, commitment to self effort and self improvement. It can work wonders!

Sally Janssen’s wonderful book “Mental Fitness: The Complete Self-Help Guide”, offers timely solutions. Read more…

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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

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…

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Everything that is alive draws in life energy and expresses it in a process corresponding to respiration. 

Our life begins at our birth with an inhalation and our life will end with our last exhalation.  From cradle to the grave our breathing function does not let us down except in times of respiratory malfunction or disease.  Throughout the whole period of our life-span the breath will continue without a pause, in its interminable rhythm keeping us supplied with oxygen, giving us life energy whether we are aware of the process.

The majority of these breaths we take unconsciously, with many being taken in the hours of sleep. But we expect that when we go to sleep, the breath will continue, and that when we awaken, the process will have been maintained through our sleep and naturally be resumed.

It is a potent reminder of the absolute faith that we place in nature every time we go to sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

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

So how do we free ourselves from old habits and reactions to life and to people? How do we develop a stress-free mind, one that is mentally fit? 

The art of relaxation does not demand new effort and strain – it’s easy. A good teacher will teach you simple techniques, that can be subsequently followed at home. Read the rest of this entry »

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It is well known that repetitive learning works.

Auto suggestion is the art of self persuasion – of utilizing the power of repetition to achieve a state of mind one desires. In the science of yoga it is known as the technique of  japa. It is considered to be an important tool in achieving mental fitness.

In practice we must thoughtfully prepare the words that we will silently repeat in our minutes of privacy. These words need to encapsulate what we are trying to achieve and should be as simple as possible.

We use our strength of thought or the power of concentration to maintain a focus upon our goal as we employ auto suggestion.

Imagination is the additional tool used in programming our minds. It is vital in helping us build the picture we want whether that is external, or related to our own personal self image. It is the faculty that helps to make effective the method of repetition and has the potential to help us develop our own character or to realize our dreams and plans.

In relation to personality self culture we will find after some time of repeating “I am strong and self reliant” for instance, that we can expect to feel independent and strong.

In regard to physical abilities and sports we can repeat training directives as we mentally repeat over and over our coach’s instruction as we visualize the perfect execution of our skills.

Auto-suggestion has many appropriate applications but all are directed at you alone and to benefit you without impinging your thought upon others.

Then it would seem that there is nothing to stop us becoming as we wish and achieving whatever we desire  – if we are willing to determine and keep our goals in clear focus  and visualize them as a future reality.
 
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