Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog, Reforming Rob! In the last post, I talked about a process I used to create a plan for improving my physical fitness. That plan included a daily run and simple calesthenics, along with a written plan for "premium fuel", or what would make up the bulk of my diet. In this post, I intend to do the same thing, but focused on activities to improve my mental health.
Self-Healing Depression
A large portion of my study in preparation for this post was centered on self-reliance in healing depression. Studying what I could find on-line and in various books, I think I found some relevant ideas that may be beneficial to me personally.
One correlation I found, and was a bit surprised at, was how recommended actions to heal from depression and those for keeping ourselves physically fit intertwined. On the website for the National Institute for Mental Health there are some direct actions we can take to alleviate depression.
Get a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity every day
Eat regular and healthy meals
No alcohol, nicotine, or drugs
Have a regular bedtime
I found that with the exception of the sleep recommendation, I had already included these in my written physical fitness plan.
Another important recommendation from the NIMH website for healing depression was to connect with people. This is one area I struggle with and have struggled with all my life, but I think I've found a few ways that I can make better connections.
In Dr. Jane Clayson Johnson's book "Silent Souls Weeping", Dr. Johnson says, "Telling your story may be the most important medicine on earth." She defines depression as "the curse of suffering alone". That sure hits home with me.
I plan to use this blog as one way to connect with people. One of the 4 main goals of creating this website in the first place was to make new friends and connect with people meaningfully. I'm hopeful that over time you readers will feel comfortable to share your own experiences, your challenges, and your triumphs, and I invite you to do that in comments in the blog, on my YouTube channel, or via email to me directly.
Connecting to Others with Service
I have rediscovered this week how serving together helps us connect more meaningfully to other people. In my experience, some of my closest and meaningful connections with people have come while serving with them in various capacities. I feel strongly enough about this that I intend to include a service or volunteer opportunity to my weekly checklist and plan for mental health.
Peronsonal Actions for Improving Mental Health
In my studies this week, I've found a few mainstream ideas for improving our mental health that I intend to include in my regular practices.
Mindfulness is something that has been popularized over the past decade or so. I discovered meditation and have been lightly practicing it, irregularly, over the past two years. Considering whether to move daily meditation practices higher up on my daily priority scale, I remembered something I learned back in the early 2000's. I was having trouble sleeping and with concentration. After some reflection, I realized that from the time I got up to the time I went to sleep I had news, radio, tv, or other "electronic distraction" in my ears and brain without pause. I was not giving myself any time for thinking and reflection. As soon as I made a change to include some quiet time or "unplugged time", my sleeping and concentration issues went away almost immediately. Time spent in meditation and quiet reflection is too important to not have on a daily plan. I will be giving myself minimally 30 minutes each day for meditation.
Still Your Mind with Meditation
Meditation is something we can also use to connect spiritually. The word spiritually has various meanings for each of us. It's my belief, and I have shared in past blog posts, that God speaks our individual language. In my case, the language of Rob. I know that it is in these peaceful, quiet moments that we are most apt to hear His words to us.
Cultural Arts as Medicine for Mental Health
Another mainstream recommendation for improving mental health is to include art, literature, and music in our daily activities. All three have been important to me over the years, but I admit all the distractions of life get in my way of these things. I miss out on time for these culutural pursuits by being distracted and using time for other things of less value.
I had a great teacher when I was young, and learned an important lesson that I've taken through my entire life. That teacher was "Mary Poppins". You may remember her saying, "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and SNAP, the job's a game!". Well, for me music has been my "spoon full of sugar" to complete tasks that normally wouldn't be looked forward to. When we have a chore to complete, like dinner cleanup, we put on music at our house. It never fails to lighten the mood and change the whole atmosphere for everyone, even our littlest kids.
I've dabbled with art my whole life. In the past couple of years I've been drawn to watercolor painting, and I've made several dozen paintings, a few of which decorate the walls of our home. One part of the act of making art that I think is relevant here, is how it forces the artist to be "in the moment". When I'm studying something closely, looking at the details carefully, it is very hard to think about next week's presentation or all the other stresses that may be coming up.
I've been an avid reader for the past 10 or 15 years. I have a huge audiobook collection, as well as kindle and standard book library. I enjoy history and biography, but also throw books just for fun in the mix. Stephen King can sure wrap you up in a cacoon and make you forget about all your woes and concerns in life, can't he?!
In summary, art, literature, and music are all three going to be moved up in my daily priorities. I am going to require a 1 hour per day minimum from myself so that I can get the benefits from them to improve my mental health.
Use a Journal to Document Your Progress
Journaling is a task recommended to help improve mental health. Forced reflection, looking for the good (gratitude journaling), and just quiet personal time are all stated benefits to improve mental health. I've mentioned in blogs past about the struggle I have with self-talk, essentially bullying myself. I think there would be a benefit to keeping a daily report of my self-talk, which I'm thinking will add some accountability and make me more aware. In preparation for this post, I stumbled on sketch journaling, which includes art representative of the day's activities. This speaks to me, and I'm going to give it a try. In summary, I intend to include journaling on my daily task list.
Spend Time in Sacred Places
An important weekly activity I'm going to assign myself to improve my mental health is to visit sacred places. One of the sacred places that is close to me is the Gilbert Arizona Temple. Whether I visit just for a walk around the grounds, or have the time to serve inside, I always come away more peaceful and content than when I went in. I hold in high esteem, and see as sacred, time I'm able to spend out on desert and mountain trails here in Arizona. I have had very sacred experiences out in those lonely places, even connecting with my God and being overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of His creations. On my weekly activity mandate I will include spending time in a sacred place.
Heal Your Heart and Mind with Gratitude
One of my church leaders, Russell M. Nelson, who is not only a renowned heart surgeon, but also the President of my church, made a social media post recommending a remedy for healing our heart and minds. We were just coming out of all the COVID-19 restrictions. His message was how gratitude is the best medicine for healing. President Nelson said we could be grateful for, and express that gratitude in the following ways:
We can all give thanks for the beauties of the earth and the majesty of the heavens that give us an inkling of the vastness of eternity
We can give thanks for the gift of life, for our amazing bodies and minds that allow us to learn and grow. We can give thanks for art, literature, and music that nurture our souls.
We can give thanks for the opportunity to repent, start over, make amends, and build character.
We can give thanks for our families, friends, and loved ones.
We can give thanks for the opportunity to help, cherish, and serve one another, which makes life so much more meaningful.
We can even give thanks for our trials, from which we learn things we would not know otherwise.
Most of all, we can give thanks unto God, the Father of our spirits, which makes us all brothers and sisters--one global family.
Here's a link if you'd like to watch President Nelson's entire social media message
It is so easy to get distracted and fall into despair and worry about all that is going on in life with us and around us, and forget to be grateful. I intend to be mindfully more grateful, and to include prayers of gratitude each morning and evening, as well as include what I'm grateful for that day in my journal. I'm going to use the medicine of gratitude to help improve my mental health.
My Mental Health Improvement Plan
Here is a copy of my simple mental health improvement plan. I am going to implement these things and measure their effect carefully on my mental health over the next few months. It's a pretty simple plan, broken into doable daily and weekly components, that I feel good is getting me close to being on track to a better place. I'll include regular updates on upcoming posts about how things are going.
Until next time...
PEACE!
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