How Healthy is Your Mental?

I believe there is a stigma forming in the midst of our presence.

It revolves around mental health.

The past few years, to my pleasant surprise, conversations about mental health have been evolving especially in minority communities. Although a lot of the emphasis seems to be placed on those who act out violently as a result of it, it’s been refreshing to see those who struggle with mental disabilities having the opportunity to share their story and receive the assistance they need.

In the midst of all of this taking place, there is a large part of the population who don’t have to battle these particular struggles but still find themselves in a war zone.

The stigma I’m referencing is the one where when the words mental health are mentioned, they’re automatically associated with mind disorders.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. If you Google mental health, it’s defined as a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being. Dictionary.com defines it as the psychological well-being and satisfactory adjustment to society and to the ordinary demands of life. These two definitions encompass our mental state as a whole whether we’re diagnosed with a disorder or not.

Our mental health should always be a priority in our lives. If it isn’t, things, relationships and ourselves ,as a whole begin, to suffer. The state of good mental health is something we should always be striving to secure. However, I don’t think most women do a great job with this premise.

For example, often when I talk to a few of my friends the word stress flows out of their mouth freely. It’s often associated with work, home life, relationships, career aspirations and various other topics. They’re so stressed that it’s become the norm in their life and they fail to realize that they’re now in a state of being where they don’t know how to operate in a life that’s free of it.

At this point in life, I’m able to pick up on this because I, too, used to live a life where I would stress, often about things I couldn’t control. Stressing is not healthy for our mind. It can cause mental or emotional strain which can have adverse effects on our decision-making abilities.

Think about it.

What situation are you dealing with right now that is causing you to need to take moments throughout the day to take deep breaths so you don’t have a breakdown about the situation? If you can’t come up with anything, good! If you can, then you need to do some work. Ask yourself what is it about this situation that has you stressed? Once you’ve answered that, ask yourself is it something I can change? If the answer is yes then form a plan to change it. If the answer is no then form a plan to figure out how you are going to prevent the situation from stressing you further.

For us women, we encounter situations all day every day that have the potential to stress us. I saw a quote that says life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it. This is truth on top of truth! Often, we can’t control what happens but we’re in control of our reactions to what happened.

A woman basking in a healthy mental state might laugh at the person who cuts her off in traffic. A woman who is stressed because of various factors may pull up beside the person and offer up their best bird and I’m not talking about one that hums.

Ladies, it’s beyond important that we take care of ourselves mentally. We give so much and often don’t take the time to fill ourselves back up with positivity. We pour out then we begin to remember all the things that are on our to-do lists that never seem to get done. And the sooner you accept the reality that your to-do lists will always have stuff to do on them the quicker you can allow yourself to become mentally ok with the fact that yes you are a woman but you can’t do everything.

However, what you can do is invest in yourself mentally. Schedule the massage. Put the phone on silent. Log off of social media for a few days. Go outside. Secure a lunch date with that girlfriend you’ve been meaning to get together with for six months. Take that vacation, by yourself! I do it yearly and it’s easily one of the best decisions I’ve made.

Whatever you need to do that’s going to steer you to the place you need to be in, do it! Your mental health depends on it.