This Isn’t Self-Help Psychological Mumbo-Jumbo
Self-help involves any and all acknowledgment of mental health matters.
Mental health is important. And the stigma that still exists regarding aspects of it helps nobody.
A lot of different elements go into working on mental health. Many of these elements work best when combined.
Therapy, psychopharmacology, and self-help notions can be used separately. But often a combination of these proves to be most effective.
In my experience, the best way to not just find but stay balanced and centered is the work you put into yourself. Which, yes, means self-help.
But oftentimes, to get to the point where self-help will have any effect or be of use to you, it may require therapy and/or medication of some kind.
I write about what I practice. Positivity, mindfulness, conscious reality creation, and general self-help notions. I am not perfect at this – it’s a practice, after all. There are good days and bad. Despite working to be focused on positivity, I still sometimes get negative, unfocused, unmindful, and frustrated as such.
I have read and listened to a lot of different books, articles, podcasts, and the like on these topics. Then, I have worked to distill this to something not just for me to approach, but that I can share to hopefully help you, too.
Still, I know that I am sometimes annoying to friends because of my constant expressions of my practice. Along that line, rather than just commiserating when someone shares what they were going through, I might inadvertently upset them. Not be telling them what and how to do things in a mindful self-helpy way – but just asking questions in those directions to try and help them move onwards.
Mental health matters. But what control you take to deal with issues matters, too.
Alone in your head – but not alone
One of the biggest issues we have with anything we’re dealing with is that, ultimately, we’re all alone inside of ourselves.
No matter how many friends you have, how large a family you come from, or however many people you share your thoughts and feelings with – you’re alone inside of yourself. In your head, heart, and soul, there is only you.
Many lament this. They fear that because of this they are disconnected, and potentially destined to always being alone. But the truth is – you are not alone.
The individual that you identify as – the “I” of self – is still interconnected with everyone and everything else in the Universe. That’s because we are all made from Universal Source Energy – which can neither be created nor destroyed, but rather transmutes from form to form to form.
The point is – we are all connected. So, you may be feeling alone and disconnected. But that’s just a part of the human experience. In taking this physical form it shifts how we find and experience our interconnectivity with all.
Alone can spur negative emotions. What’s more, it also creates a sense of disconnect and a lack of understanding. There is truth in this – I’m incapable of entering your head, heart, or soul. Thus, no matter how much you convey what you are experiencing – I can’t grasp, comprehend, or to use the Heinlein term “Grok” you in fullness.
This is why broader acceptance of mental health issues and complexities is so important. Acceptance is how we better connect to each other – but also, in accepting the overall concept and its issues we strengthen the unseen, internal connections between ourselves and all the energy that is.
Maybe you feel alone in your head – but you are not, truly, alone.
Tuning in and taking control
When all is said and done, you have the ultimate control over your self.
When it comes to your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions, you are the one in control. Nobody can make you think, feel or act against your will. You are the driver behind the wheel of your life experience.
That’s not to say that outside stimuli won’t cause you to experience unwanted feelings. Nobody wants loved ones to die, homes to burn down, relationships abruptly ended, jobs lost, and so on. I don’t know anyone the desires to be involved in a car accident, a mugging, or a shooting. And all of these ARE outside your control.
While you can and will be the victim when these things occur – how long that influences your mentality is a choice you make. If you view the world as out to get you, life sucks, and everything goes wrong for you – congratulations, that’s the reality your will consciously create.
We are all energy. All energy vibrates at a frequency. Like attracts like. If you vibrate at a low frequency – which tends to be negative – that’s what you will attract to you. Conversely, vibrate at a high frequency – which tends to be positive – THAT is what you will attract to you.
It is not a perfect attraction, mind you. Just like tuning a classic radio with a dial, it may require adjustment to reach the perfect, static-free frequency. To change YOUR frequency takes time.
If you’ve been the victim of an awful thing – your frequency was swiftly, possibly violently lowered from where it was. To return it to where it was – or somewhere higher – you’ll go through a lot of static to recapture the desired frequency.
This is where self-help comes into play.
Self-help is literally about helping yourself
Seeking therapy and accepting a medication prescription for an anti-anxiety drug or antidepressant are self-help. Nobody can force you to do these things.
I know someone who is presently in tremendous pain. They’ve been through a lot. Yet they refuse to seek a therapist – and I’m pretty sure taking a prescription is equally out of the question, too. None of us who love this person can force them to act.
This is always true. You can intervene, cajole, plead, beg people to work on mental health issues. But you can’t do it for them – nor force them against their will.
Self-help is not just buzzwords and hooky-spooky practices. It’s an acknowledgment of mental health issues and acting to understand and balance them.
Besides therapy and psychopharmacology – you can act in your own interest to practice self-help. Meditation, mindfulness, journaling, positivity, and all the things I write about are elements you can use to work on your mental health by your own hand.
Because, in truth, even getting therapy or a prescription for medication IS self-help. It’s not some dirty, self-aggrandizing notion. Because the reality is that you are the only one who can alter, change, control, and yes – HELP – yourself.
YOU decide to see a therapist. It’s YOU who decides to fill and take the prescription. YOU choose to meditate, practice mindfulness, seek and/or create positivity, and the like. It is YOU who acknowledges or denies mental health matters and the work they might require for balance and control.
Ergo – you help yourself. If you don’t self-help – you deny control. That stifles growth, change, and can and will kill your contentment.
Self-help is NOT hippy-dippy, psychological mumbo-jumbo. It’s the necessary acknowledgment that you have ALL the power when it comes to head, heart, soul, and overall life experience.
Employing self-help isn’t hard
It begins with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Knowing that mental health is important, and any negative stigma attached to it serves nobody – you can choose ways and means to help yourself and your overall state of being. When you practice self-help – be it by seeking therapy, taking meds, or self-guided practices like mediation and mindfulness – you take control of your inner being and overall sense of self. And that ultimately empowers you.
When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.
You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.
You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.
An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.
This is the three-hundred and seventy-fifth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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