I have titled this blog “mental health awareness,” and I’ve intentionally avoided wording it as “mental health goals.” Goals are great things. They give us something to work toward or strive to achieve, but there are some thinking traps that people fall into when it comes to achieving their goals. A couple of weeks ago, at the end of December, I posted a blog on New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t want to inundate anyone with information on this topic because, frankly, it’s everywhere right now. Don’t believe me? Just watch the commercials in January instead of fast forwarding through them because they are all focused on weight loss and making big personal changes. No, I’d rather focus on the idea of awareness at the start of this new year. Awareness can lead to positive changes, and in truth, it is an important focus in helping people reach their goals. However, when we stay focused on being aware of something, we remove the pressure of the goals and focus on the process (hint, hint, this was something that I brought up in my post two weeks ago. If you’d like to go back and read it, go ahead, I’ll wait).
When I talk about awareness, I’m referring to mindfully noticing your own behavior. This is the opposite of running on “auto-pilot” which is how many go about their day. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ll probably notice that I use the word mindful frequently. Mindfulness is specifically and intentionally focusing on something. This can be in the form of meditation, and that is definitely what most people think of when mindfulness comes up. Mindful meditation is an important practice that has all kinds of health and mental health benefits that are backed by decades of research, and it is also a practice that is useful for learning how to become mindfully aware. Mindful awareness is periodically pausing your external focus on the world and turning it inward at different points during the day. It is different from the idea of stopping for 5 minutes to a half-hour to meditate, in that we pause what we are doing, check in with ourselves in some way, and then carry on with whatever we were doing before we pressed pause. There is power in this idea of pausing, not only does it allow us to learn more about ourselves but it also gives our brains a moment to process what is going on within us as well as around us. Learning how to be more mindful can help us to become more aware of our own feelings and needs.
This awareness of our own needs can be helpful in maintaining good mental health. The mentalhealth.gov website* defines mental health by saying the following, “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.” Learning to become more aware of the status of our own mental health helps us in monitoring our stress levels, thinking patterns, and emotions.
When we are aware of what we need, we can also be more aware of when things aren’t working. If we are feeling sad, lonely, uncomfortable, or maybe unfulfilled, stopping to make ourselves aware of what we’re feeling can lead to finding the answers as to why we feel this way and what to do about it.
If you don’t feel you will realistically stop and practice mindfulness meditation, I understand, and I won’t judge. It is a helpful tool for learning about this, somewhat fuzzy, concept called mindful awareness, but it isn’t required. The bottom line that I’d like to encourage everyone to do is just stop and check in with themselves every now and then, assess how you are doing, what is working and what isn’t, and then make your next move in a purposeful way.