How To Improve Your Mental Health- 7 Ways

How To Improve Your Mental Health- 7 Ways

Author: Kristy Kaye

Are you worried about your mental health, or a friend’s mental health?

Mental health problems are common. Up to 1 in 4 have experienced mental illness. Stressful events such as job issues, relationship issues, bereavement or money issues can trigger spiralling thoughts that lead to mental illness, but there can be other factors.

Many of today’s biggest stars are sharing candid information about their battles with mental illness, inner conflict or turmoil and lack of peace of mind in the press. Big homes, bigger bank accounts, fancy cars, oodles of fans and fistfuls of cash – it seems celebrities have it all. But celebrity and success doesn’t protect from mental health problems. 

Their stories and their courage to talk frankly about their conditions build mental health awareness and the importance of authentic conversations and loving support.

Some of these shared journeys may come very close to home because we either know people caught up or we feel it’s talking to us personally.

If we understand the reality of mental health, we realise that it’s no surprise that all of us have it to some small or large degree.

Let’s Check In - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself

If you are ready to tackle the difficult questions about the reality of it in your life, then ask yourself these 5 simple but important questions:-

1. Are you highly intellectual?
2. Do you rely on your intellect to provide you with answers?
3. Do you search for the proven science before you believe?
4. Do you ever get confused about which direction to take?
5. Are you suspicious of people you don’t know?

There are thousands of other questions which just feel familiar that you can ask yourself in this respect because pivoting from one’s ‘intellect’ is what most people do - and it seems normal.

Your Intellect -v- True Feelings - the Hero of Our Life

Lack of mental-health is usually intellect-dependence related.  Our thoughts and the emotions they create can send us a spiral of imaginative ideas that can kick off depression or negative thoughts.

We can become used to using our ‘intellect’ predominantly instead of our ‘feelings’ (gut instinct) or alternatively a mixture our intellect and feelings because that is what we have been taught to do in our first seven years. 

Our feelings, which many of us choose to ignore or even shut away, are the heroes of our life and when we follow them, we have true leadership coming from our soul part and we gradually lose the confusion that we have in our head.

Another way of looking at it is; we are conquering our thoughts because that is where there is alien traffic passing through which we have little control over. We may think they are our thoughts, but unfortunately the 70,000 or more thoughts we have a day, we just can’t and don’t want to own as ours. Even 6,000 thoughts per day which may relate more to us are a difficult number to lay siege upon and keep them running in a positive direction.

So can we better manage our thoughts? Yes, it is possible with awareness and practice. 

From Turmoil to Peace of Mind

In my experience, to get rid of mental health issues there is a simple philosophy which may or may not be easy to follow, depending on your upbringing.

Firstly, the big step is all about understanding what mental health is, the difference between our two natures (the one we think with, and the one we feel with), where emotions get stirred up and the habits we have ingrained in us about which of our natures we predominantly rely on and why. Then we can take steps in the right direction to change the status quo.

We have two natures and they could not be more diametrically opposed because of our conditioning, yet both are intrinsically part of us. If we divorce one, it is like saying our personality does not belong to us or to disengage from the other, we are not ourselves. 

If can be difficult to initially grasp, and without understanding it can cause turmoil and rob us of our peace of mind. Bear with me though, it is worthwhile.

It will become fundamental to learn some metaphysical truths to reprogram the order from which we operate, first from our inner truth, our soul part (our feelings) and then train and use what we have learnt this lifetime (our intellect) to achieve that so we can live a very successful, peaceful and contended life. Sounds amazing, right?

Our first nature is the one we feel with - our feelings.

Our ‘feeling’ nature is where your inner truth lives as part and parcel of your soul. It is where the echo lives in your feelings when you hit upon a key truth that fits with the real ‘me’ without influence from others. That part of us as limitless, boundless and immortal – here for the duration of eternity, and the part of us that communicates with the universe that delivers our path and purpose for this lifetime that fits with our soul. Our feeling nature can tune into all time dimensions, the one we are living now and the past and the immediate future. This part is invisible to the physical eye until it has developed the versatility to see beyond the physical dimension of life; the real you. 

If you are finding it difficult to grasp, there is a good reason for this. You are conceivably trying to ‘think’ your way through a revelation, which is unthinkable. Then how do you grasp it? We are going to break it down, and in time you can assimilate it because it is the truth. At least it’s how your feelings work. It is where the echo lives in your feelings, which of course is the real you.

Our other nature is the one we think with - our intellect. 

Our thinking nature was born with our body. Go back to when you were a born and the limitations of your thoughts back then, and how you have developed your intellect since then. Our intellect is the new kid on the block between our two natures and is poles apart from the refinement of our feeling nature. From the time you incarnated this lifetime, whatever you were exposed to and allowed to train your intellect, is what you are living with now. Our thinking nature, our intellect, disappears when you pass on. Whereas your feeling nature, your soul part, endures.

Our thinking nature usually convinces us to allow it to run our life. When we incarnated this lifetime, we already had a very full and challenging life ahead of us known to our soul part without inventing other opportunities for our time here. Our thinking nature is frequently involved in fragmenting and diluting our real path and purpose because it is subject to outside influences. All ideas alien to our purpose are illusion. Consequently, we may be sourcing illusions to live in preference to living our designated purpose because it is more fun. 

It is why people often find themselves unfulfilled, not quite happy, confused, empty, alone, feeling inauthentic or in a crisis when they feel they are on a path that just doesn’t really fit with them, something is not quite right, or worse if it has been going on too long. A compulsion to change, a mid life crisis, or inner conflict often sets people on a journey to awaken to seek a fuller, more fulfilling and joyful path. 

Thankfully, due to the stories coming into the media through celebrities, society is awakening that these experiences that affect mental health are not a fault to be hidden, ashamed or embarrassed about (or whatever arises for you). Rather it is showing you that a reassessment is overdue of values, thoughts and pursuits that no longer fit and that changing old habits and tendencies learnt to date is needed.

Are My Feelings My Emotions?

Before we move on let us clarify what you think are your feelings. Some may answer they are our emotions, but they are not!

You may have already started to think of feelings like excited, sad, regretful, angry, frustrated, remorseful, emotional etc. These are emotions, which are the responses or ‘feelings of our thinking nature’ – our ‘intellect’. 

I know, it can sound confusing, and that is because a lot of media, writing and communications do not understand our two natures, leave out our soul part, and therefore cannot themselves make nor describe the distinction between feelings and emotions.

Let’s clarify: our emotions are the invented responses aroused by our intellect that come from the programming that we lived in our first seven years. In essence, we inherit the habit of them, particularly from copying or opposing the behaviour of those around us or learning the concepts from our environmental influences in our first seven years. They are very opinionated so we can't trust them at all.

Think back to your childhood and the things that used to upset you maybe even make you cry. As you mature, these type of emotions can almost disappear because you gain a bigger picture of your life and a greater understanding. 

Now, you may be thinking you have not done this, but you may want to open yourself to the possibility because unfortunately, most people in Western cultures consider it a way to life, reinforced by the media and other influences today. There are only very few people who have mastered self-attainment and have control over their emotions.

This is how our feeling nature operates – enabling comprehension and avoiding overwhelm. We often need to ‘awaken’ this as we develop our spiritual refinement.

An Analogy

A great analogy to understand the difference between feelings and emotions (our intellect’s feelings) is to compare our true feelings to the ocean. It is symbolic of our impregnable nature being vast and invincible.

The ocean is tranquil most of the time not appearing to do much. It is nice and peaceful to watch if we are experiencing emotions. It can take a huge force of nature, like a storm, to move the ocean to show the real invincible power that is its potential. 

We are like this when living our inner truth. We are the same as the ocean, although it may be hard on a bad day to visualise this when we are all over the place emotionally. Storms are symbolic of alternations in energy. When we make a shift, we can become all stirred up, and once we have acclimatised to the changes, we are calm again.

So, now picture someone being offensive to the ocean, and it rising up and running amok because it was emotional and displeased with what it heard. This is inconceivable isn’t it? It’s a stupid analogy, because we can’t relate to it. Likewise, it is unintelligent for us to become emotional about what others say, but we do.

If we can recognise the symbolic nature of this comparison, we can accept our true feelings don’t often become aroused emotionally. We are immortal, after all, and don’t need a body but have chosen one for a short time on planet earth. Therefore our true reality does not involve having anxiety about the dark or of being rejected or abandoned or other situations of this nature. We, our true selves, cannot possibly be emotional in a confused way, it simply does not fit with being omnipotent, magnanimous, immortal, limitless etc.

Suppose we made taming of our emotions our highest priority in life. What a transformation if would offer us. This is why we can actually find people living their inner serenity. They have switched sides when they found the tools to discipline their intellect and live life from their ‘feeling’ part.

Finding The Real You and Peace of Mind

For many this will be difficult to digest because emotions are now such stereotypical behaviour patterns, they have become the status quo. The challenge of this has in some parts of the media or unaware society rendered growing spiritually as unpopular because they are intimidated by it or motivated by other agendas, despite the amazing gifts it offers of insights, tranquility, harmony and intelligence. Thankfully that is changing as people awaken.

Our feelings are the door to familiarising ourselves with our soul part and its constitution. How we feel is our soul part talking to us. Don’t be torn inside and put on a brave face, but move away from these entrapments and be guided by your desire to find your own inner truth and the freedom that brings to you.

7 Ways To Improve Your Mental Health

So, if you want to change your current situation there are some positive things you can do. 

#1: Meditate Daily

In meditation we can control our thoughts. It may be very difficult at first but that is because it is a new type of feeling. Meditation does amazing things for us, putting us back in control of our life. Use guided meditations, our energy calendars or affirmation work to help if needed.

#2: Morning Preparation

When you wake up in the morning make a list for your day, what is you hope to achieve, some keywords and a strategy for the day. This ensures that you won’t be pulled off your pivot. Each day you can improve your approach.

#3: Self-Loyalty

Try to live self-loyalty which is living for your energy first. Don’t be derailed by other people’s tragedies and in dealing with other people, stay out of ‘gossip’ type conversations just keep it business.

#4: Energy Investment

Make sure what you invest in during the day is something that pays dividends to you (meaning “mind your own business” if it doesn’t involve you). 

#5: Negative Replay

If something negative keeps playing on your mind do a meditation to heal the negative opinions you may have about that. Forgive people that were involved and if necessary, forgive yourself for your involvement. Just keep cleaning up the past a bit at a time.

#6: Night Regrouping

Don’t go to sleep with negative thoughts about you or your actions during the day. forgive yourself for anything you thought may have been poor judgement and don’t listen to the voices in your head that may harass you.

#7: Our Journey

Remember we are only here on planet earth on a temporary mission and a solo journey. If we lose loved ones, it’s their journey not ours and everybody has their own angels who can prevent untimely or unnecessary experiences such as death. It’s best to accept it as being a positive part of your life even though your heart feels like it’s being ripped out.

When death creates prolonged grieving:

Sometimes people don’t make a clean transition and with love and devotion in their heart hang around people on planet earth. This can create incredible emotional reactions and a sense of depression and even in some cases, suicide. We have to realise that this person is not where they need to be and are draining the energy of their loved ones. It is important for them to seek help to make transition. If you are experiencing something similar, get in touch.

Where to get more information:

If you would like more information on what happens during, and what blocks a successful transition, grab a copy of ‘The Constitution of The Soul’ for an in-depth explanation and understanding on this topic.

What can you do now?

1.  Take action – if your feelings are inspiring you to take action, check out our upcoming programs and one-to-one consultations at  www.livingillumination.com
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Read other articles related to this topic:

1. The Pursuit of Perfection 

2. 50 Life Affirming Affirmations 

3. Dave Grohl - Perfection can be a Beast - Ian Mansell

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