5.) Exposure to Environmental Toxins
In today’s day-today life, chemicals are everywhere. It’s the sad truth that regulatory groups just don’t protect us enough from so many harmful environmental toxins. Unfortunately these insidious chemicals contribute to many chronic health conditions, including mental illness.
To understand your toxin load, take our Environmental Quiz which considers exposure you might have to plastics, pesticides, non-stick pans, microwaves, extended cell phone use, artificial colouring and fragrance, make-up and personal care products, genetically modified foods, antibacterial soap, alcohol and pharmaceuticals. Also, what is the air and water quality like in your hometown and do you filter either?
With so many sources it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The point is not to burden you with the task of immediately changing everything. Start to become familiar with your most frequent and intense exposures and work to reduce them. Be aware of initiatives like the Environmental Working Groups’ list of the most heavily pesticide-sprayed foods (The Dirty Dozen) and the least sprayed foods (Clean Fifteen), and apps like Think Dirty® that lets you scan household products to discover their toxin content and find healthier alternatives.
6.) Thoughts
Every thought we think isn’t necessarily true; thoughts are simply ideas that exist in our heads. However, some thoughts are so powerful that we take them to be fact. Sometimes old wounds and childhood conditioning come out in thoughts like “I’m not good enough”, “I can’t do this”, and “I’m unlovable”.
Each time we have negative thoughts like this, we naturally have emotional reactions to them as if they were true. We may feel hurt, saddened, defeated, demoralized, depressed, and suicidal. These emotions then can reinforce the thoughts making them feel very real. It is as if the emotions are evidence that the thoughts are true.
When this spiral happens, the work that needs to be done is breaking the thought-emotion cycl
e. Using a stepwise practice you can learn to widen the space between thoughts and emotions and learn to separate fact from fiction. You will learn that thoughts and the emotional reaction to thoughts don’t have to run your life. You can learn a more balanced approach to thinking. This practice uses a cognitive model to recognize and work with distorted thought patterns, as well as body-focusing techniques and breathing to harness the parasympathetic nervous system and modulate the physiological stress response.
7.) Emotions
For some, emotions can be elusive and hard to pinpoint, and for others they can be clear, overwhelming and incessant. As well, they can be different to you at different times. The emotional work I do with my patients follows a process of understanding what one is feeling in a very present, honest way, then working towards letting go of resistance and accepting one’s emotions.
Skills I teach along the way are recognizing one’s own emotional sensitivity level, learning to set healthy boundaries, and mindfulness of the present moment. This work flows back and forth with the work on thoughts, behaviors and emotional reactivity.
8.) Behaviors versus Reactions
Often in mental health conditions there are cycles of behaviors that reinforce the illness: isolating, sleeping too much or too little, blowing up or shutting down emotionally, eating too much or too little, etc. To address this, following closely behind the work on thoughts and emotions, comes the practice of behavioral change.
As one learns to lengthen the time between thoughts and reactions, there grows a window of opportunity for one to act in a different manner than simply reacting. We can actually learn to choose a healthy behavior, as opposed to immediately reacting in a protective manner.
An example is if we have a negative thought, we have the ability to pause and say to ourselves, “I am thinking a negative thought”. By doing so, we widen the gap between thought and emotion, and we have practiced recognizing exactly what the emotion is. With this, we have the opportunity to choose our response from a calm place. We can choose healthy and positive actions that do not reinforce the negative thoughts or feelings that are present with mental illness. We choose actions that dislodge negative cycles of thought and emotion and lift us out of depression, anxiety and other psychological spirals.
9.) Spirituality
Mental health is often viewed as a biochemical imbalance. I have made my life’s work an exploration of the other factors that contribute to mental health concerns beyond biochemistry, including psychology, trauma, physiology and environment, but there is another factor to explore: the spiritual aspect of mental health. Here I define spirituality as believing in, or being connected to, a power greater than yourself.
My view is that mental illness is a way by which our spirit is trying to get our attention because some aspect of our lives (such as school, work or a relationship) is not moving in concert with our spirit. By looking at ourselves and taking the time to be silent, very present, talk to others and open up about what we are feeling, we can address the underlying root of depression, anxiety, addiction, bipolar disorder, and other problems that can lie in the spiritual realm.
It is my personal belief that a connection to a spirit, whatever your chosen practice is, is critical and vital to healing yourself and the current state of the planet.
10.) Love and Compassion for Yourself and for Others
Ultimately, it is our feelings about ourselves and how we treat ourselves that are critical to our mental health and well-being. I ask every patient how they much they love themselves on a scale of 1 to 10, and it is rare for me to get a response over five. It breaks my heart to hear someone speak unkindly of themselves, yet I, too, would once have given a similar response.
Ask yourself: If you talked to your best friend the way you talk to yourself, would they accept it?
Many who struggle with mental wellness are hiding this conversation they are having with themselves and living with shame.
The incredible gift I get to share with my patients is how to learn to love oneself and, eventually, how to extend this love to the world. Using techniques like mirror work, forgiveness practices, reconnecting with one’s body, affirmations, gratitude, self-compassion and non-violent communication, love is a skill that can be learned and improved upon.
Don’t let your mental health struggles take control of your life any longer.
