Mental Health. Part 2 | Damie John

What to do if you are in depression. Stress. Exinanition. My advice is to involve your body in your life. We don’t use our body enough as it used to do our ancestors. If you are professional sportsmen or your job involves motion performance, probability of this problems drops. Because your body does desired labor. So what to do? If you don’t go in for sports so begin to do it. Pick something you like to do because it’s important to enjoy it doesn’t have to be something that kills you. It has to be something that brings pleasure. Something that after that you feel gladness and pleasant weariness. Not gym. Something more playful, football, tennis, golf. Maybe you enjoy ride bicycle so make a rule. Say to yourself “I ride 5 miles every day”. If you don’t get tired increase the load. Don’t forget you have to involve your body in your life. And in one or two weeks you will change internally and externally. You will get something for what to live and you will know how to adjust your problems. And your body will change because now it labors.

It’s very important even if you don’t have any problems. Don’t forget about your body. Your mental health has direct correlation with your physical health. And vice versa.

And here is one more thing you have to know. You are in the best physical shape now. You are in the best physical shape now. You can use it like mantra or an affirmation. I am in the best physical shape now. I am in the best physical shape now. Because if you think you are not good enough it doesn’t say about your physical health it says about your mental health. You can’t keep healthy of your mentality if you think you’re too obese. Or you’re too short or too tall or something else. Or if you are disabled and you focus on your problem. Don’t do it. Remember: you are in the best physical shape already now. Today! You have to love yourself and you have to love your body. If you love your body with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your ability to love. Then you body will live with you and for you but not against.

Your body is part of you. This is your tool to connect to the world. When we’re growing up people say to us to respect other people. But do they usually say to us to respect ourselves? Not often. Or maybe never. We accustomed to train our brain in school, in college, in university. But do we do the same to our body? Not every time. But we cannot be healthy of our mentality if we are not healthy of our body. And we cannot be healthy of our body if we are not healthy of our mentality. These are strongly connected components and one of them is not able to live without the other. So your mental health comes with your physical health.

Let’s one more time remember the definition. “Mental health includes “subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, competence, autonomy, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others”. I was telling earlier about self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others.

But how to reach well-being? It’s a good question. Absence of well-being is the place where depression comes from. A man with depressed mood usually think that external circumstances dropped him into this state. But nothing and nobody can drop us into a state as long as we don’t want to get into that state. Because we can chose our reaction – our response to a person, a thing or circumstance. And well-being is nothing more then the choice to be in wellness or in something else.

Perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the SELF-efficacy not someone else’s-efficacy!First of all look at yourself. And ask yourself: do I really want to raise my efficiency? Ok if so. How can I do it? How can I raise my efficiency? And your mind will tell you lots of tools you can use to raise your efficiency. Just write them down. And begin to test all of those tools one by one and select the best of them. It will help you to improve your self-efficacy. And by the way this tool that I just gave you that’s named “Ask yourself” is very useful. Because no one better then you knows what to do. Your body and your mind are always ready to help you. Just ask them. Ask them straight. Without your brain. As if you ask your depth. Something more than your surface thoughts.

Competence. I think you should Ask yourself at what level of competence I am now? There are 4 levels of competence. Unconscious incompetence, Conscious incompetence, Conscious competence, Unconscious competence. And then ask do I need improve my competence or maybe it does automatically. Or maybe I don’t want to do it anymore. And if your answer is yes I want to improve. So at this moment it is your goal. Just go and do it.

And two last autonomy and intergenerational dependence. What’s the difference between two these things? Autonomy usually internal state. And intergenerational dependence is the external circumstance. To be autonomous you have to know how to make the decision and how to take responsibility. Usually it comes to people with ages and with life experience. For intergenerational independence you have to change your physical location. Move to the other house, street, city. There’s no the other way to get this independence. And by the way this step speaks for itself about your mental health. Just set this goal and do it.

And getting this intergenerational independence will influence on your self-actualization, autonomy, competence, self-efficacy and well-being.

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Mental Health. Part 1 | Damie John

According to World Health Organization. As it’s written in Wikipedia “Mental health includes “subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others.”

From this definition I would highlight “self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others”. In my opinion this words are the most important. It conveys the meaning in the best way. Because our health, mental health, physical health or another kinds of health we can fully understand looking at the health of others. This is why disabled people understand they are disabled. Because they see ability of the others. Self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others! It’s not about their disability, it’s about their emotions. What if everybody were disabled exactly this way as a disabled person is. Would he think he’s disabled? If everybody’s around him just like he is. No! He would not even think about his disability. And back to our reality. If a disabled person don’t think about his or her disability he becomes the same. At this moment the difference hides.

So, back to self-actualization. Intellectual and emotional potential. Emotions are the biggest driver of our life. I would say emotions constitute 80% of our abilities. Of our abilities to achieve our goals. Our abilities to become successful. And intellect constitute 20% of it. If you think that our intellect is the most important thing… well keep thinking. But it is just 20%. Because you don’t have to be a genius to achieve your goals and to be successful. You don’t have to be a genius to make a difference!

But you have to be emotional to reach something. Because how you can actualize yourself if you have wrong emotions? Let me explain it.

If you have ever achieved your worthy goal. What did you feel?

If you have ever fallen in love with somebody. What did you feel?

If you have ever won something that was important for you. What did you feel?

If you have ever thought you cannot do something but then you did it. Do you remember what you felt?

Let me guess – you felt like you were the best in the world. You were happy. And you were genius. And yes, you were successful. And you are successful now. Because you have enough intellectual potential to be successful. Because you become successful at the moment when you make a decision to be successful. This thing is 20%. You need your intellectual potential to make a decision. And then you need your emotions to achieve that you want. You are successful in your heart in your soul in your mind. And you will be successful among others when you will use your 80% of emotional potential. And when you achieve it that’s your self-actualization.

Why I focus on emotions? Not on intellect. Because your intellect is more than enough to achieve the goal if you set this goal to yourself. And you will never even think about a goal that you cannot achieve. Because your intellect doesn’t allow you to think about it thus you don’t think. And every single thing you’ve ever dreamed about can be achieved but for this you have to be in the right emotional state.

I will provide an example. What if you are professional sportsman. You play for yourself or for your team it doesn’t matter. Now you play the final game. Win or go home. You as a player have 2 potentials your intellect and your emotions. In our case your intellect is your competence, talent, and your perfect physically fit. Because you play all this season at least. And your emotional potential is your emotional charge your readiness to win. So what do you think is more important? Your intellect or your emotions?

In other words your intellect brought you to the finals. If you had not good enough competencies, talent, and your physically fit you would never play the finals. But you’re here which says you can win. You would never be here if you could not! Of course you can and you are here. That’s what I was talking about saying that But what about your emotions? How you will play if your emotional disposition says to you you’re not good enough. You can’t play. You’re stupid. And what if you will be in the emotional state when you are completely sure you will win. How you will play with thought “I’m a winner. Tonight I win. Because I am the best player in the world”.

And your rivals will lose not because they are worse physically, but emotionally. In their heads they entertain a possibility of losing but you don’t. Because you’re completely sure you will win. Simply put not your intellectual potential but your emotional state will bring the winning to you.

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