Lifestyle Choices
We all have choices. Some have more than others. That’s the way it is.
We are brought into the world the way we are. We develop the way we do. We live and then we die.
There is a short poem called “The Dash” by poet Linda Ellis. It is about the dash, between the date of a person’s birth and the date of a person’s death, on a tombstone. The dash represents the person’s whole life.
When it comes to choosing the sort of life we want to lead, everything we do is a lifestyle choice.
And when it comes to our mental health the first choice we have is whether or not to neglect it. Put differently it is whether or not we own it and protect it.
Some of us find it easy to maintain good mental health. Others find it difficult, less straight-forward. In addition to that, guilt, and maybe shame, raise their ugly heads.
We mustn’t blame ourselves or feel guilty about the way we are. We should seek, or self, help.
We mustn’t blame others or try to lessen our ownership of our lifestyle choices. We should seek, or self, help.
We must tell ourselves, as often as we need to, that we are worth the effort of repairing our mental health if it is damaged, and maintaining it in as healthy a state as possible.
We can re-enforce this belief in a mindful way, taking time to tell ourselves, alone, or in groups, or otherwise, that we are worthy of this special attention. We can also re-enforce the belief that neither we, nor anyone else, should feel guilty or feel blame, if our mental health is suffering.
Lifestyle choices, including all those above, have an effect on our mental health and well-being.
To gain and maintain good mental health and well-being we can seek professional help, for example, from prescription medicines to counselling, or from intense exercise to relaxation.
And we can pursue self-help for many of those same activities. A chat with a close friend might, in some circumstances, be as useful as a session with a trained counsellor.
Other pages on this site take you to local, national and international websites that cover lifestyle choices, from self-help ones, to NHS ones, to professional organisations.
We all have choices. Some have more than others. That’s the way it is.
We are brought into the world the way we are. We develop the way we do. We live and then we die.
There is a short poem called “The Dash” by poet Linda Ellis. It is about the dash, between the date of a person’s birth and the date of a person’s death, on a tombstone. The dash represents the person’s whole life.
When it comes to choosing the sort of life we want to lead, everything we do is a lifestyle choice.
And when it comes to our mental health the first choice we have is whether or not to neglect it. Put differently it is whether or not we own it and protect it.
Some of us find it easy to maintain good mental health. Others find it difficult, less straight-forward. In addition to that, guilt, and maybe shame, raise their ugly heads.
We mustn’t blame ourselves or feel guilty about the way we are. We should seek, or self, help.
We mustn’t blame others or try to lessen our ownership of our lifestyle choices. We should seek, or self, help.
We must tell ourselves, as often as we need to, that we are worth the effort of repairing our mental health if it is damaged, and maintaining it in as healthy a state as possible.
We can re-enforce this belief in a mindful way, taking time to tell ourselves, alone, or in groups, or otherwise, that we are worthy of this special attention. We can also re-enforce the belief that neither we, nor anyone else, should feel guilty or feel blame, if our mental health is suffering.
Lifestyle choices, including all those above, have an effect on our mental health and well-being.
To gain and maintain good mental health and well-being we can seek professional help, for example, from prescription medicines to counselling, or from intense exercise to relaxation.
And we can pursue self-help for many of those same activities. A chat with a close friend might, in some circumstances, be as useful as a session with a trained counsellor.
Other pages on this site take you to local, national and international websites that cover lifestyle choices, from self-help ones, to NHS ones, to professional organisations.