Last week, hubby’s work company sent out a Daily Mental Health Checklist as a tool to help the employees manage their mental health. Hubby found the list fascinating, and he shared it with me. I likewise found the list fascinating and thought it would be fun to share with you.
Hubby and I thought it particularly interesting that a secular company recognized the practice of gratitude as being a major key to having good mental health.
Below is the checklist (with the exception that I changed “Mediation” to “Prayer/Meditate on God’s Word”).
* Prayer / Meditate on God’s Word
* Talk to a friend or loved one
* Journal for 15 minutes
* Get outside for at least 10 minutes
* Read or listen to a podcast
* Stretch for 5 minutes
* No technology 30 min. before bed
* Practice Gratitude
These activities for improving mental health brought to my mind a few corresponding thoughts from my Journals, from years ago. I dug out my old Journals, and below you will find these corresponding thoughts. Most of these tidbits of wisdom I scribbled down on random scraps of paper 15+ years ago. I had no idea I would ever share them on a blog, so I did not make any note of the source or the author. I apologize for this.
Journal for 15 minutes
With such a steady steam of input, people never take time to develop their own thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. They simply believe what they are told and happily march along through life – as long as their material needs and wants are provided for.
The majority of people in Western society are becoming easily controlled as they become more and more receptive to whatever sensory input comes their way.
3 necessary ways to respond to those who try to control our minds and actions:
1. The information we take in must be of a high quality.
2. We need leisure time to correctly digest that information.
3. We need a healthy way to respond, based on what we learn.
Get outside for at least 10 minutes
Our lives may be more productive, but less inventive. It takes time – loose, unstructured dreamtime – to experience nature in a meaningful way.
Man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; the Lakota Indians knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.
Nature is the way that God communicates to us most forcefully. God communicates to us through His Word and through each other, through wise people and great books, through music and art, but nowhere with such texture and forcefulness in detail and grace and joy, as through creation.
The rhythm of walking, the thrill of climbing, the patience of observing, the beauty of simply living. Those who sit still / learn observation.
Enjoying God as revealed through His creation brings peace. God’s character is revealed, in part, through His excellent work.
Read or listen to a podcast
Have you changed? … In the last week? … In the last month? … In the last year?
The more you change, the more you become an instrument of change in the lives of others.
Learn or else you will slowly die mentally.
Maintain a consistent study and reading program.
When we all think alike, then no one is thinking.
Too many folks spend their lives aging rather than maturing. We need to explore the maximum capabilities we have – to search for ways to challenge ourselves, to stretch our minds and our hearts.
Stretch for 5 minutes
There is no alternative to your learning and more consistently practicing the activities of:
* Nutritious eating
* Proper rest
* Targeted exercise
* Sufficient recreation
* Constructive self-reflection
* Caring and truly supportive relationships
* Creative expression
* Fulfilling vocation
No pill nor therapy can ever remove the ill effects of:
* Overly processed, synthetic, chemically altered foods
* Insufficient exercise
* Insufficient rest and recreation
* Negative self-talk
* Worry and fear
* Low self-esteem
* Resentment and conflict in your relationships
* Unsatisfying or even distressing work
