Mental health is often overlooked in the world of natural health, and in the world in general. Eating clean is important, and exercise is important, there is no debate there. But how could someone be expected to have great nutrition and a consistent workout routine if their emotional well being wasn’t taken care of? I know it would be difficult for me.
Mental health is often “more than what you think,” meaning it’s not just thoughts.
Here is the definition of mental health:
A person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.
This is what mental health entails:
- Thoughts
- Feelings on thoughts
- Reaction to thoughts
So what affects our thoughts? Everything we:
- See
- Hear
- Touch
- Taste
- Feel
Thoughts are interesting. Often those “positivity gurus” are all about “thinking positive” and “not letting any negativity in”.
Well, okay. That’s not possible. We can’t control what we see or hear. Here’s an example:
While driving on the highway, you hear cars honking, and tires screeching. A woman screams and suddenly there is a collision in front of you involving a car and a minivan with kids inside.
You had nothing to do with that. You can’t un-see or un-hear it. It happened. Pretending it didn’t happen won’t do any good. This isn’t fantasy land. However, you can control what happens AFTER you are witness to the accident. How do you feel about the accident? How do you react to those feelings?
You could feel bad for the mother, and kids, and pray that no one was hurt. Then you could go home and hug your family a little tighter and talk about seat-belt safety.
Or…you could freak out, pull over to the side of the road and hyperventilate, drive home paranoid, look up the safety ratings for your car, and worry about the health costs associated with serious car accidents.
Sight is everything that we visually consume. What are some things we see on a daily or weekly basis?
- Blogs
- News articles
- TV shows
- Memes
- Books
- Movies
What we hear also affects our mental health. Some examples are:
- Music
- Podcasts
- New stories
- Conversations
- Noise (car honking, kids screaming)
We can’t control what pops up on our news feed, a conversation we overhear at work, or what commercial comes on, but we can control how we choose to think about it, and how we react to those thoughts.
Let’s Talk About the Coronavirus
Nationwide there is a “pandemic”. You know what I’m talking about. The Coronavirus. Restaurants, schools, churches, and even state parks are shutting down. Businesses are closing and limiting their hours. This is in response to what is seen and heard on the news, reported from governments, and shared on websites. Some of the information put out there is truth, some is lies, some is outright exaggeration.
There are lots of statistics floating around about Corona. Many are inflated. In Wuhan, China, where the virus began, for every 100 people who contracted the virus, there were less than 1.4 deaths. In other countries, that number is lower.
What about those people that contracted the virus and died? Most of them had other diseases that suppressed their immunity, leading to contracture and eventually succumbing to Covid-19. If someone has cancer, or autoimmune disease, or is over age 65, they have a higher likelihood of acquiring and dying from the virus. This is true with any virus, and any elderly person with a compromised immune system.
This information is directly from the infectious disease scientists working in Wuhan, where the virus had its first outbreak.
“The better news involves fatality rates. To calculate those, the researchers used data from Wuhan, especially the age distribution of 425 early cases and 41 early fatalities there.
The chance of someone with symptomatic Covid-19 dying varied by age, confirming other studies. For those aged 15 to 44, the fatality rate was 0.5%, though it might have been as low as 0.1% or as high as 1.3%. For people 45 to 64, the fatality rate was also 0.5%, with a possible low of 0.2% and a possible high of 1.1%. For those over 64, it was 2.7%, with a low and high estimate of 1.5% and 4.7%.
The chance of serious illness from coronavirus infection in younger people was so low, the scientists estimate a fatality rate of zero.”
So those are the numbers. You have now seen the statistics. What is the next step? Should we buy up all the toilet paper within a 10 mile radius?
Here’s another statistic:
1 in 7 people will die of heart disease or cancer. That number is 2-4 times higher in someone with diabetes. Do you know why? Because diabetes is an underlying factor that increases the chances of death from heart disease.
1 in 7. Are you scared? Scared enough to give up bad food and change some lifestyle factors that will decrease your risk of death from heart disease?
The point isn’t to scare you, it’s to make you think. Think rationally about the choices you are making now for yourself and your family. If you hear or see something, you may not have chosen to be present for that information, but you can certainly choose how you feel about it, and how you react to it.
Did you know more people get sick indoors than outdoors?
This week, my family and I are going to the forest preserves, walking around, and breathing in the fresh air.
Did you know that hand sanitizer decreases your immunity and can lead to an increased likelihood of getting autoimmune disease?
We use a specific blend of essential oils that have been clinically proven to kill viruses and bacteria, while not harming our immune system – our body’s number one defense against disease.
There are plenty of negative comments, stories, and scare tactics meant to frighten us right now. We can choose how we think about that information, and we can choose how we react.
Should someone over the age of 65 with a compromised immune system take extra precautions? Yes! That would be intelligent.
I’m 32, in good health, and so are my husband and daughter. We will be going to the woods for a walk today, and will continue to use our essential oils that have been clinically proven (through countless studies) to kill all the nasties.
If you are 80, generally stay indoors, and have a compromised immune system, yes, by all means please take extra safety measures.
Do what works for you.
Just don’t let the media, or the guy at the water cooler dictate your mental health and emotional well-being.
If you know someone that is older, sick with disease, and in need of groceries because they don’t want to go outside due to a higher risk of contracting Coronavirus, help them- I’m sure you would want help in that situation.
If you are healthy, be grateful for that health, practice thankfulness, and do what you can to maintain that good health, eating the right foods and keeping a level of fitness. That of course will benefit your mental health.
It’s hard to be mentally healthy when your nutrition is out of whack. And it’s hard to eat nutritiously when your mental health is suffering.
It’s all part of the holistic circle of health.
Stay safe guys.
