Help others while helping yourself heal

It's not enough to keep your new found knowledge on how to deal with mental and physical afflictions to yourself once you've found a way around a specific problem, help others who are likewise struggling.

The problem may be mild, or it may severe, but pass on helpful ways of dealing with it to others who may be in need. We learn by having been through troubling times. It is the way of healing. You will never know the direction kind words and good intentions will take, nor should you. But be aware, words are powerful when used in the right way.

So go ahead, throw a few of them to wind, and let them land where they land. As an example, Say, "I don't know who you are, where you are, but if you are in pain, depressed, feeling as if there is nothing left for you in this world, I want you to know your are important, you have a purpose in life, and you are loved. Get out of your own way and see what you've been missing by knowing it all.

PS. About the image.

I'm running out of my own art doodles. To fill in a space I offer a picture of a favorite place mat that that I purchased at Goodwill Industries for a few cents. I've had it for years. I have no idea what artist created the lovely fabric!It says nice thing to me, and although it's never under my plate while I'm eating, it occupies an important place. It covers the small bedside table near my bed and it holds my cup of water, my rosary, my cell phone, and a few tissues.

What its telling me -- through my imagination and love of silliness -- that if I were smart enough I would also leave a small writing pad and pencil in its care overnight. In that way I might be able to jot down some of the insights that come when I am awake and I get that 'aha, so that's the way it is' inspiration. Usually, I just forget it and it goes on its way.(When I was younger I would sprint out of bed and jot it down, now I don't sprint easily!)

Most us are problem solvers if we would allow ourselves to be. But first we must admit to knowing much to nothing. Our muse, or our interior messaging system might be turned off if we think we know it all.

But since we are subject to error, and our systems are worn down by age, often we truthfully believe something that is not so. This happens in important areas and in areas of no importance. To the internal messaging system real or unreal, truth or lies, its all the same. No censoring is done. That is left to us. At least it is left to us to discover we have a problem in the way we think and in the way we deal with these thoughts.

Expect to not getting it right all the time but don't jump to conclusions. Accept it along with fading eyesight, less noise due to sound systems on the blink, and other natural occurrences that come with aging. Take advantage of the forced resting periods to think and to be thankful and don't waste one minute of it wishing your were better looking, had more energy, more money and could go places. Accept the notion that the Lord has you where he wants you. Right there talking to Him.

And to the young. You will understand us someday.

Begin healing yourself one thought at a time

Healing of both body and mind Begins with one little thought at a time. Likewise sinking into mental illness starts with one bad thought not corrected and if this is left to send create other false messages, then soon your whole system will be working under false assumptions.

Of course I know that sounds like double talk but it isn't. You're the one that calls the doctor's office and schedules an appointment, or not schedule an appointment, and you are the one that must live, or die, with the consequences. The same way with your mind, it picks up on your false assumptions and petty thoughts and irresponsibility and instead of it forcing you to accept responsibility for not only your actions, your thoughts as well, it will simply go along.

This happens, because no one knows yourself as you do, or as you think you do, so why not be the best your can be. It will take work, and it will be painful! But it is worth the effort and the work, and all it takes is one little thought at a time.

How to begin? Stop trying to rule everyone else but yourself. And in order to be your own boss, you must learn how. Where do you start. Get to know yourself, the good and the bad. Get help if you need to, and stop your destructive habits.

PS: The Image, what of it? It's nothing that is visible, but it is what ever your mind tells you it is. I was just doodling, and while the shapes suggest that with a litte effort they could more resemble people, I purposely didn't bother. In my mind, as I was messing around with pencil and paper, they are struggling souls dealing with their own lives. They knew they needed help, but help is often no farther away than one thinks and believes. Possibly the scribbles represent the hidden darkness within ourselves.

A gleam of light shines through when we begin to understand shadows are dividing lines between what has been and what will be. A black speck on a page of words is a period separating what went before to what is coming after. In other words in writing we think a thought, put it down on paper, and signal it is finished with a period. The next sentence or thought adds more and finally we've talked, or written ourselves into understanding ourselves and how we think a little more. Write out your thoughts and then read them back and see if a gleam of light does not begin to appear!

Mental Health vs. Mental Illness

Pride: It is good to be proud of our accomplishments but at the same time it is not good to be so proud of them that we forget from whence they came. To get so entangled in our own small rewards, inventions, abilities and forget the purpose of our work and begin to believe we did without the help of others and our creator is the beginning of sin. It leads into more of the same and taints our minds into believing we are more capable than we are.

Envy: A healthy mind is not envious. To be glad for others and to appreciate their good fortunes and their well being is healthy; to be envious to the point that we neglect our own work and begin copying or mimicking theirs, is not.

Gluttony: Eating for the sake of eating and not for the nourishment our bodies need is not healthy. The press is full of reports of how not to do this, but few ever mention the nasty word gluttony. They don't do it because they know that some people's bodies cannot process the food and although overweight, they don't want to be callous and uncouth. That's healthy. Working toward better nutrition for everyone is healthy. Living to eat and not simply eating to live, is unhealthy.

Lust: Lust is not love. It is using another person for personal pleasure and that is not healthy. To love others as God loves us is healthy. Lust causes unwanted pregnancies and the killing of unwanted babies. How can that be healthy? That is murder, and the whole affair is not pure and it is not simple.

Anger: Anger can get all of us into trouble and no one in fits of rage can be considered to be mentally healthy. Yet to not get angry at wrong doing and is also unhealthy. There must be less stressful ways of dealing with such intense emotions. People do things when angry, and when mentally not healthy that they would not do when clear headed.

Greed: is another unhealthy mind condition that cannot get enough. They never seem to know when to stop and stop using the fruits of their labor as they were intended to be used by healthy minds.

Sloth: Laziness I suppose is what the amounts to. Nothing much is heard of this word anymore but the word reminds us those slow moving seemingly uncaring creatures. Sluggishness is certainly not healthy, whatever else it is. And who among us has not been lazy at times. We even admit to being somewhat lazy when asked why we did not do such and such, but how many of us will ever admit to sloth?

To answer the question what has sin to do with mental health, I reiterate it has everything to do with it, but probably not in the way sin is viewed by most people. The above characteristics are sinful and aren't we all sinning? And it is this very sin that keeps us from growing mentally healthier and healthier by making every effort to keep to our path and to do the work on earth we were meant to do.

As long as we keep our eyes and ears closed to the truth of our own sin and we use every bit of our energy to hide the fact of our wrong doing, how can we ever hope to be cured of our mental and physical illness? Therefore I accuse everyone, myself included, of being mentally ill at times. Some more than others, of course, no one is mentally healthy to the point they can gloat or brag about it.

The point of the above discussion is to show that no matter how much one denies it, mental illness is prevalent in the world today, and no one is spared.
Before anything can be done about it, each individual -- if they are capable of this much truthfulness within themselves -- must admit to their own signs. To whom do they admit this too? To their God, of course.

Mental Health statistics aren't always true

Ever notice that one once something gets started, duplicates of it are often picked up elsewhere? This is especially true where health care is concerned. Health care reform, while surely needing to be, and most certainly not an ideal model, but something needed to be done, and something was done, and there's no argument there, but the overboard of criticism and is a good illustration of what I am trying to say. And that is, the mindless jumping on bandwagons before examining all the reasons behind the actions being taken.

Specifically regarding mental health, and what prompted this bit of venting, is the easy way assumptions are made. Recently: Bipolar is more prevalent in the U,S. than in any other country, blah, blah, blah. Well of course, it is probably due to the fact that better diagnosing is being done, this country is more populated than many others, and even in comparison with other countries with more people, that statistic means only one thing, this country cares more about its people than its headlines.

Any way, whether statistics are right or wrong, what does it matter who has the most of what, obesity, mental illness, heart disease, and so on, it's what's being done about it that matters. This is the age when it is not fashionable to hide things. Get it out and look at it and see what can be done about it.

The above sounds as if anger prompted this blog and that is not so. I've been pondering this all week since the last blog, and amidst my prayers for the living and dead souls in Japan, I have tried to think about what should be written here. Believe it or not, thought goes into priorities here and when I blunder, sound foolish, show my ignorance, I fully take responsibility for that too.

The idea that I have about mental illness, after living with it for seventy eight years, trying to hide it at times, denying it at others, studying about it, and finally getting enough courage to talk about and share what I've learned, the truth is, I believe, something most aren't willing to face: That everyone has times when they are not mentally healthy, but when they have more mental healthy time than mentally ill time, they can be said to be more mentally healthy than mentally ill.

When are so called normal people mentally ill? When they blame others for what clearly is their own fault, when they can't distinguish lies from truth, when they are greedy and when they hoard things they cannot use, and on, and on, and on. In fact this is a sick society we are living in. That's nothing new, otherwise would the biggest industry be in health care? One thing for sure,You really cannot separate the mind form the body or the body from the mind. Or from the soul, for that matter.

Until next time, let's look behind the headlines and see what is not said. And in the meantime I intend to do a little homework and see exactly how mental health deals with the the seven deadly sins. Remember, until that first sin was committed, the body and the mind was perfect, and no one was ill!

PS:
True to form I try to find some remnant of my past art work or scribblings to post here, and I ran across this image. It was done in the early 1990s, when I bought my first computer. I was delighted that with my old matrix printer I could print out my poems in various shapes. Words and people are my passion and they take precedence over poems, paints, and whatever. If the finished product is not perfect, at least the intent was.

Mental health as a state goal

Mental Health of course is a national, as well as an international goal, but at its best it begins as a personal choice by the lone individual making up the family, the community, the city, the district, the county, and finally the state, and the country. Or, by those responsible for those who are mentally incapacitated and who aren't to make their own decisions.

What this is leading to, is state care of the mentally ill, with help and direction, of course, from national sources. In other words, states often have peculiar circumstances that make their problems slightly different from problems in other states. They must have the choice of managing health care since they better understood what is needed most.

In particular, and for this topic, I am using the state of West Virginia as an example. Certainly they won't mind being made a scape goat once more for problems they didn't create. But they have, like all other states, plenty mental health problems on their books. Why them and why bring it up on this particular day?

This is the March 9, Ash Wednesday, the first day of the 2011 Lenten season. It is the forty days before Easter when traditionally the Christian religion, and more specifically, the Catholic Church, decides to live a more austere life as preparation for a cleaner slate come Easter Sunday, where once again they hope to live a better life.

Of course, much of this is ritualistic, but no matter, it is far better than skipping over the event as if it never happened. Where does mental health and West Virginia come into the picture? Well it happened like this: I received in the mail, as part of The Spirit, the West Virginia Catholic newspaper, a special insert "Hearts Made Whole, written by the Most Reverend Michael J. Bransfield, the Bishop of Wheeling- Charleston Diocese in West Virgina.

This was written by him to tackle the problem of drug abuse. He notes that in his travels across our state, he has been aware of the overuse of drugs. And in this way, he is trying to do his share of alleviating the problem by making known how serious a problem it really is.

"Bishop Bransfield to Release Pastoral Letter on Behavioral Health:
By Colleen Rowan: WHEELING—In his third pastoral letter, Bishop Michael J. Bransfield calls for an improved response to and care for those suffering from chemical dependency and mental illness in West Virginia.

Bishop Bransfield will promulgate the letter, entitled “Hearts Made Whole: A Pastoral Response to Behavioral Health in West Virginia,” on the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, Feb. 11, which is also World Day of Prayer for the Sick.

The road to mental Health

The road to mental health is often bumpy and full of potholes, but with work and dedication attitudes and a determination to get at the cause of illness, will, in the long run show results. As with tangible things, things that can be seen and felt, intangibles like thoughts and ideas, can be made more wholesome with right attitudes and right living.


That is easy to say, but it will take a lifetime to complete. And all own will have to work with is what was alloted to them at birth. That is why early childhood experiences and gentle guiding helps get those first steps on a firm foundation. A child learns by seeing and mimicking what they see their parents do, so parents, in order to get those little one on a firmer foundation, learn how to be good parents.

Love your children and see that they learn there is a God that loves them and then when they are old enough, watch how they begin to start on their journeys. They will be different from yours, but they are necessary. You can help by being understanding and by letting them know how much you love them. Whatever you do, instill into their little minds that life's road is bumpy, but it is all for a purpose.