As you are cleaning out your closets this spring it’s a great time to take note of that great big closet in your mind. It’s where we store a lot of habits in the way that we think about life, the world around us and ourselves. In our closets we are apt to find things that just don’t fit well anymore. This can also be true about the closet in our mind.
This month, let’s talk about a way to more consciously harness brain power. We’ve talked before about mindfulness meditation and how it can improve the experience of sex by enhancing your ability to pay attention to the present moment and reduce mental distractions. Studies have shown that when you practice mindfulness over a period of time, it actually creates observable, measurable change in the brain.
In this month of the heart as we think of those we love it is important to include some special regard for ourselves too.
Our lives after all include plenty of difficult or painful times that challenge us. We are imperfect beings and make plenty of mistakes that we have to face as well. Life doesn’t always go the way we plan.
Having compassion for ourselves is a way we honor the reality of our very humanness and give ourselves permission to be the imperfect beings that we are.
It’s pretty common to consider taking care of our physical health but what about our mental health? That’s not as common, but in reality taking care of our mental health can have a huge impact on how we manage our physical health and times of stress.
Because mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being it affects how we think, feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices.