Getting your mental health, your wellness

Our minds are magnificent and powerful things. Able to do extraordinary work. However, there is one catch … You have to learn how to take care of it. I still consider myself a relatively new driver, so let’s make some comparisons to cars (motor vehicles, just to be fancy). Side note: I wish I had this analogy last week for this: https://lets-be-royalty.blog/2021/02/08/your-health-your-wellness/

Anyways, our body is the the exterior of the car. I assume most days we like to look clean, shiny and polished, of course rainy days with lots of puddles do happen occasionally. However, just last week we spoke about taking care of our interior, trying to maintain that new car leather seat smell by healthy eating and make sure that our peddles are in good condition by exercising them (in my head this sounds like a good analogy, I hope it is received that way). All of this is nice because how we treat the inside, will reflect on the outside, everyone will see because unfortunately, we do not have tinted windows.

Now we need to have a conversation about our engines. To be honest I do not know much about engines, just what I am told. If you leave it unattended for too long, your car ceases to move. I don’t know about you, but I think a car with a useless engine is of no use to anyone, no matter how nice, shiny and polish with that nice car smell. In this instance the same applies to our minds, when left untaken care of. We do not see the engine of the car, but it has the greatest impact on the whole of the car. We do not see our minds but our mind has the greatest impact on us. If we are not in the right frame of mind then we cannot expect to produce quality and drive far.

Okay! That is all the amateur car knowledge I have for today. I hope you could picture what I was trying to say. A question: What does your mental speedometer say at the moment?

Too high can cause a burn out or loss of control. Too low could be draining and pointless. We want just right, within the speed limit but still able to feel the wind in our hair.

Honestly, talking about mental health is a difficult topic. There are so many issues, problems and triggers that many have to deal with every single day. Even if you aren’t diagnosed there are still moments that feel like a slump that you can’t get out of or even explain most of the time. It gets tough but the important thing is learning how to play with the cards you have been dealt.

Something that just came to mind; a while ago someone said that you can take the i in illness and replace it with we, and that becomes wellness. It was a way of saying that, you do not have to go through what you are going through alone, we can do it together.

Let’s chat … 3Qs

Earlier I mentioned that having mental health conversations can be difficult. That is true, but I think being African and living in a Black community is slightly more difficult. For a long time it was treated as non-existent or avoided at all cost. Not many Black families believe in psychology as a real science. So, why do you think that is? And what can be done to bring the conversation to the table?

Thank you for participating and chatting with me. Add any additional thoughts to the comments section below. Hope you enjoyed reading, which is why you’ll press the like button and you enjoyed my analogy so much that you are sharing with everyone you know. Don’t forget to tag @lets_be_royalty for the bingo!

Love and appreciation.