Recently, we witnessed another tragic event: a mass stabbing at a high school in Pittsburgh. A week earlier, there was another mass shooting at Fort Hood. And before that, a long list of devastating and avoidable tragedies of the kind that seem to be increasing day by day. The Navy Yard, Aurora, Newtown, Virginia Tech, Columbine – once names that simply reminded us of quiet places in our great country and now sadly evoke devastating memories of unspeakable fear.
In the midst of all this, a new national dialogue has emerged. It’s one that, given the questionable mental stability of many of the shooters at these events, involves discussions centered around our nation’s attitudes and policies regarding mental health.
~ Are we doing enough to treat the mentally ill?
~ How can we better screen people for mental illness?
~ How can we keep weapons out of the hands of people with a history of mental instability?
And thus…
But here’s a question I haven’t heard yet: “What can we do to prevent mental illness?”
It seems logical. And frankly, if we were dealing with a flu epidemic, obesity, or any other physical illness, prevention would be at the top of this list. But interestingly, our culture’s attitudes and habits toward mental health differ significantly from those toward physical health.
Consider this.
In the physical world, it is generally recognized (though not always practiced) that if you want a healthy body, you must do preventive maintenance: brush your teeth, eat a reasonably healthy diet, exercise, get enough rest. Day after day, we perform a series of tasks designed to help improve the well-being and longevity of our physical selves.
In other words, we understand that physical fitness is a precursor to physical health. However, in matters related to our mental and emotional selves, we find a different story.
Developing habits to nurture and exercise our mental and emotional selves is not something most Americans regularly consider. Most of our efforts to meet our mental and emotional needs are more about indulgence than physical fitness. Feeling stressed? Have a beer with friends. Has sadness brought you down? Go to the latest blockbuster movie. Fear of work? How about a round of golf?
Instead of increasing our mental capacity, we medicate ourselves. We undertake activities to make us feel better in the short term, but without really addressing the root problem associated with an insufficient ability to absorb and deal with life’s difficulties. It’s like tackling your weight gain by removing all the mirrors in the house. Sure, it might make you feel better temporarily, but what does it do to fix the problem?
The truth is that it is an approach that all too often produces what can only be described as wild and free spirits.
Definition of Mental Fitness
To be clear, Mental Fitness in this context does not refer to the development of knowledge or even mental acuity. This is an important point. Many of the mental activities we undertake to develop our minds have little to do with mental fitness, as mentioned here. Examples of activities that DO NOT drastically increase our mental fitness include:
~ Processing data as part of the learning process
~ Exercise one’s cognitive ability to make the mind more agile
~ Participate in activities that calm and nourish the mind and agitated emotions
This does not mean that these activities are not dignified and valuable, as they are clearly vital in our development as productive and happy people. Still, for the most part, they don’t help increase our ability to synthesize a relatively easy experience in the most challenging of conditions. And cultivating that calm experience is at the heart of Mental Fitness.
The key to understanding mental fitness is the notion of ability. Mental fitness is the measure of a person’s ability to overcome life’s challenges without becoming unnecessarily unbalanced. It is the ability to endure a layoff, a health diagnosis, or a financial challenge with grace, drive, and a sense of ease and confidence.
We all know such people, who never seem to get nervous. A resignation? No problem. Check tax authorities? Fine compensation. A traffic accident? No problem. Join Fitness Classes here.
