Many times, we see people kicking against the topic of mental health being as important as physical health, and it baffles me a lot. I remember a time when a young lady was sharing a testimony in our church, and along the line, she made reference to how she almost lost her mind because the trauma she passed through dealt with her. Surprisingly, the people gave out a loud crowd laughter, and I was not pleased, honestly, because I know what a destabilized mental health can do.
I may not be very perfect in taking care of my health, as the modern pattern recommends very regular checkups in the hospital, but to my capacity, I’m very careful and try to balance the weight of both my physical health and my mental health.
Fortunately, I’m one of those types who do not fall sick often, and I’m happy about that. Also, because it does not happen often, I mind the kind of life I live in order not to invite sickness into my body. I’m the type that, once I see any symptom of sickness or any form of reaction, I tackle it immediately, either by going for medicines or by carefully observing it to know what caused it so as to avoid it next time. A typical example of this is skin reactions and stomach pains. Once I get a symptom of pain from these, I check it immediately because it’s obvious that something caused it.
The only thing that disturbs me often is a runny nose, and I’ve known most of the various ways that trigger it, so I try as much as possible to stay away from them. Recently, I got a perfume that was triggering my nose to start ‘crying’ always, so I had to dash out the perfume.
For my mental health, I mind it a lot, and that makes me mind my business a lot too because I have come to understand that one of the ways to trigger an imbalance in mental health is when the mind is subjected to unwanted and mind-draining stuff. Because I want to secure my mental health, you’ll hardly see me digging deep into something that will push me off track.
Many times, I have had friends from church come up to me to find out what caused a certain thing in church—maybe someone’s death, a marriage divorce, a big fight, or even as far as which leader of the church is doing an evil act—and I usually have no idea to give them. So, they’ll go on to ask me why I didn’t make findings, and I’ll tell them that I don’t go about making findings that will end up putting my mind in a tight corner, because one thing is sure: once the mind knows, some ideas—mostly unwanted ideas—settle in the mind and control it at one time or the other. Minding my business has brought me a lot of peace of mind.
Also, I mind the kind of things I see, watch, and read. This is why I settle mostly on things that make me laugh, even though they’re unserious things, because I know that laughter has a way of relieving the mind of the little heaviness that gets in there once in a while.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to Week 182, Edition 01 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community