Prioritise Your Crazy Beautiful Mind

Whether it’s your grandmother going into intensive care, or you just don’t know which shoes to wear — your mind is under constant attack. Decision after decision, the only thing you know for certain is that you must react.

The response may be to do nothing — wear no shoes — or do everything — fly to your family’s aid — but the answer will always bear in mind the context of your life, both past and present…whether you like it or not.

A new piece of information immediately catapults the brain into the subservient state of feeling. For a moment, unable to create its own will or its own world: you become your reaction.

You become your feeling.

Embodying it. Articulating it in your response. Carrying it forward with you for the rest of your life….

This often means that your feelings are obvious to other people.

They form an impression of you and your emotional state from every breath you take — let alone every move you make. But this isn’t a special power that others have: you have it too.

It’s called intuition and, thankfully, it doesn’t require much effort at all. There’s only one vital ingredient in this sauce:

Presence.

Listen closely to your mind as you walk down the street, and you will find it is perpetually whisked away to the melody of your thoughts and feelings. Your perception of the world is constantly changing, being shaped and re-shaped by every experience you’ve ever had.

[And it’s a beautiful thing — if you want it to be — though we’ll talk about that later…]

However, if your intuition is being consistently remoulded by the world around you, this means it is impossible that our intuition is something shared.

Yes, it’s something we all have. But we do not necessarily have the same one: in fact, we will never have the same one.

This can be the source of an incredible amount of discomfort and pain for people. In relationships, you often find individuals sculpting their partner towards their ideals, their way of life.

Sometimes it works, but most of the time it does not…

But why?

Because nobody can change you: Only you can change yourself.

Because nobody can truly understand you — unless they have physically lived through all of your experiences — only you can understand yourself. For this reason, people may try to help you, but only you can truly help yourself.

The funny thing is: you’re never taught how. Society teaches you to care for yourself through either:

1. Physical Exercise

2. Organised Religion

And a third method for the people who have lost faith in religion:

3. Retail Therapy

Yep…that’s it. If you want to take care of yourself in any other way, you’re probably mental…

How Mental? That is the question.

Does wanting to lie in bed all day make you mental? No. Does wanting to go on holiday make you mental? No.

Taking time to yourself is precisely what makes you sane.

To be free of constant concerns, negative thoughts and self-doubt. This is what you strive for when you take a moment to yourself.

Is this not a legitimate use of your time? Is this not a legitimate use of your mind?

I believe it is, and I believe you do too…

We may not have the ability to stop feeling (and I am not sure we would really want to) but we certainly have the capacity to change the way we react to our feelings…

To do this, we must understand the feeling itself, and where it came from in the first place. Now, this doesn’t have to be a Freudian analysis of your inner-child. It could be that you came away from the ice cream lady feeling sad:

Me 1: “Why do I feel sad?”

Me 2: “Because the ice cream lady seemed sad.”

Me 1: “Why was she sad?”

Me 2: “I don’t know, I didn’t ask.”

Me 1: “Why didn’t you ask?”

Me 2: “I guess I was shy?”

Me 1: “Why are you shy? You’re a beautiful, kind-hearted person. Next time, just ask! There’s no need for you to feel sad when you don’t really know what’s going on.”

Me 2: “That’s true…next time, I will ask!”

Understanding our feelings and disputing them with a loving, compassionate mindset helps us go about our daily lives. If you read this short script back, you may notice that your mind may not have reacted the same way mine did. This might be because:

My brain is wired to dispute negative thoughts.

My brain is wired to be empathetic towards other people.

My brain is wired to be empathetic towards myself.

My brain is something I am constantly working on to ensure it is wired they way I want it to be.

This is how I avoid social conflict, avoid depressive episodes, and generally make myself feel better.

The best part is: we can all do it. Reclaiming the brain as your own is a fundamental step towards achieving your goals, and getting the most out of your life. My process?

1. Understand your feelings.

2. Analyse the behaviours that led to those feelings.

3. Behave in a way that leads to a better set of feelings next time.

Now, that’s just how I look after my mind. This is just 1 technique…

There are millions more out there. Understanding ourselves better from a neurological, psychological and sociological perspective is key to our progress as a society. How do I know this?

At present:

350mn people around the world are battling depression.

Among teenagers, rates of depression and anxiety have increased by 70% in the past 25 years.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for men aged 35–49.

This is simply unacceptable. In a world where we believe we can build anything: Let us build a society that values the mind.

• One that teaches us how to care for our Mental Health.
• One that teaches Mental Health is equal in importance to Physical Health.
• One that teaches the significance of Mental Health to us all.

For just as we all have a body, we also have a mind. A crazy beautiful one…even if we don’t like to admit it. It’s time we start taking care of it, making it our priority.

How Mental ~ The Mental Movement ~ is a collective of people and organisations passionate about the power of Mental Health. We are shifting it from a negative term to a positive and aspirational ideal: in the same way we see our Physical Health.

How Mental’s online community is now at over 1500 members and growing fast across Facebook and Instagram, with a website coming soon(!).

Want to join the movement? You can reach us on social media or get in touch with me personally.

Lots of love to all the crazy beautiful minds,

George