In 1990, Congress designated the first week in October every year as “National Mental Health Awareness Week.”

It seems each day we hear of someone that has a cold or flu, an injury, or maybe something worse, and we have so much compassion for them. As we say, “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.

But, when it comes to “mental health”, it might not be a stretch to suggest most people become afraid. Why the difference in our attitudes about body health vs. brain health? That’s the reason for this years campaign by NAMI is called #IAmStigmaFree.

If you’re like me, “health” is one of your highest values in life. I run on the beach most days then have a salad for lunch. I like to hit the gym on the weekends to build muscle. And, besides supplements to make up for our poor farming strategies today, I work to keep my mind in peace and harmony, not letting most things generate stress… a leading cause of illness.

So where does the stigma of speaking about mind health come from? Well, since we’re basically conditioned hairless monkeys, taught to follow culture… we only need look back a hundred years to see that for CENTURIES, anyone that was even sad for an extended period of time might have been attacked for being posed by a demon, or worse, a danger to everyone that should be killed. We’re not too far from a barbaric past that still may be creating a superstition that seeking assistance to ensure our mind is running at optimal performance could get us fired from a job, banished from friends, lose a marriage, or worse.

Point: Let’s wake up into the 21st Century and abandon all superstition. Your brain is an organ like any other and DESERVES to be performing at optimal health levels! 

If you knee continually hurt when you went running, wouldn’t it be great to find out why and the solution for it? It’s same thing for your mind! When the organ of our brain is not functioning optimally, life it just harder than it needs to be. Keeping our mind in optimal health doesn’t come from just come from will power.

For example, studies show that alcoholics could keep from relapsing, but supplementing with EPA oil, because it helps replenish the fatty oils of the brain that when depleted, have us be more angry and agitated. Many alcoholics us trying to use alcohol as medicine because they won’t seek any other kind of mental health help. Some times mind health shows up in a simpler way in that an entrepreneur has a slight adult ADHD and that’s the real reason why she keeps voraciously learning how to be successful but can’t seem to translate that into success. Many hugely successful entrepreneurs, like Sir Richard Branson, are are aware of their ADHD and that awareness helps them.

How can you check out your levels of mind health? Here’s a short quiz I discovered years ago when consulting for some dating coaches. We were dreaming of a day when everyone would first want to get their mind in optimal health, before dating, to have the best experience. Check out the quiz here: www.sanityscore.com

For those afraid of the word “sanity”, it doesn’t mean “not crazy”. It means “healthy condition” from the Middle French word sanité meaning “health“. The quiz is a health score for your mental health with insights into key things to look at that, if addressed, could make life happier, peaceful, and more like the success you dream about.

To your health! Mind and body health!

The study found the participants had real symptoms, but they were not actually caused by dairy products. When dairy was removed, they still got the symptoms. The symptoms were actually traced back to stress. This is becoming more frequent as advertisers “educate” the public on symptoms and suggest what the problem may be (so they will buy their solution).

Back pain is another example of a somatoform disorder. This is why people will have chronic back pain, get surgery, which alleviates the pain for a short time, often to return even worse. Doctors keep doing their procedures because that’s what they were trained in. Everyone is looking for back dysfunction since none are trained in the mind or stress identification and reduction.

If your mind can actually can create illness and real symptoms in the body, just how powerful is your mind then? Maybe it’s worth understanding your mind a little more? It’s really tragic to me that we humans are taught almost nothing about the most important element of our happiness: the mind. Part of the reason is that very few actually understand the mind or HOW TO CHANGE IT!

A great takeaway here is that our mind too quickly associates two things together that don’t go together, like milk and intestinal symptoms. It’s called “anchoring” in NLP. Advertisers know this mind habit and constantly get you to anchor together things like beer and babes or diamond rings and happiness. This happens to couples where they anchor feeling bad (which is inside them) to their spouse (which is outside), get a divorce, but still feel the same about themselves. We anchor things in the outside world when it’s the inside world we need to address.

Here’s the study review: USATODAY.com http://usat.ly/mICLIf

Ask a good dog owner. If they don’t constantly lead the dog, be the ‘”alpha”, the dog will start tearing things up. It starts barking at every noise. It gets scared or angry. This is what the mind does also. Most people let their mind be in charge, like letting the dog be in charge. They follow the mind any crazy direction it goes. Even when they are just sitting still, trying to relax, their mind keeps running around, trying to lead, barking, barking, barking. Some folks just distract themselves with alcohol or TV so they can’t hear the dog mind barking incessantly. It’s like trying to drug your dog though.

Instead, meditation is a great training. It’s like the puppy being brought back to the paper each time it strays. Meditation is simply sitting still, watching your mind, and having it stay focus in one place. A little love, some guidance, soon the puppy has structure and when it plays it plays big.

So, are you a loving master of your mind or is your dog running all over the place barking and chasing cars? Barking dogs aren’t much fun for the neighbors, let alone the owner. Do your neighbors a favor, take care of your puppy. Puppies don’t just behave on their own. You’ve got to put in the effort. Every day!