Mental health, not just physical health, is one of the most important aspects of life that will help you live the life that YOU want to live. It is important to take time to pursue mental growth, mental happiness, and the opportunity to bathe, regenerate, and relax your mind as well! Unlike your body where you can actively take days off in order to allow your skeletal muscle tissue and cells to regenerate from that hard workout completed the previous day, I contend that you really do not have that ability with your mind. Think about it, when can you just shut off your mind completely? When can you give it that much needed break? Even in your sleep, your mind — and the neural synapse interactions involved to maintain constant allostasis — is at work either dreaming of the endless possibilities of the yesterdays and the tomorrows or ensuring that your heart keeps pumping, and your lungs and blood are both saturated with oxygen, for example. There really is no time where your mind is not working, in fact it is always thinking, always controlling your bodily functions — maintaining emotional responses and physical health — and it allows you to form new memories, new relationships, and new perspectives.
Your mind is the master controller and it deserves a break; it deserves a time to unplug from the world. It deserves a time to bathe in the purest of waters; and it deserves to be happy. Your brain is filled with all types of neurotransmitters, hormones, free radicals, ions, and molecules to stimulate growth; BUT I contend that your mind is happiest when it is saturated with the optimal levels of the “happy molecules” — the serotonin, the dopamine, the endorphins, the ghrelin, the phenylethamine, even the optimal level of cortisol (and many others). These molecules are all involved in creating the happy feelings we have all felt in our lives — be it through falling in love with someone, something, or some experience.
This post is to remind you to allow yourself to experience a break; allow your mind to saturate itself with those happy molecules. You know your mind the best; you know the activities that help cultivate positivity for your mind to flourish. Today I challenge you to take some time to cultivate your mind — whatever it may be! Surround yourself with people who make you laugh, pick up a new hobby that you have always wanted to try, create a happy playlist and dance in your room, go on a long run, try a yoga class, meditate, read a novel that you have always wanted to, try a food or restaurant that has been on your bucketlist, talk to a therapist about something happy going on in your life, make a list of things you are thankful for… there are so many things that make your mind happy! Go on an do it!
happyforhappyness 