For those of you following along with this year’s theme, section 6 focuses on the “mental and physical health, including addiction” category from the twelve categories of shame list created by Dr. Brené Brown. Her research on shame-resilience and vulnerability demonstrates for us all, how and why to live a wholehearted life.
“Health” is something we tend to overlook and take for granted when we’re healthy (or at least think we’re healthy) and then it becomes all-consuming when it goes awry.
It’s usually pretty obvious when something goes wrong with our physical health. Mental health is a bit more challenging to assess within ourselves. When something is off, we may be in denial or oblivious to it. In our defense we think it must be something outside of ourselves that is causing us all this pain and misery. Finding the cause of it can be scary and daunting. Asking for help can be even scarier.
Speaking from experience, when living with poor mental health becomes even more frightening than the cure, asking for help becomes a whole lot easier. I can honestly say that the quality of my life is SO much better now than it was 25 years ago. It’s been quite an amazing journey (and still is).
When it comes to addictions, it’s even more challenging to recognize because we usually have to hit rock bottom before we realize we have a problem…even though loved ones may have been saying so for years.
Section 6 asks us to take an honest look at our overall health and well-being. Here are just a few questions to help us start exploring this idea.
- How is our physical health?
- Is there anything we can do to improve it?
- Are there things we do that sabotage our health?
- If so, what? why?
- What is the state of our mental health? Peaceful? Excitable? Tense? Joyful? Irritable? Depressed?
- Is there anything we can do to improve it?
- Do we recognize any type of addictive behavior in our day-to-day lives?
- Is there some thing or some activity that we crave that we would find really challenging to go without for just 24 hours?
- If we say “I can quit anytime” knowing full well that to continue with it lowers our quality of life, alienating us from our loved ones, why are we still doing it?
- Are we willing to ask for help?
When it comes to mental health, there’s also the social taboo about being mentally ill. We as a society have trouble looking at it and often turn the other way. When it comes to depression we often want to say to those suffering from it to “get over it” or “pull yourself up” or “snap out of it”. For some that may be enough, for others it takes more than a slogan.
We as a society and as individuals we need to show more compassion for those suffering from mental illness…and we start by showing it to ourselves for we’ve all experienced it to some degree at some point in our lives.
When it comes to improving our overall health, we have to start from someplace and the place to start is by taking an honest assessment of our state of being. Then…
embrace what is* and change what we can
As you color this month’s section, let’s ponder our overall health and well-being. Being grateful for what we already have going for us while seeking ways to improve those areas in need of our loving care and attention.
Happy Coloring!
joyfully,
Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady
* for help with the idea of “what is”…read the universal reading on “it is what it is”
Be sure to download/color the June 2013 Mandala of the Month.
Mandala of the Year 
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