Nearly everyone is aware of the rise in mental health distress which affects all genders and age groups. Doesn’t it stand to reason that when a sub-optimal trend continues unabated, something in our existing set of solutions is either not working, or there is something missing altogether?
If we are to make a far more fundamental change to our mental health it can be useful to start by understanding more about our paradigms.
Your paradigm is your unconscious mindset which organises the interpretations and choices you make on a daily basis. Most of your paradigm is laid down early in life and throughout your lifetime it is also influenced by:
what’s happening in your family, especially when family aspirations are not being met
what’s going on in your workplace, influenced by its own organisational culture
what’s going on in our society, which clarifies our norms and what gets popularised
Without a good level of self-awareness and the ability to adapt our paradigms we are excessively influenced by the outside world and that may impact on our mental health.
Most people have heard the assumption that men’s mental health is debilitated because men won’t ‘talk about their problems’. It’s true to say that if we suppress our thoughts and feelings too much then the feeling of psychological pressure or unhappiness can build and intensify.
But if you think about the much-publicised solution ‘talking about the problem’ in a more multi-dimensional way you will see that talking about the problem too much is likely to cause a person to feel overwhelmed and somewhat dis-empowered. They feel ‘at effect’ of their circumstances rather than ‘at cause’ – taking charge of their lives.
One of the most powerful mood enhancers is making the decision to take charge of your perceived problem. If you decide to take charge of your situation either by doing something differently or by changing your reaction it’s likely to mean that any negative feelings will start to subside.
Better still is being able to see the problem in a more multidimensional way. If you interpret your circumstances as either good or bad you fall into the predominantly harmful trap of binary thinking. Every perceived challenge brings you the opportunity to learn how to handle situations which you might find difficult, and in most cases dealing with the situation will have unforeseen benefits. For example, you have probably experienced the discomfort of ending a relationship, which is likely to cause you to look at yourself and make personal changes. And when the dust settles it will have opened the door to the possibility of a better relationship.
When people feel really bad they lose their sense of perspective and time. As the majority of our difficulties do not last forever, a simple but effective course of action is to regularly use the expression “At the moment, it seems like (plus however you interpret your current set of circumstances.)”
The discomfort of your ‘problems’ is often what forces you to adapt your paradigm to deal with the situation. If you make a more conscious choice to adapt your paradigm you can learn how to be on the front foot when dealing with situations which you currently find challenging, to find out more join a free mental fitness talk https://achieving-momentum.com/events/
