Written by: Lynn MacDonald, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
"There’s only one mental illness, chronic mental stress. Never broken, nothing lacking." — Dr. Bill Pettit.
I’ve come to see we human beings are built for mental health or well-being. Actually, it’s innate; we always have it. It’s never lost, stolen, or broken. I can’t help but wonder why this isn’t clogging up the digital world.
Living in an oversubscribed world where there is no shortage of people believing that they are experiencing the following “problems” (just a small sampling):
Lacking confidence
I am not good enough.
Low self-esteem
Poor body confidence
Worrying and trying to control life
Lacking confidence to public speak
Lacking motivation leading to low productivity
Anxiety
Depression
Overthinking
Overanalyzing
Overwhelm
The list goes on and on. It’s common to believe these problems are real when you look out at the world from the lenses of misperception, innocently, of course. A misunderstanding of how reality already works and the way we believe it works.
When we think our experience and reality of life is created from the outside-in, problems appear real.
Remember Mary, my client I wrote about last month? We need to talk about Mary. She’s a game-changer. Click here to meet Mary. She lived life from the outside-in, which resulted in her 22+ years of struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
What do I mean by the outside-In?
Mary mistakenly believed her feelings were coming from her mother, her past, her ex-partner, the cold, dull days of winter, too many tasks around the house, etc. In doing so, she felt hopeless. She didn’t see any possibility of living in her innate mental health.
Why is this a problem?
When we either don’t realize where our feelings come from or believe they come from someone or something outside of us, we tend to blame our outside circumstances innocently.
We think we have to do something to break free from anxiety/depression and accept we have to cope and manage it for the rest of our life. There’s a host of tools and creative strategies out there that look like good ideas until you see life from a lens of how reality really works.
We look for reasons why we are not happy and wait for something in our outside world to change so we can be happy. We make happiness contingent upon something.
We look for reasons why we are not confident. Then we attempt to look for a tool or the latest blog that promises 5 simple steps to confidence.
We look for reasons why we have low self-esteem and trace it back to that 5th-grade teacher who said, “we wouldn’t amount to much in life.”
We look for reasons why we lack motivation and tie it to low productivity. So, we search for those magic tools and science-driven techniques on how to be more motivated.
I hear those famous words all the time:
“I’m trying.”
“I’m getting there.”
“I’m a work in progress.”
When Mary began to understand, she created her experience of anxiety, panic attacks, and depression by innocently misusing the Power of Thought by creating insecure thinking. She saw those feelings in a new light. She saw them as nothing to be afraid of. The monster under the bed no longer appeared scary.
Mary hit a pot of gold when she saw the truth.
She saw anxiety and depression as passing and temporary thoughts and feelings that gave her no information about herself, the past, what she could or couldn’t do, her personality, etc.
She realized those feelings were only telling her the mental thought whether she was in at any given moment. “Simplicity,” she said on many occasions, “why didn’t anyone tell me this?”
She saw that those feelings as a gift, a barometer to guide her back into her innate well-being, which is innate mental health, always there, unshakeable.
No one can take away our innate mental health. Every human being has mental health within them now.
When we have a thought storm of insecure thinking (which is what those above “problems” arise from), we live in the feeling of our thinking.
When we wake up to the reality that we live in a thought-created world, the mind will do what it does best, settle down. The mind clears, that is what it does and innate well-being is up for grabs. Take what you’d like, happiness, joy, peace of mind, contentment, creativity, motivation, confidence, courage, truth, wisdom, resilience, etc. A world beyond the intellect.
Since we can’t control, change or manage our thinking, how do we live more from our innate well-being?
When you don’t like how you are feeling, stay away from poking the bear. Simply notice it, and you will eventually be automatically directed back into a better flow of thinking, a higher mood.
No tools necessary. The magic happens by noticing, and spiritual intelligence takes care of that for you. The same energy that breaths your heart and takes care of your digestion system, and heal cuts will direct you back to your innate well-being.
What seemed like an impossible dream for Mary to live life without coping and managing anxiety and depression in the forefront became a reality. A reality that keeps on giving back as she spends more time living in the present moment, where all the action of life is.
Your thinking has nothing to do with you, and it’s impersonal. When you understand this, your mind self-corrects and guides you home to your innate mental health, wisdom, and resilience. It’s from that place we always know what to do.
When we live more from what’s right will fix what’s wrong.
Anxiety, depression, habits, or any of those above “problems” do not live and prosper in innate well-being, mental health; it’s impossible.
You don’t have to believe me. I’d rather you didn’t.
Find your own insights and revelations that will help you live more from a good feeling and subscribe to hope, possibilities, and endless creativity in living the life you were born to live!
What party bag take-a-ways resonated with you?
With Gratitude, Lynn
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Lynn MacDonald, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine
I’ve been a corporate trainer for a Fortune 500 company. I’ve been a yoga teacher with consistently sold-out classes and a professional hypnotherapist, successfully curing some of the biggest fears and phobias people have.
All of this, plus studying with some of the highest level teachers on the planet, has led me to understand human nature that I use to help strengthen professional women, shed their old beliefs, and become the potent, prosperous leaders they’re here to be.
