What is the best way to achieve and maintain positive mental health?
As a professional psychologist now for almost three decades I've been training and teaching my
clients how to operate the equipment of their own mind. I will give you here the two most powerful
processes that you need to master and then four steps to maintain your brain. What would change
for you if you actually knew how to operate the equipment of your own brain? We get stuck inside
of our own thinking sometimes and we don't always see the processes that are going on all the time.
My job is to illuminate the obvious which is so much fun to tell people things they already
know or get paid to illuminate things that are obvious but unnoticed. Many of the processes in our
brain are in that space. So, I invite you in this moment to notice that you are constantly judging.
Aren't you? Yeah, you judge yourself pretty harshly sometimes. You judge the people you
live with. You judge the economy, the government, your co-workers, your kids, you're judging me.
Just notice that it's happening. What I'm inviting you to do here is called metacognition. If we
think about that word cognition means thinking and if we put that on this level metacognition
is a higher level it's thinking about thinking and I'm inviting you to do this as I point out
that you're constantly judging. Well check it out, judgment or evaluation implies
comparison with some standard. So, here's a trick question for you, how are you doing?
Now, before you just drop off with fine which doesn't even mean anything most of the time. Notice
that you've got a bit of an answer to that how are you doing? With your health, with your relationships,
with your business, with your finances, with your kids, how are you doing? Just notice that you've
got some answer to that. But judgment or evaluation implies comparison with some standard. So, really it
makes more sense to say, "Well, compared to what?". But we don't do that consciously we just roll
with whatever our brain gives us. So, notice as I ask you how are you doing that the answer comes
and that that answer is compared to some standard. If you don't have an immediate standard you'll
make one up and you've got a really great imagination too. Can you imagine doing any
worse than you're doing right now? Well, actually, yes you can. Can't you? Can you imagine doing any
better? oh you do that all the time because then you beat yourself up because you're not there yet.
I invite you to see it. I'm not here to tell you how to think I don't have that kind of authority.
I just want you to see that you are thinking and that you're constantly evaluating your life
against some standard, just notice it. Now, a quick question about that, can you steer it? Can you
choose which standard you use to compare yourself? There again we're getting into the metacognition
that allows you to think about your own thinking. Notice that you're judging yourself. Notice that
you might be able to steer that in some direction that serves you better than the way you're doing
it now. One of my clients recently was a little concerned about the functioning of his body.
He'd had some injuries or something along those lines and he was in some pain and having some
issues, right? Welcome to the planet these things happen. Well, I had a conversation with this client
about a young man who showed up in my office years ago to do a podcast episode with me. Just to give
you a little hint the title of that episode, no arms no legs no problem. This young man Gabriel
Adams is his name you can look him up has no arms and no legs. Now, how are you feeling about your
body right about now, right? How many limbs do you have and they all work what or one of them doesn't?
Okay, you got another one. Huh, interesting. I'm just using that as an example okay and your brain does
this naturally and automatically just notice that it's happening and then ask can I steer that? Now,
thinking about your thinking here's the other process I want you to notice, I call it creation.
Your brain is constantly predicting what's coming and you suck at that. Can you really predict? I mean
I watch the weather report on the television and these meteorologists get up and they predict what
weather is coming. Now they've gotten pretty good at noticing certain signs or indicators but how
often do they get it wrong? I remember one of my friends back in college had actually written
in to the television station to the meteorologist there and said, "Hey, what's the deal? I had a foot
and a half of partly cloudy on my porch", as the snow fell over the night. Are we really
good at predicting? No. But notice that we always have a prediction. How are you doing next week?
You don't know. You don't know. Now, you've got something to do with it don't forget that but you
don't know so all you can do is Imagine or predict what is coming. How do you feel when you predict
or expect or imagine that what's coming is even worse than what you already have? Anxiety, fear,
that's about 30 years of clinical experience in a nutshell right there. Well, how do you feel when
you imagine or predict or expect what's coming is even better than what you've already got?
Oh, hope, enthusiasm, excitement. You don't know what's coming so you have to pick a position.
What position you pick is totally up to you and some are going to serve you better than others.
Can you steer it? Can you choose what direction you go when you start making your predictions?
Yes, you can. Now, I have some of my clients say, "Well, Dr Paul I don't want to feel like I'm
lying to myself", I know right? But the point is you don't know what's coming and so for you to predict
something negative may well be lying to yourself already. You're just used to it so it doesn't feel
like a lie. Pick a position that serves you well. Those two processes evaluation and creation where
we judge and then we predict are the most powerful processes you need to come to some mastery of in
order to take charge of your own mental health. I've put together a visual model for this
that I'm happy to give you. Don't worry about writing all of this down I'll just put it in
your inbox. Okay, go to the URL on the screen right now drpauljenkins.com/themodel. I'll put this in
your inbox and then you'll have a visual reference for what I just shared with you. Those are the two
most powerful processes that are going on in your mind all the time. Now, I promise to get to
the part about taking care of and maintaining your brain. Your brain is a physiological organ
in your body and because of that your brain needs certain things. Number one your brain needs sleep.
How's your sleep? We do a lot of things that disrupt our sleep. I've even got other videos
here on the channel that will help to describe what some of the sleep hygiene is that would
help you to improve your sleep. The bottom line is your brain as an organ in your body needs to have
adequate sleep and if you start getting sleep deprived your brain is not going to be clicking
in the way that it can when it's well rested. This is extremely important to your mental health get
enough sleep. Number two, your brain needs exercise. When I say this sometimes people are like oh so I
should do like puzzles and mental math instead. No, that's not the kind of exercise I'm talking
about. I'm talking about put on your gym shorts, lace up your shoes, get out there and move your
body. Well, how's that going to help my brain Dr Paul? Look, your brain is part of your body.
In fact, it is the biggest energy hog of any other organ or system in your body it
consumes more energy. I'm talking physiological energy for you to exercise physically your body
improves your brain health. Your brain needs exercise. You're probably on to the pattern
here because we're talking about an organ in your body. Your brain needs good nutrition. What
you eat matters and it matters to your mental health because your brain is the biggest energy
hog in your whole system and the kind of fuel that you run through your body matters.
What can you do to reduce some of the empty calories? I remember I was interviewing David
Horsager on my podcast and he's one of these experts that teaches people about leadership
and how to create positive cultures and mindsets especially in companies and he just commented to
me as I was interviewing him that he never drinks calories. Well, I thought about that for a minute.
Basically, that means he's consuming water most of the time. What would happen if you improved
your nutrition in some simple ways what would happen to your brain? Your brain is part of your
body that's why we're talking about things that a lot of times people don't associate with their
mental health but it's so important. You know it's interesting to me that in the clinical literature
exercise for example that was the second item that we talked about beats antidepressant medication
in the clinical trials. Meaning, it performs better in terms of mental health outcomes than even the
pharmaceuticals that are out there for that very purpose. So, we've hit three so far sleep,
exercise, nutrition, your brain. Here's number four your brain also needs regular periods of
prayer, relaxation, meditation. I'm going to lump those all in the same category. What's common
about all of these things? I think is purpose. It helps us to get clear about our purpose our place
in the universe. It also quiets some of the noise because it's easy for us to get consumed with
all of the to do's and all of the tasks and all of the achievements that we want to accomplish
and as we get sucked into that sometimes we'll lose sight of our purpose. So your brain needs
time to back off from all of the noise, prayer, meditation, focus, solace, relaxation.
All of those things are really important to your brain health. So, I've given you four
sleep, exercise, diet and meditation or purpose. Those are the ways that you can maintain your
brain so that you have the best chance of achieving that positive mental health.
I've thrown a lot at you in this short video. Don't worry about doing everything all at once
do something. Take some step toward your mental hygiene. Hey, we've got a program ready for you. Go
to this website go.liveonpurposecentral.com all one-word go.liveonpurposecentral.com.
That's where you can get the help that you need to maintain your mental hygiene. Go check it out.