Magma

What would good mental health look like? Would we be happy all the time? Would we be happy sometimes, neutral much of the time, and depressed or anxious just a little? Or would we be exactly as depressed, anxious, or overexcited as we are now, but feel better about it?

It’s good to have a goal in mind. If we want mental peace, we should be ready to know it when we find it. Daniel Siegel defines mental health as integration, which he divides into nine domains. It is worth reading his work (here’s one example), because he offers a well-thought-out perspective on the objective of mental health work.

But a simpler definition might be: “accepting who we are.” If we accept ourselves on the deepest levels, then we no longer hate anything that goes on in our minds. We could be depressed, negative, and discouraged. We could be anxious and biting our nails. We could be flying high, sleeping little, and filled with jagged energy. If we accept our experience, we will not be miserable, no matter how challenging the pain.

This is not to say we should give up trying to be better people. We can always improve in our relationships, in our selflessness, and in our appreciation of life’s miracle.

But if we feel really ‘OK’ with who we are, we will be starting from a place of respect for our situation and ourselves. Working to modulate our actions and thoughts from this solid ground will lead us more quickly to better relationships and better attitudes. By accepting where we are now, we will likely begin to feel less depressed, anxious, and pressured. But we will not be improving our inner mental health, because with true acceptance we will already possess transcendent peace. We will see our angst for what it is: surface agitation. We will know ourselves for who we are: deeply centered beings observing life from the depths of consciousness. We will be at peace, and we will know we are not mentally ill in any meaningful sense of the term.

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