Holistic care for mental health

First and foremost an assessment of your health to determine where you are at. Mental health is about the neurotransmitters of the brain (dopamine, serotonin, Gaba, and acetylcholine) - being balanced and healthy. Trauma, genetics, chemicals, drugs, alcohol , bad food choices (for long periods of time) can all affect mental health. The biggest influences are: genetics, alcohol and drug use, long term poor health.

Can you be treated holistically? Yes, but you need to find someone that will assist you in getting of anti depressants (if you use them), help you with food choices, supplements, and get your brain chemistry tested for imbalances. Its a bit of a journey and you have to be prepared to make some life choices. Find a holistic health practitioner - if you can’t find one contact me and I will find you an appropriate person where you live.

There are definitely holistic ways to work with our mental health! It’s important to know that when we are struggling with our mental health there’s is always something going on inside us that needs to be healed and brought to the surface. One of the best holistic ways of bringing our mental health back up is to build a meditation practice! Meditation allows us to go inside ourselves and discover why we feel the way we do. It may seem hard at first so maybe start with 1–2 minutes of silence and work your way up. Guided meditations work great as well!

When our mind goes out of balance, we may call it a Mental health disorder. It is a signal, calling to re establish the lost balance, and most of the time we can restore the original balance (homeostasis) with just a little effort. The holistic approach look at the world , and ourselves, as one entity, where everything is connected. The entire universe tend to balance itself, and this reflects in our body-mind complex too. For example, the 3rd law of Newton say: "When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body."

We can also see this law in our society. For example, ignorance is the opposite of love, and it triggers fear (of pain) and desire (of pleasure). When fear prevail, violence emerge, pushing back as an equal and opposite force. In other words, fear generate fear, and violence generate violence. If we've a headache we'd understand what is the root cause of it, rather than killing the pain with some pill, and continue as before. Most of the time our distress is caused by our tendency to sabotage ourselves, and at some point our mind will call for help.

It could be a digestive problem, or watching too many shows, or drinking, or drug addiction. Rather than 'manage the symptoms' with a painkiller, if we understand what's going on, we're one step closer to re-establish our mental health. In this process we may need some external help, until we realize that compassion and love is our true nature. For example, for a human being it is natural to express the Human Values; the only impediment to that is the ignorance of our true nature.

With ignorance fear and desires grow in our mind, which in turn will suggest bad actions. But what is a bad action? According to the Indian culture, in relative terms, what helps reducing other's suffering is good, and what increase it, is bad. Probably one of the simplest way to get back our mental health, is to start removing the toxic content that has infiltrated into it. We tend to call it as 'negative' influences, and they could be people, food , or things we do.

The Indian culture, suggest to "think what is good, say what is good, hear what is good, and do what is good", since this is the way to fill our mind with positive energy, so that we can help ourselves, and others. If we fill our mind with hate, soon or later this toxic content will hit ourselves, and others. If we ignore the war in a remote land, soon or later it will knock at our door, calling for attention. In this process of evolution, we'd also understand that whatever happen tend to re- establish the lost balance. So calling for pleasure, will eventually end in pain, and hurting others, will eventually hurt ourselves, because we're all connected.

This world is a combination of 3 Guna, (Rajas, Sattav, Tama) or qualities, and they coexist everywhere in the universe. The combination of these Guna makes the individual's mind. Eventually concepts like good and bad, pure and impure exist only in our mind, since at a higher level, beyond the mind, they merge in the vast ocean of love, and they become meaningless. That love is our true nature (Soul, God, Atma) , and no matter how 'bad' is our mind, eventually, all rivers will merge in the ocean. Cheers!