The mental obesity epidemic

How would you imagine a person who constantly feeds on food, without much of exercise? What if additionally, the food that the person consuming is highly processed and less in nutrients? Am sure all of you would have imagined an obese person who most certainly has some lifestyle related diseases that impairs his or her quality of life.

Now imagine the same for a person who does the same not to their body but to their mind. How would you imagine the mental health of such a person? This, sadly is the epidemic that many amongst us suffer from. This overfeeding of the mind with bad quality stuff and lack of any productive mental activity has led to ailments such as stress, depression, panic attacks and other modern day mental duress.

I used to ask myself that how is it that people of today’s generation have so much more technology at their disposal such that, what used to take hours or days in yester-years could be done in moments today. And yet, none of us have enough time? Why is that people feel less connected in a world that is super connected? Over a period, I understood that this has got nothing to do with technology but everything to do with mental discipline that leads to better mental health.

Eat Healthy

Just as junk food is bad for our body, junk data is for our minds. Countless hours of entertainment and a barrage of social media updates leads to an overload of “nutrient less” information into our heads causing an overwhelming number of thoughts to be let loose in our head. Just as excess calories get stored away as fat in our body, “useless” information occupies space in our head. In the physical body, 1 meal + 1 meal = 2 meals. But in the head, 1 thought + 1 thought can lead to 100 new thoughts. Hence one needs to be twice as careful on what one feeds one’s mind.

The mind is like a garden. Plant a good seed, it grows into a beautiful garden that serves its master. But if we don’t tend to the garden, it can be invaded with weeds and poisonous plants.

The mind is fed through all the senses that we have. Reading great books, listening to great lectures, experiencing new things in life are all great food to feed the mind.

Exercise regularly

Eating healthy is just part of the job done. The other part of keeping a healthy body is exercising it regularly. The mind behaves the same. A mind very sparingly exercised is prone to procrastination, making excuses and running away from challenges. A well exercised mind on the other hand can move mountains and create life changing benefits to the whole of humanity.

Mental exercises involve applying the knowledge acquired for practical daily problem solving. Any information that is non-actioned is as good as nothing as it will just waste away in the corner of the head. Applying or acting on the knowledge involves reflecting on the idea, clarifying it in the head and then acting on it.

Just as the body can quickly get used to the weights you work with in the gym, your mind can get used to new challenges quite quickly. Adding bigger weights or going after bigger challenges keeps the mind sharp.

Rest frequently

All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. Every tool needs to be sharpened frequently, else it becomes quite dull very soon. The amazing tool that the mind is, we need to carefully tend to it and give it good rest. Emotions and thoughts need to be dealt with through restful actions such as prayers and meditation. Brushing them away can just make them reappear in worse forms later. Others find relaxation in music, cooking or whatever else that brings them to a Zen mode.

Just as people have increasingly started becoming health conscious, we need to make sure that they also become mind conscious.

Peace!

Originally published on Mental Clarity Project | Ashick Ali | Substack