What is Good Mental Health?

In my previous post, I brought up the idea of "good mental health".  I wanted to give a little more context to that idea. According to Wikipedia, "Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences cognition, perception, and behavior. It also determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making."

Furthermore, according to mentalhealth.org.uk, "Good mental health is not simply the absence of diagnosable mental health problems, although good mental health is likely to help protect against development of many such problems."

They go on to say the following:

"Good mental health is characterized by a person’s ability to fulfil a number of key functions and activities, including:

• the ability to learn
• the ability to feel, express and manage a range of positive and negative emotions
• the ability to form and maintain good relationships with others
• the ability to cope with and manage change and uncertainty."

In the context of this blog and the topics within, "Good mental health" simply refers to these things above. 

So, how does one measure good versus bad mental health in the context of the definitions above? It takes a bit of introspection and meta awareness to grade oneself. I think that it can be operationalized but I am not sure how much detailed analysis I can bring to bear on this. I think creating some simply milestones might be a good idea. I will need to explore this further.

If we accept these definitions of "Good mental health" and we come up with a way of measuring it, how do we work on ourselves to improve our mental health?  After all, I would wager that most of us could benefit from improving our well being. Even if we are happy most of the time, there are always gains to be made. 

According to Dr Sapna Zarwal in her article posted here: https://www.healthshots.com/mind/mental-health/this-five-step-guide-to-boost-your-mental-health-will-always-come-in-handy/ , there are 5 simple things we engage in to help boost our mental health. 

1. Surround yourself with positive people
2. Practice mindfulness
3. Take a break from the digital world and gadgets
4. Learn to say ‘no’
5. Focus on helping others

So now that I have laid out some definitions and some behaviors to strive for, the next step will be to operationalize some of these things. What specific tasks help boost mindfulness for instance? Can I set aside some "no-gadgets" allowed periods? What can I do to give back or help others? How many times did I feel down or augmentative or have other negative emotions? Of course this will mean paying attention to these things and making a concrete note of their occurrence. That can be hard, especially when you are talking about observing oneself. But with practice, I think it can be accomplished. And, I think the benefits of such an endeavor are plentiful. 

Preparing for Retirement

Recently, I have started thinking about and planning for my retirement from the work force. I am hoping to retire relatively young. While an actual retirement date is well into the future, I have started to position myself so I can have a successful retirement. I guess first I have to decide on what success means and perhaps define the opposite as well. 

For me, success will be defined mostly by my psychological well being as well as maintaining my physical and cognitive health. I believe my experiences so far in life have me well suited to maintain good physical health. Good physical health can be a challenge but I would argue that all the building blocks are out there and it is pretty easy to define good physical health. Physical activity, proper diet, biometric measures - all of these things are pretty easy to operationalize and measure. Sure, it can be a challenge to strive for good physical health but we at least have some targets to shoot for. While motivating oneself to be healthy can be challenging, there are some pretty well researched and documented measurements of good physical health out there to use as guide. I will talk about those more later. 

Regarding mental health, what does it meant to have good mental health? What does it mean to have poor mental health? Those ideas are bit more illusive and often require lots of introspection and quite a bit of work to define. And once you do identify what it means to have good mental health, how do you work towards achieving it? Can we be both the observer and the subject of our observations? I believe we can and I think it all starts with awareness and mindfulness. I will talk more about that later too. 

I do have some concerns about my well being once I stop working. I have heard lots of stories about people losing purpose when they retire and suffering rapid declines in physical health, mental health, as well as experiencing rapid cognitive decline. I want to avoid all of that for sure. Since I am making this examination now, well before I retire, I think I am setting myself up for success which in this context means not succumbing to some of the things I mentioned above. 

As part of my retirement planning, I have started to work on myself. I have set some goals that I think will help me maintain my mental, physical, and cognitive health. Below is a simply list of the topics, tasks, and other things I want to work on to help me prepare. I believe organizing my thoughts and having a plan will help me self-actualize which is something I am passionate about. I plan to flesh out each of these goals in more detail and document them all here in this blog. This is just a continuation of my quest to grow where I am planted and live a full and happy life. 

Some Physical Exercise Goals

1. Incorporate more weight lifting and core work into my weekly exercise regimen.
2. Continue to work on my cardio through running, biking, and swimming.

Some Diet and Nutrition Goals

1. Cook more, eat out less.
2. Eat more varieties of fruits and vegetables.
3. Strive for 5 - 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
4. Eat less junk food including sugary drinks - this will be a tough one for me

Mental Health and Well Being Goals

“I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”

― Abraham Maslow

1. Increase Self Awareness and Mindfulness
2. Continue to grow the relationship with my wife
3. Engage in more rewarding social interactions
4. Engage and challenge the mind by mastering new skills
5. Read more fiction to help foster more empathy
6. Get out of the habit of engaging in the infinite scroll
7. Volunteer and give back to the community
8. Engage in creative acts as often as possible
9. Travel
10. Self-Actualize