666 : Five Ways to Look After Your Mental Wellbeing

Our response to physical health tends to be proactive. We eat well to ensure that we stay well. We undertake exercise because we know that this makes us healthy (and yes moshing does count, according to my Fitbit I “ran” over 10km whilst in a Slipknot pit). In fact, our current reality is a massive pro-active attempt to beat disease by taking measures to avoid contraction in the first place. Our approach to mental health tends to be a little different. We view it in a much more reactive manner. We seek help only once we actually feel “ill”. The services that are available are based around mitigating conditions and syndromes once they manifest themselves and are not designed to be preventative. There is even scepticism about whether you can actually “prevent” mental ill-heath (believe me you can) or whether it is just something that happens.

The truth is that there are plenty of things we can do to stay mentally well. I cannot guarantee that everything I talk about in this article will stop you ever experiencing say anxiety or depression, but to be honest a diet of salad and daily 10k runs is not going to completely keep you safe from the flu. The truth with both is that it reduces your chances by increasing your resilience. Resilience is hugely important because it is your mental health immune system. It is the thing that stops every rubbish thing that life throws at you becoming a crisis. As we know life can sometimes be pretty crap. We will all not get the job or opportunity that we think we deserve, we will all get dumped at least once in our lives and we will all loose people that we love. All of these things (and many more) affect our mental health and it is resilience that helps us disseminate and deal with them (in the say way that our red blood cells deal with the many viruses that enter our body and try and make us ill). How you build your resilience is an extremely personnel business and involves a huge amount of different actions and attitudes. For me music plays a massive part of my resilience. There are songs I use when I need to be strong, there are songs I use when I need to be motivated and there are songs I use when I hate the world and wish everyone would just fuck off. They are all crucial parts of my resilience utility belt. Tools I pull out as and when I need them.

“Hell Awaits” from Slayer helps Stewart cope when he wishes everyone would just fuck off. Consider it a warning if it is on while in your presence!

There is also the five ways to wellbeing which may actually sound like hippy motivational shit but actually are five really effective ways of staying mentally well and resilient. CONNECT. We are social beings and connection is so important. I may be preaching to the converted, but being social and shooting the breeze is good for you. BE ACTIVE. Being active is actually as good (if not better) for your mind as it is for your body. Any activity counts. Moshing, dancing, throwing yourself around a dance floor (or your living room) all count. BE AWARE. Our brain is a sponge, the more detail you take in, the more that it can take in. Really listen to music, take in the notes and different textures. It’s good for you as it stretches the brain. LEARN. We use so little of our mind. Read books, take quizzes, memorise every Download line-up ever . All this is good for you. GIVE. Giving makes you feel better. Whether it be little acts of kindness or volunteering or buying someone a pint. Selfless acts are not just good for your soul, it’s good for your mind. My message is that it is easy to be proactive in how you look after your mental health. It can be written into your life and it can cost nought. Looking after your mind can be fun and everyone can do it. So what you waiting for?