Why Mental Health is Important
When you google “Why is mental health important” you are provided with several articles that are typically broken down like so:
- definition of mental health
- signs of mental health issues
- how to get help or how to ask for help
BORING!
Thanks, mentalhealth.gov but I already know I feel like crap. You don’t need to give me a list of signs to remind me of the symptoms of feeling like crap.
…Feeling helpless or hopeless — yea no shit.
Maybe it’s a silly question. Are we supposed to innately know why it’s important to feel great and confident and all the good things?
I think we all know it’s generally a good thing to be mentally healthy. It’s pretty clear with how fast the mindfulness and self-help sector is growing. The meditation app, Calm, recently surpassed a billion dollars in valuation and there are over 16 thousand people on Instagram with the keyword “self-help coach” or “mindset coach” in their bio. Don’t believe me? Type this in Google: “mindset coach” OR “self-help” site:instagram.com”
Clearly no shortage of tools, programs or communities that help you improve mental health.
It makes me happy to know people are investing in their mental health. But I already knew that I should strive for mental wellbeing and what my options were. My question is WHY?
If you happen to be asking yourself the same question, it’s possible we share a similar obstacle and it’s called self-worth.
One of the by-products of feeling crappy is low self-worth and… if you don’t care about yourself you are unlikely to care for yourself. 🤯
If you don’t care about yourself you are unlikely to care for yourself.
Victor Frankl reframed a simple question that helped me answer this question in his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”. It went something like this: Don’t ask, “what else can I expect from the world?” instead ask “what else does the world expect from me?”
Would you put in the necessary effort to heal your mind if you didn’t care about it? Would you put in the effort if you knew that it could positively affect the people you care about?
I think learning to love yourself happens when you focus on loving others first. Sometimes you need to give love before you can receive love from yourself.
So start giving more love. To people, to projects, to causes, to animals, to plants… whatever… just give that shit away!
So why is mental health important?
So you can show up for the world.