Acting your age

Acting your age is a wise old saying that seems to have fallen by the roadside. What does it mean actually? Does it mean that at certain ages one has to stop having fun, stop associating with younger people, and be seventy when you feel more like fifty? Absolutely not, The younger you feel,the better; thats how you apply the truth of that old saying is to more carefully pick and choose your actions.

Teenagers can get by with a lot more when they and goofy and seem out of bounds than the 30 or 40-year-old person. The reason for that is that people know teenagers still have a lot to learn, and they have rightly or wrongly assumed that those who have lived longer have already learned this lesson.

Regular breaks from daily routine

Allowing yourself to get into a rut is not what mental wellness is all about. It is easy to program your time so effectively there's no time for fun, adventure, and a different viewpoint. Vacations take care of this annually, but setting aside a few minutes here and there and deliberately changing routine keeps the brain cells active and awake.

When you catch yourself being overly critical of the younger set, as an example, stop and take a second look at why they do what they do, and as stated in the last Mental Health Viewpoint, give them the benefit of the doubt. Or if you find your older friends are likewise too critical, suggest that maybe when you were young, you too were problematic to the more adult groups.

Whatever, changing your habits on a regular basis, is good for your mental health. Thinking new thoughts is exercise for the brain, as physical action is exercise for the physical body.

Giving others the benefit of doubt

When thinking internally, listening into our own thoughts we think we know so well, we often forget that others may be seeing those same thoughts we are thinking upon in a different light. They see them through their own personal made-to-order lenses presented to them at birth and equipped for their own use. Not to say this is right or wrong, but it is the way it is.

How then can we expect them to readily understand what we pitch to them through conversation and everyday chitchat at home or at the office, in the classroom, at the doctor's office or where ever? We can't really. The best we can do is to talk to them as intelligently as possible and ask questions and learn from them as they also will learn form us.

Most people try to be on the safe side and keep their verbal quips to areas that are safe and commonly held. That is understandable, but it does little toward better understanding of mental health topics that need a wider audience, and also is in dire need of a more accepting audience.

One in particular, and is the topic of this brief observation about mental health viewpoints, is giving others the benefit of the doubt. How do we actually know what their thoughts and feelings unless they tell us outright?

The mistake often made is assuming they think this way about us or our beliefs, when in actuality, they often don't think much about it one way or another. They, like us, are taken up with their own thoughts and ideas and unless others' ideas get in their way, are seldom thought upon.

Furthering that topic, giving them the benefit of the doubt, we might assume they are doing one thing or saying one thing, when we don't know. Until we know for sure they are backbiting and talking behind our backs and in general, doing us harm, it is best to believe they are not. This is the mental health way of giving them the benefit of the doubt!

In a world where assumptions are a dime a dozen, who can afford to buy into their shoddy deals? Know the facts—if they are worth knowing— before we go off the deep end and make fools of ourselves. Most of us are big enough fools without heaping more trash on ourselves. Therefore the caution is, look before you leap; think we act.

Art as a healing aid

Art as a healing mechanism.

Art is a great way to deal with those troubling thoughts and problems of life. Yet art need not be an all out affair where we paint, or sculpt, or take up dancing professionally, or join a singing group, unless of course we are so specially talented we must; but the kind of art that is healing is the kind that gets us in contact with our better natures. As an example, yesterday I wrote an article for Helium "Christian parables in art" and while writing it I somehow renewed my own lagging sense of art as a way to life one above the mundane and routine matters that we face daily. gave me a lot to think about as I was writing it

"This type of art can is common today and artists who are closely tuned in to the world of God find numerous ways of sharing their work. All types of art can be dedicated to Christian principles and each will have their own unique idea, or parable. That special nature of art — of whatever source — is to penetrate to the depth of the psyche and elicit feelings and thoughts. Genuine art, contrary to popular belief, is not necessarily pretty nor should it always be pleasing; genuine art brings to the forefront deeply felt feelings held the artist."

The Image: Confession time: It was borrowed from Flickr. Yet, I somehow felt it had something to say about life in this world as it is being tossed about by the weather. That must have lots to say about how the wayward life we are now living, since every action, good or bad, has a reaction.

Reacting to disappointments

How we react to disappointments in our daily lives says a lot about how mentally healthy we are. Do we accept them as clouds with silver linings or do we fret, nag, feel depressed, or blame others. Are we able to glean truths from them that will be lessons for tomorrow, or are we so dense that we believe we are always right.

Naturally we’re depressed and downsized when disaster strikes and it’s hard to be pleasant about much of anything, but for sanity’s sake we must believe there’s a reason behind these that’s beyond our understanding. That is not the point we want to make here, but first a moment of silence for the Joplin, Missouri disaster victims and their families. (++++++++++++)

Accepting everything that comes our way without getting too steamed up over success or failure goes a long way in creating balances in our lives. And balance is what mental health is all about. Did not the Creator program our life that way? Day and night, warm and cold, high and low, good and bad, are part of our existence, and so is happy and sad, joy and heartbreak, knowledge and ignorance and so on the teeter-totter of life goes.

Why this subject today? I am a writer and recently I wrote an article I was extremely proud of having written. And yes, I was aware that it might meet with a few raised eyebrows, but I believed in my words and I forged ahead, believing it would be accepted by the editors. Well it didn’t go over well. I was asked to rewrite and not to editorialize so much.

How did I accept it? I was disappointed but I reread the article and I decided to leave it as it is. I absolutely have no interest in making it more professional! It deserves better than its designated first time out venture, I told myself. I told myself that while at the same time I knew I could be wrong. But overall I understood the matter to be of small importance.

You win some and you lose some! I give that only as an example of how to accept these daily little annoyances ¬— and that’s all they are — and not let them take up more of your precious time than they deserve.

Time never stands still nor repeats itself

It's good to look back and see where we've been years after we were there, but to do so with regrets cancels out the positive reason for looking back. It was neither better or worse than now, the difference is the age we were then. Of course we wrote bad poetry, thought we knew more than we did, but we were younger. Today, years hence, we've learned more and if it advanced us further in our journey, good; if it didn't stop fretting and get on the right path toward the direction you were meant to go. And of course, good mental health is the goal of everyone,isn't it?

PS:
The at the seashore accompanies a poem Bad? Of course not. It was right for me at the time I wrote it. Since it isn't dated I can only say it probably was twenty years ago, maybe longer, maybe sooner.
The Words:

Perfect feet rotating / sands of time at intervals of three. / Without bonding. / [what did I mean by that? don't remember] Sending back oceans of truth, / leaving no trace, no path to tell, / where you wade and where you turn / and swoop upward
to the other side: / Starting life anew, / telling nothing of what you plan to do./ Scrub brush in tow/ where you dump. / only the morning after will show.

Thoughts now? No comments only to say were I writing that today I would change some of the wording. Why didn't I? That would make the whole effort of Mental Health Viewpoints a lie. What would I gain, and really, who cares? Those were my thoughts then when I tried to do a water color of earth, ocean and sky. Inept, probably but it was an honest inept effort. Even the umbrella looks like an egg, but if anything about this image looks real, the bird must have been a large one to have laid an egg large enough to shield a woman from the sun!

The truth of those words is as now, they were written down as they were thought or are now being thought. That's not a good idea when we are out to make a good impression on some, we often fret and stress over. But we must also admit sometimes truths ooze out around the edges of the most carefully written sentences.

Why? Because we are imperfect creatures, and mental health demands that we learn how to accept that fact. Tomorrow we have a chance to do better, God willing. I learned those last two words from my father. He was, the same as his daughter, imperfect,but he was wise enough to know who was boss.

How to refrain from being judgmental

In the world we live in today where evil is so rampant, it is comforting to know others are worse than we are. But is our goodness something that we can boast and brag about? No! But for the grace of God, go I is a more humane approach. Who knows the mind of God, or his ways? All anyone knows or can know is their own experiences with him, or lack thereof.

For instance, who knows when that invisible spark of humanity unknown and thought of by the crowds to be non-existent, may actually have taken root? Although unlikely in most obvious circumstances, still, it is best to leave the matter entirely with God who alone is in charge.

Why? It is unseemly and no matter how mean or evil a person is, they did not come into this world alone, they had a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, and perhaps children who may harbor no such evil intents as the horrid one. It is best to keep quiet about what we know little about. And along those lines, I admit, I may be putting myself in that category by writing this.

Until the next time I step up and talk about what I know nothing about, I will now close. And hopefully I will have something more than a dirty sock to show you!