Did you know that our bodies are a bunch of atoms that have identical fundamental particles that may have formed beyond the Milky Way and traveled through the solar system?
Humans are involved in the environment, just like how atoms vibrate at different frequencies that contain a massive amount of energy. It is everything that fuels and nourishes you, and that is why I think the essential thing that we should notice daily is our energy.
I always feel that our life is the dance of energy. We constantly vibrate in reality’s fabric, growing and evolving in many energy levels. How we think of ourselves and what we believe about ourselves is so important. If we ignore ourselves and don’t take good care of our own bodies, how can we help others? To celebrate May as Mental Health Awareness Month, here are some of my ideas for you to remember: your priority is self-care because it’s your energy, and we should focus more on it in our daily life.
- Reading Books
I recently finished reading Buddha’s Brain, The practical neuroscience of happiness, love & wisdom. It is such an excellent resource for anyone who wants to understand how our mind works and how it causes us to suffer because of naturally evolved biological functions, as well as methods to minimize self-induced suffering. It’s well organized and concisely written. I like how Hanson uses Buddhist practices to reinforce scientific thinking and complete the beautiful synthesis of East/West insights. It provides a lot of scientific background about the brain and encourages anyone overwhelmed by all the specifics to skip to the end of a chapter, where they recap the critical points.
Not only that, but Hanson also describes possible ways of getting the mind to work for us instead of against us and recommends what nutrients we should take to support our brain functions. Indeed, I think the book conveys the same message to all readers: science supports the idea that we can “reprogram” the brain toward more satisfaction and happiness, primarily through meditation. I’m not the type of person who reads books for fun, but definitely once in a while to have a quiet time and refresh my mind. Reading books is relaxing and calm if you are into it, so I think picking a book that fits your genre or something relatable to you would be the best choice!
- Meditation
I always talk about the benefits of meditation because I genuinely think that practicing meditation is the best way to increase your awareness and acknowledge the power of greater sensitivity.
Meditation is all about focusing on your breath. We are often distracted by the outer world, and our energy is overfilled with things we can’t control. Our energy goes all over the place. It’s in the news, our worries, the future, and the past. This energy may be holding us back, but what if we could take everything back to the present moment and have a breath. Just in and out, slowly, without any forces and one at a time. I think breath has all that we need in life, and it’s what keeps our minds at peace.
- Embrace gratitude
Meditation helps us gain more self-awareness and be mindful of things around us. Awareness shows that you understand how your strength, resilience, love, compassion, willingness, drive, and creativity are all in that breath, but how often do we nurture that very breath? How often do we have gratitude for the fact that we are living our lives when the world is on fire? The answer is all in your appreciation, the more you learn to open your heart to the world and appreciate all the little things around us, you gain more empathy and compassion in all aspects of your life. I like to think that there are simply always good things in your daily life when you look around. It could be a nice sunny day or flowers are everywhere on the way to your class. Having things to be grateful for is so important because it would help reprogram your mind to an optimum mindset and improve your well-being.
- Be in nature
The earth rotates around the sun just as our human bodies need the sunlight and evolve with nature to grow and expand. We are part of nature and should acknowledge how it can help you strengthen your connection with every aspect of nature and transmute your energy into love and light. Evolving with nature, taking some time from electronic devices and modern technology is a must. When I take the bus, I often notice that many people constantly pick up their phones and dwell on the screen. Technology separates us from the cycles of nature,seems to ignore things that happen around us, and keeps us busy thinking about so many distractions; it’s unnecessary and becomes a bad habit.
You could plan to stop using your phone for a period of time in a day, like 1 hour with no phone before going to school or after waking up, or you could even try no phone when going to the bathroom. This is a great habit to try because I think it helps you concentrate more on what you are doing and be less distracted.
Perhaps laying on the green grass on a sunny day at Tiffany Loop or just taking a walk at Discovery park could be an excellent idea to take a break from school and focus on relaxing your mind. I know that some of us are not fans of being outdoors, so taking a shower is also an option to let the water wash away your stress and negative energy to cleanse your body.
- Do what you love
As mentioned, our priority should be taking good care of ourselves, so planning self-care time, especially after a midterm, is needed. Make a list and write down what you love to do, not things that someone invites you to or expects you to like. There is nothing to stop you from focusing on your body’s health and improving your mental health. Whether listening to music, going to a concert, or simply buying a new plant, things that boost your energy and enjoy your time are valuable. Or maybe you want to try something different than usual and do things spontaneously to allow yourself to surround yourself with positive feelings. It helps calm your mind and gives us more reflection insight about ourselves and understand who we are and value all the preciousness of life. Remember self-care is a job; a job to be more responsive to our energy and transform it into a balanced harmony in our life!
I hope this article helps you to improve your health and be the best version of yourself every day!