Mental health is the ability to manage day to day pressures of life without feeling stressed and sick. So, when you have poor mental health, then you can easily plunge into illness. Mental health in its own sense, is about one’s healthy management of life day to day. This is very important because it is the biggest chunk of your health. We understand our physical health but we have little understanding of what mental health means.
Mental health is about one’s thought processing, feeling store, and willpower. If you lose the will to live and the will to push on, then it is considered that your mental health is not good. But we also consider one’s spiritual life on which life is hinged because we all move about and do whatever we do because we have a sense of purpose.
So, every time we lose that, and we have fractured souls, a negative mental outlook on life then it means our mental health is not good. If you are very stressed, anxious, and depressed, it means we are not doing well mentally. 90% of good mental health is about strong healthy relationships.
How we manage our relationships is very important. In other words, we have to be intentional in building strong relationships whether at home, in the workplace, or with friends because that is where the biggest chunk of our health comes from.
A very good example in the bible of an intentional individual, and another toxic one, comes from the story of what is popularly known as the prodigal son.
Luke 15:11-31. The drama is played out in a family setting. The relationship to watch out for is that of a father towards a wayward and wasteful son comparable to today’s drug addict. His other son, though is the ideal child who stays at home to continue and grow the father’s empire.
The father to everybody’s surprise throws a feast and jubilates when his wayward son returns after squandering half of his father’s retirement package that he had forcefully snatched from him.
Unlike the father, the upright brother sulks and pouts, cracking with envy cause no such appreciation had been shown despite his filial faithfulness.
He practically spoils the party thrown by a more wounded father who had totally forgiven and forgotten his son’s wayward mess.
So, of the two, who exhibited mental health?
Always exercise kindness, and be a good human being as you relate with one another. Only then shall we have a healthy living.
