Mental Detox for Health and Happiness

A healthy diet and exercise practically always lead to a longer and healthier life. However, we are more than a physical body. If you just treat the physical body, you are leaving out the other parts of your human being – your consciousness, your mind, and your soul.

Our bodies are capable of healing themselves and are constantly striving for this through homeostasis. Balancing all components is the holistic prescription for our health and happiness. There are many environmental issues and risks over which we have no control. However, we do have full responsibility for our Mind, Body & Soul. Anything we put into our bodies, including thoughts, feelings, emotions, food, and chemicals, affects us on all levels. Every cell in your body relies on what you consume to thrive or decline, so you should pay attention to the foods you consume and the thoughts you think.

For millennia, we’ve known about the power of our mind and its ability to influence our lives. And that is why it is so important to re-program yourself mentally – consciously and subconsciously. Our subconscious mind is crucial in the process of our healing. Until the subconscious accepts the new programming, it will keep holding on to the old diagnosis about the disease/illness (“I am being treated by doctors, but I have this health problem…”), and the diagnosis will never go away.

Positive thoughts can change the course of your life. Basically, you need to create a practice of mental detox. Here are some tools and techniques for you to maintain a positive mental attitude.

Our Internal Dialogue and Negative self-talk

“As the men think, so is he”. The Book of Proverbs

It is not what happens to us that determines our happiness but how we react to our thoughts and emotions. Absolutely no one can underestimate the power of the mind and its role in our feeling of happiness. It is necessary to keep our minds positive and on the right track if we want to achieve balance and happiness in our health, emotions, relationships, careers, finances, and spiritual lives. Think of the analogy of a radio station. For example, there may be a “Happiness” station. But the only way you can hear a radio station is to be tuned into it. Even a little off, and you can’t get the full effect. The same is true with our mind and happiness. If our minds and our thoughts get sidetracked, our happiness will get sidetracked. As our minds stay tuned to “happiness,” our bodies will then carry out our happiness, and we will begin to experience it on a regular basis.

So here are some ways to keep tuned into a happy, joyful life.

Use your innate ability to decide and choose.

One of the things that separates us from animals is that we live not only by instinct but by choice. We have free will, and constantly flexing that muscle of choice builds it up and keeps us on the right track. It is like working out. The more you do, the stronger you get, the more fit you get. Want to keep your mind tuned for positivity? Keep it healthy by making good choices and decisions on a regular basis. For example, do you have a bad habit? Then flex your mind muscle and choose to change – today! (If you choose to stay the same way – and those are the only two alternatives – you will have just chosen to tune your mind to a different radio station.)

Lovingly release critical thinking.

We all have an inner voice – some people call it an inner critic – that talks to us. Actually, it is more like a community, a group of voices – all those voices we hear in our mind talking to us, negating, refuting, putting us down, and criticizing us. 70% of our internal dialogue is negative, so we have to fight back these voices. We are our worst critics most of the time. How many times have you been looking in the mirror or at your pictures and criticizing yourself for being fat, not attractive, wearing bad clothes, or having bad hair? There are so many things we criticize ourselves for every day. And that is why positive self-talk is so important in achieving positive mental well-being.
What we say to ourselves about ourselves truly matters. I am a perfectionist and know firsthand how it feels when you judge yourself all the time. So, when your inner critics show up, thank them for their efforts to protect you and move to another thought.

Meditation is one of my favorite tools for mental detox.

There are more than 18000 different studies that showed the benefits of meditation for relieving emotional and mental toxicity, reducing stress, and reducing negative thinking and feelings. Meditation helps to concentrate and focus the mind.

A good meditation session is about 20-30 minutes in length, but it is really a personal preference. The most important thing is to do it consistently. Meditation is all about practice, practice, and practice. It is totally normal to have days where it feels like a struggle, it feels hopeless and energy consuming. This is all totally fine and a part of the process. You may even find yourself thinking about things you don’t want to think about. When this happens, the best thing you can do is sit still and persevere, continue breathing, and you will come to find that the thoughts have less power over you, and you are even able to find insightful solutions to your internal struggles.

There is no right or wrong way of doing meditation. You can find some examples of it here. Just allow yourself to experience the complete relaxation of the body and mind, whatever images and feelings might arise. Continue practicing it on a regular basis, and you will see and feel the results.

Remember it is how we react to situations and the stories we tell ourselves that will determine our happiness, so mastering meditative techniques will allow you to transcend problems and find pleasure and joy in just being still, silent and breathing.

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