#praticalphilosophy #mentalhealth #selfhelp #wellbeing
It is everywhere on social media: recipes for distressing, for changing thoughts patterns, new ways for well-being, for longtime happiness, for balance. Although these new ideas and tips are crucial for our daily lives – we are all aware of the unbearable stress that we go through and its effect on our mental and physical health – most of those given tips are not as easy to apply as they sound. What they lack in pointing out is the importance of intentions. If the goal is to be healthier, then one must move with intentions, think with intentions and eat with intentions. The latter only comes from an inner will to change; otherwise all tips won’t work, no matter how brilliant they are. Once the inner will and intentions are “activated”, I personally found that summer is the perfect period to try new things and play around with our own thoughts to ditch the old and create a new life.
Summer vacations are all about relaxing for some, moving and travelling for others, discovering new places and meeting new people. More interesting would be meeting new cultures. Nothing compete an eye-opening discussion about everything and nothing, while perspectives on life cross each other’s. Summer is the opportunity to get us thinking outside the box, and play like children do – a wink to Nietzsche’s ubermensch theory, only achieved by “becoming who you are”, that means becoming a child again, joyful and curious. Here are ways to hit the “refresh button” of your mind:
1- Meet new people, the more different, the better. It will widen your thoughts horizon and helps you to make more connections.
2- Meet foreigners. It is always a cultural choc and a mind stimulating exercise to discuss everything, from food, to clothes, to habits, to big ideas.
3- Read a book. Sometimes, nothing matters anymore in presence of a good captivating book. It is a way to unwind and distress and to make a person smarter
4- Visit new places, even in one’s own country. This is a new experience (good or bad) every time it happens. Whether it is the beach, a new pub or a restaurant, a new club, a site seeing, you name it! Enjoy it and come out of it more mature.
5- Go to a museum. A new museum or an old new. Archeology, ancestry, history made us what we are today. It is obviously a way to learn something new.
6- Meditate. This is a higher discipline and a lot of people think that, by closing their eyes and think, they are in meditation. But no, they are not. The 2 keys to meditation are breathing control and concentration. One needs a coach or at least a good book to train them to meditate.
7- Long walks, preferably in nature but if not, then everywhere would be fine.
8- Yoga, to get one conscious and in connection with their body and mind.
9- DIY: painting, knitting, crafting, travel journal etc. anything that makes hands and mind work together to create something new and tangible.
10- Love: your family, your lover, your friends, your work, your pet etc. only love can make a person free and happy.
Here are to me the 10 tips on becoming happier in our skin and around others. Trying to include one of them in a daily routing will help a lot. They are not difficult to achieve but always do it with intentions. You would be surprised on how much you can achieve when you put your heart and your mind to it, in other words, your intentions.
            (If anyone can help me please with the name of the painter?)
