Mental HealthWe have not figured out the human brain and how it affects mental health. We can replace hips and hearts but we cannot fix the brain. We can tune it up and condition it to a degree but we cannot fix it. We don’t even know what is wrong with it! If all of our brains were the same we would all behave the same; wouldn’t we? We all have the basic structure to run but some of us run world record times - most of us do not. Our mental health is similar.
We all have the opportunity to grow by improving or changing our emotional and mental state of being. Our lifestyle will impact how we feel emotionally. Mental health is like electricity. Nobody really knows what it is, but we do know how it behaves. For example, we know that a sad movie will invoke sadness and tears in most people - we do not know how to invoke that same sadness without a stimuli. When we are "out of shape" mentally we call it mental illness. That sucks! - but that is what we have to deal with. Getting over the stigma of mental illness is one of our greatest fitness challenges. Humans wear broken bones like a badge of courage, yet mental illness is looked upon with disdain. When we have a broken bone we get down to the doc to get it fixed and we tell everyone about it. When we cannot tell the difference between happy and sad we live a miserable life and won't go for help. The definition of insanity is to repeat - over and over again - the same action expecting a different result. A gambler continually puts coins into a slot machine; a smoker continues to smoke; we continue to drink and feel hung over. We are all insane, to some degree, from time to time.
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Our fitness and well being is closely tied to our emotional state. Our emotions are tied to our brain – right? Some would say that our emotions are tied to our heart (did you see the Wizard of Oz?) 