How Safe Is Your Mental Diet?

It’s that time of year again in America. For those that celebrate, enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday! It’s kind of ironic that the thought to write this post came at this time of year. Keep reading, it’ll make more sense as we go along.

In this week’s post I wanted to discuss a serious subject because with all the consulting and counseling I do I’m starting to see a disturbing pattern.

It’s no secret that human beings fear the unknown to a certain degree, it’s also no secret people move away from things they fear. At the most basic level, according to psychology and biology, this is a survival instinct. Anything that threatens the organism, you, is either conquered (fight) or avoided (flight).

So here’s the problem I’m discovering. People are afraid and moving away from the wrong things – things that could benefit them in the long-run. Meanwhile they are fighting and moving toward things that won’t benefit them in the long-run.

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I don’t teach diet and nutrition, but you all are very aware that what you eat sustains your physical body. Food is taken in, separated, broken down and the nutrients and vitamins go where they need to go, to do what they need to do.

A good diet has been proven to improve overall energy, mental alertness, reasoning faculties and of course will help prolong your life. A bad diet can literally put you on a path to the grave.

But (and yes, there is a but), we are more than just a physical body, we also have a mind. I’m not talking just about the organ of the brain itself, but also our ability to think, imagine, dream and reason.

Just like your physical body, your brain takes in information. Your mind however separates it, breaks it down and most of it can be accessed at any time.

Bad physical diet leads to poor physical health. A bad mental diet leads to poor mental health. A core of fear surrounded by dis-empowering thoughts. This can lead to low self-esteem and a lack of confidence among other things. We naturally move away from things we fear, and when you put no effort in, nothing comes back – you can’t give what you don’t have.

Some people would call this state of perpetual fear a mental death. It’s the constant hesitation and second-guessing yourself which leads to never doing anything significant in your life. You don’t live life; life lives you so to speak.

Both a proper physical and mental diet is important. What you feed your mind determines what you get out of life. There are 3 main reasons for that.

(1) People act and speak the way they think

(2) People accept what they expect or feel they deserve

(3) When you have little knowledge of something, you can be easily mislead by those that do

The question is then, what are you feeding your mind? Because when you take a step back and look at the big picture you are mostly limited by yourself – you and you alone. You can be your own best friend and your own worst enemy.

If you think you can’t do something, you’re right – you can’t! But when you think you can do something, you’re also right – you can!

There is a power to what we think. It can propel us forward (fight) or cause us to retreat and hide (flight). But what if that power is used incorrectly? Meaning, you prevent yourself from securing benefits and advantages for yourself. Running away from things because they appear uncomfortable on the surface but could be just what you need underneath.

It still amazes me; people usually don’t start fighting until shit has already hit the fan – that’s usually an uphill battle. It’s winnable of course but why start fighting at the last minute for what you DON’T want to happen? Why not fight from the beginning with what you DO want to happen?

Human beings might not do what it takes to win, but they don’t want to lose. Peep Game.

So what are you feeding your mind? What are you taking in hours and hours a day? Social media, television, radio, music, work? Other people’s dramas, dreams, worries or doubts? Because all this information is taken in, broken down and used by your mind just like the body takes in, breaks down and uses food. It literally shapes the way you think and what you think determines what you do (or don’t do) and what you do (or don’t do) determines what you get out of life.

Watch that diet! Think about your mental fitness. Until next time…

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