Welcome to The Harmonious Mind,
A time to slow down and calm your nervous system.
I'm Tanya McIntyre,
Your mindfulness mentor.
The Harmonious Mind offers a series of short vignettes to gently guide you to a more balanced life of peace and serenity.
Listen to this the way you would listen to music,
With an open mind and curiosity.
There's nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
Just relax.
Today we'll explore practicing the Ps to provide better mental health.
We're all different people,
And we need different tools to get the results we want at different times in our life.
There are countless tools to choose from.
The key,
K-E-Y,
Is to keep educating yourself,
Find the ones that work for you,
And then do more of that consistently and persistently.
I think there can be three simple solutions to every problem.
We can 1.
Accept it,
2.
Change it,
Or 3.
Leave it.
If we can't accept it,
We can potentially change it.
If we can't change it,
We can choose to leave it.
Yes,
It may be simple,
But it's definitely not easy.
But here are a few steps that might be able to help.
The first one is to practice the Ps.
Knowledge teaches us what to do,
And practice teaches us how to do it.
If we want to learn how to do anything,
Especially building new healthy habits,
It takes patience,
Practice,
And persistence.
Remember that our direction is more important than our speed.
Be gentle with yourself,
But be persistent.
The next step is forgiveness.
When I managed to cross the bridge to accept an apology never received,
And forgive someone who wasn't sorry,
I was suddenly free.
It was life transformational for me.
The next step,
Self-care.
This was a concept that really took some time for me.
I was brought up to believe that putting my needs above others' wants was a selfish act.
I now believe that it's imperative for me to practice that airplane analogy.
When we're flying in that metal tube and the cabin pressure changes,
The oxygen mask falls down from the ceiling in front of us.
And the instruction is very clear.
We have to put that mask on ourselves first.
Even if a child is sitting beside us,
We can't help anyone until we first help ourselves.
It's self-care.
It's not selfish.
The next step is routine.
A structured schedule of sleeping,
Eating,
And exercising can provide a sense of order and accomplishment.
And the final step may be the hardest step to take.
It's accepting life on life's terms.
Accepting people as they are.
And accepting ourselves as fallible humans.
It's a perfect recipe to resolve most of life's adversities and mental health conditions.
Unconditional acceptance.
I know we have lots of conditional acceptance in life,
But we have to cross that bridge to reach unconditional acceptance for ourselves,
For others,
And for life.
When I learned how to accept my reality and the emotions that came with that reality,
I finally managed to repair my brain,
Build my resilience,
And start liking myself enough to start caring for myself.
And when I started to care for myself,
I was finally able to care for others and care about life.
Symptoms of anxiety and depression are no longer debilitating for me and no longer require pharmaceuticals.
Success doesn't take long.
It takes a persistent willingness to exert consistent efforts to help ourselves.
Practice the Ps for better mental health.
Practice,
Patience,
And persistence will get you where you want to be.
Thank you so much for being here with me.
I hope these insights offer you some comfort and serenity.
Please join me for upcoming explorations of the harmonious mind.
Until then,
May your coffee,
Your heart,
And your patience be strong.
I'm Tanya McIntyre,
Your Mindfulness Mentor.
May the force of mindfulness be with you always.
And remember,
YOU are the force.
