The perception of mental health has been through many iterations in its time, starting from simply a dismissal of the fact it even exists, to now being socially accepted as an issue that 1 in 5 of the world’s children and adolescence have a mental disorder.

It would seem we as a society view our mental health as a separate entity from our body’s health as if the two are somehow not intrinsically interconnected. So, we spend vast amounts of time and money getting our bodies to peak perfection but to our detriment forget to invest in our minds. The entity that keeps us functioning over the course of our life. The engine that keeps us alive is left behind, expected to naturally catch up and continue to function at the highest level despite being on the backfoot.

So if mental health is such a problem why don’t we invest in it?

The problem arises from the fact that we as a society have been wired in a way to see tangible gains, physical successes in the actions we undertake. In school for instance we are taught success looks like a 100% pass mark on a test. However with mental health, this logic does not apply, there are no pass marks for how well your mental health can be, it’s a feeling. An apt metaphor would be to say we forget, no… Neglect, our mental well being.

The improvement in our mental health is respective for each individual, there is no one size fits all, there is no set play for making improvements of one’s state. It’s not as simple as nipping down to our local supermarket to buy an all in one package off the shelf - Buying the latest tech-focused yoga mat or a years subscription to a meditation app will give us a short term mental clarity that we are looking for.

The need to see a tangible improvement from our current state is the flaw in our mindsets.

Investing in our mental health is not about throwing money at the issue nor is it an excuse to be thrown at the ‘solution’ of medications due to the potential deficiencies we may have. Instead, it’s about consciously dealing with the health of our minds. To sit with our thoughts, feelings and actions letting our minds digest the day, so as to understand if there is a necessity to adapt our lifestyles and move forward prospering in the lives that we are manifesting into reality.

What we need to invest in our mental health is time.

Time for ourselves, to understand ourselves. To learn the nuances of how we deal with life and reality. Simply put, we’ve got to invest in the conscious ‘me’ time and not become consumed by the rabbit holes of technology. The short term dopamine and serotonin fixes provide an excuse to escape reality into the ether of the internet, a place where time becomes merely a fragment of our imagination.

Humanity, society and culture still have a long way to go before we realise that our mental health is as important, if not more important than the material things in our lives. The social taboo of being open and honest about our mindsets and feelings, the verbal and mental smoke and mirrors game we play with ourselves, culminating in the man-up attitude that is still perpetuated today is something which categorically should not be passed onto the next generation.

Otherwise, it would seem we are on a trajectory of being the unhappiest society in human history.

Can you put a price on your Mental Health? Let me know in the comments or drop me a message on any of the following social networks. I would love to hear from you! — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube.