Why you need mental hygiene & how to cultivate it!
You might not have heard the term mental hygiene before. But you’re probably familiar with the idea of personal hygiene. Or even sleep hygiene.
Just like both of those, good mental hygiene is a variety of practices and habits necessary for good health.
But unlike physical and sleep hygiene which often leave visible markers if we aren’t following them (think greasy hair and bags under your eyes), mental hygiene brings a focused awareness to our habits and practices in order to bring about a peaceful and easy state of mind.
You’ve probably heard the saying “we are what we eat”. Consumption isn’t just the physical act of eating food, it’s also the intake of the world around you. This includes the books you read, tv and movies you watch, social media and news feeds you follow, and more.
Mental hygiene is about ensuring that what you consume is as healthy for your mind as the food you consume is for your body.
Why do you need mental hygiene?
To hone your mental hygiene you need to pay attention to what you consume both in terms of content and quantity.
When I watch a violent or suspenseful television show or movie, I can feel my body tense up. There’s an array of research which indicates on the physiological level we, as humans, fall somewhere between being highly influenced by media to being unable to distinguish between what is real and what is imaginary.
Experiencing stressful situations in real life triggers a fight, flight or freeze sympathetic nervous system response. When your mind is unsure if what you’re watching is reality or fiction, it will respond by erring on the side of protecting you, triggering a stress response and preparing your body for a conflict.
When our sympathetic nervous system is continuously triggered it results in a number of detrimental effects mentally, emotionally and physically. I cover the impact this can have on your life here. In a nutshell – you’re less productive, more stressed, and more likely to get sick and generally feel unhealthy.
It’s not just what but also how much you consume
Beyond content mental hygiene is also the quantity we consume. When we’re bombarded 24/7 with news, updates on our social media feeds, background noise of our own making (television and radio), and the background noise of the cities we live in, our minds never find a quiet place to rest.
In Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil reminds us that silence “fosters mindfulness and all the mental and emotional benefits of bringing full conscious awareness to the present moment”.
When we’re constantly surrounded by noise, our mind doesn’t have to focus inward as there’s always something outward to pay attention to. However, it’s in the silence that we’re able to become introspective, to process and to grow.
Do you practice Mental Hygiene?
Take the quiz and get your mental & emotional hygiene score PLUS the Ultimate Checklist to create a great mental & emotional hygiene routine in your life!
We are what we consume
Think about how you feel if you grab a bag of food at the drive-thru on your way home. Frequently these meals are loaded with salt, saturated fat and calories (often more than the daily recommendation). If you’re like me, you feel a little ill after this type of meal.
Now think about how you feel if your meal is instead a bowl of fresh, organic vegetables, whole grains, a moderate amount of healthy fats, and lean protein. After a meal like this, I feel light but satisfied.
Does this photo bring a smile to your face?
What about your mental consumption?
If what you’re reading, watching or listening to is angry, violent, and stressful, is it any wonder you feel anxious and stressed?
What if instead you’re watching videos of adorable cats/dogs/babies (pick your favorite) doing cute things. I bet you’re still smiling a few minutes after watching that content!
What does your personal mental hygiene look like?
If you want a quick answer, hop over here and take the Mental & Emotional Hygiene Quiz – in just seven questions, find out how your mental hygiene stacks up!
Ready to dive into a deeper examination of your mental hygiene?
Mental Hygiene & Music
Dr. Andrew Weil in Spontaneous Happiness suggests noticing “how different kinds of music make you feel. Music powerfully affects the brain and mind. It can make us calm or excited, can stir us to action or paralyze us with fear.”
Try this experiment, pull up your Pandora or Spotify account. Listen to a station for five minutes. Then turn off the music, write down the name of the station (or genre of music) and a few lines about how you’re feeling after listening to it. Repeat this process with several stations.
This information can help you decide what music to put on during different situations in your life. If you’re feeling anxious, choose a station you find calming. Music that gets you moving – use that to fuel you during your time in the gym. Something ramps up your anxiety, maybe avoid that station for a while.
A Mental Hygiene Audit
Try a similar exercise with television shows and movies, talk radio, your social media feeds, your news feed, and any other sources from which you mentally consume.
Notice what you’re feeling in your body – both while listening and after the media consumption. Are you tense or relaxed, are your shoulders hunched up and your teeth gritted, or are you sitting easily in your chair? Is your mind spinning, has your inner mean girl started to chatter, or are you calm and at ease?
Write down your responses (loving or otherwise) to each form of media. Use this information as you cultivate a mental hygiene practice, deciding what you want to expose yourself to and limiting or stopping your intake of those things which bring up feelings of stress and anxiety.
This would be a great exercise to do as a complementary tool to a personal energy audit.
For example, I know the news can ramp my anxiety up on the best of days, but I want to be aware of what is happening in the world. As a result, I limit access to my news feed to 15 minutes a day – enough time to get the headlines, not so much I become overwhelmed with the crises of the day.
Do you practice Mental Hygiene?
Take the quiz and get your mental & emotional hygiene score PLUS the Ultimate Checklist to create a great mental & emotional hygiene routine in your life!
Background noise
When we moved from Arizona to Missouri, we went from living in a busy apartment complex to a quiet house on a quiet street (and located in a small city). Suddenly, not only was it dark at night, it was also quiet. We can’t hear the neighbor’s television or music, there are no kids out late playing a few yards from our bedroom window, the traffic becomes non-existent at night on our street.
I noticed the impact on Lada (my cat if you haven’t met her in real life or on Instagram) before I became aware of it in myself. Suddenly she was more relaxed. As a cat who’s afraid of anyone and anything new, she made the transition to the new home quickly. She began sleeping more soundly than she did in Arizona, whereas before the move she would wake at the slightest noise or movement.
Then one day I found myself pausing in the midst of unpacking the moving boxes and getting the house put together. And I realized it was quiet. Really quiet. I could hear birds singing and the wind rustling the trees outside. I could sit in peaceful quiet and just breathe, bringing relaxation to my whole body, letting go of a tension I didn’t even realize I’d been holding for a while.
The silence brought me back to my childhood, growing up in a rural setting where background noise was the sound of birds singing, rain on the roof, wind in the trees and crickets chirping.
I’m not saying you need to move to the country in order to get a moment of quiet, although it does work, there are ways to find quiet in your current life.
Cultivating silence
First, please consider the background noise in your life – do you leave the television and radio on all the time? Do you need the sound of the tv to fall asleep? This noise gives your brain something to think about – it keeps the monkey mind busy, but it never gives you a quiet moment to process and to be still with your thoughts.
For many people, silence can be uncomfortable. It’s in the silence that you’re alone with yourself. And spending quality time with yourself requires really looking at who you are. If you’re new to a practice of mindfulness, this may be a very unsettling feeling. I encourage you to try taking baby steps toward cultivating silence.
You don’t need to go so far as to turn your tv into a fish tank, try just turning it off for a few minutes!
Try turning off the television and radio for five minutes. Sit quietly and just pay attention to your breath, don’t try to control it, just be aware of the fact that you are breathing in and out.
If this feels comfortable, try another five minutes. But if you struggle with sitting in silence for five minutes, try just one minute and build from there. Or try to turn off the radio and television while cooking dinner, focus on the food you’re preparing, be totally present in each step of the cooking process.
The noise you can’t control
If the world outside your home, the world over which you have no control is noisy, then seek out ways to bring quiet to that world. For years, Adam and I have slept with a small (but powerful) fan in the bedroom. We’ve recently upgraded to a white noise machine. Both do the job of helping to drown out any outside noises at night.
You can also try noise cancelling headphones, without playing anything through them, simply utilizing the noise cancelling function, they will help to envelop you in a world of silence.
Finding ease in the discomfort
If you find it difficult and uncomfortable to sit in silence, I encourage you to combine your practice of cultivating silence with one of cultivating mindfulness.
Mindfulness exercises can help you find more ease and comfort when left alone with yourself. I have several articles which cover this topic as well as breathwork exercises which will also help you find ease in the silence. Get started here.
If you’re really struggling with absolute silence, try bringing your attention to those sources of consumption which you found nourishing and relaxing in the journaling exercise above. In Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Weil also suggests “sounds of nature, such as wind blowing through trees and water running over rocks, are complex and may ‘nourish’ the brain in some way”. Try prioritizing those noises you find calming, or add a nature sounds station to your Pandora or Spotify account for your background noise.
Please know you’re not alone in struggling to find the ease in the silence. However, I’ve heard from numerous people that once they’re able to find that ease in sitting with themselves, it was well worth the journey.
I want to leave you with words from Dr. Andrew Weil in Spontaneous Happiness, “The challenge is to exercise conscious control over what you pay attention to. The world is both wonderful and terrible, beautiful and ugly. At any moment one can choose to focus on the positive or negative aspects of reality. Without denying the negative, it is possible to practice focusing more on the positive.”
