I believe that on some level everyone struggles with mental health. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It is a component of life that fluctuates due to changing circumstances.

Well-being is about balancing our feelings of anxiety, stress, sadness, hopelessness, and/or fear with positive emotions such as confidence, happiness, joy, and love. Learning how to balance emotions is all part of transforming our mental health.

Last week at Wilfrid Laurier University, I attended several of the free events hosted by the Student Wellness Centre for “Thrive Week.” This weeklong event series focused on building healthy minds of the students on campus. I attended yoga, a free exercise class, and a mindfulness workshop.

The “Cultivating Calm Mind Workshop” was presented by Mike Masse, a holistic therapist who specializes in mindfulness workshops for a variety of populations. He was personable, comedic, and influential. He presented about what it means to be “mindful”, and also provided practical techniques for students to understand how to be aware and mindful on a daily basis.

Attending the workshop inspired the following words & wisdom.

Wisdom #1: Finding Balance.

Life is about finding that perfect balance between mind, body, and spirit. Out of the three connections I believe that the mind is the hardest to control. We have to actively work at being mindful and aware of the thoughts that enter and exit out of our minds on a daily basis. It is important to incorporate positive activities into our daily schedules in order to stay balanced. For example, eating healthy, going for a walk, getting a full night sleep, talking to friends, getting exercise, meditation, yoga, praying, breathing etc. etc.

Wisdom #2: Be Present.

Our thoughts will drift to past experiences, or future expectations. The reason we develop anxiety, stress or depression is because we allow for our mind to sit in the past or future. We have to be present! The next time you find your mind drifting, try to bring it back to the present by focusing on the task in front of you. Or also, you can try choosing an item in the room to describe, which is a quick trick to stop thinking about the future stress by focusing on a present item. Being mindful helps us to reduce the stress and anxiety in our life. It helps us to THRIVE.

Wisdom #3: Actively controlling our thoughts.

Our mind is a powerful tool with the ability to negatively affect our well-being if we allow for it to… key words “if we allow for it to.” The mind can also positively affect our well-being, however, that requires work and we often give up because we want a “quick fix” to being happy. A trick that I use to stay happy is that for every negative thought I counter it with a positive thought. That way the last thought in my mind was a positive one. When a negative thought appears in your mind you have the option to either a) acknowledge it and fixate on it, or b) acknowledge it and let it pass…. LET IT PASS! By controlling our minds we have the ability to let thoughts come in and out.

If you want to learn more about anything above please comment. Also comment and let me know how YOU practice being mindful!

If you practice being mindful, aware, and balancing your life then you will be another step closer to living your life everyday!

-Liv 🙂