Mental Health Monday - 06.27.22

Good stress and bad stress.

We notice one and tend to deny the other. I don't think that many of us realize that it is not our overabundance of bad stress that is killing us, but instead, it is the lack of good stress.

We are complex machines. We are built to do work. To toil and create, and fight, and build and strain under immeasurable burdens.

Human beings can change the landscape. Sure, we built the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens, Machu Picchu, and the Great Wall, but we have also built roads through mountains, turned huge swaths of  land into agriculture to feed billions, and have traveled off world to the moon.

We did these things by taking on the hardest tasks imaginable. We cannot accomplish great things from the couch.

But it's not about changing the face of the world, what about just being a better person for ourselves, and for our loved ones? Physical activity builds neuro pathways that create healthy networks to produce dopamine and regulate hormones production. Being outside is shown to help the body to do the same. For 2 years, many if us became slaves to the remote and the food delivery service, living like rats in a cage. Bad stress.

Well, just because we can live that way, should we? No. Of course not. We know it's not healthy and we know what is good for us.

Try being outside and moving around. Walk, run, bike. Garden, play a sport, or play a game. Have fun. Sweat. Smile. Feel the sun on your skin and get your heart rate up. We don't all need to run marathons, but we all do better when we live better and feel better.

Our mental health is directly tied to our physical health and neither of those are nurtured in the glow of the digital image.

Go outside. Have fun. Smile a bit.

Good stress.

It helps.

Have a great week!

Much Love!

-DJR-