by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: May 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 22, 2007

There are different definitions of mental health that can be found in the dictionary and other sources. These do not necessarily tell us what mental health consists of as a daily experience in our lives. It is important to note that mental health is not something that exists in a vacuum. Mental health cannot be separated from emotional health. These cannot be separated from spiritual health. Even physical health and mental health are closely intertwined. While it's possible to be mentally healthy while being physically ill, it can be very difficult.

The current understanding of the mind-body relationship, especially since the scientific introduction of psychoneuroimmunology, demonstrates that every thought affects our body and our emotions. Every emotion or experience affects our body and mind. Our daily life experience is the totality of our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual encounters.

Our mental health or lack of it is not simply the sum total of our daily experiences, however. It is our response to our daily experiences that determines our level of mental health. Two individuals can have exactly the same "negative" experience, but the mentally healthy individual will not respond to or be affected by that experience in the same way as the mentally unhealthy individual.

The reason we have therapy and other life-enhancing treatments and methodologies, is that many of us don't know why we have not achieved full mental health. Something is not working in our lives or many things are not working and we don't know why. Because we carry a lot of garbage from our past, and much of this is unconscious, it becomes difficult to understand why we feel anxious, depressed, or angry much of the time.

I believe that mental health is our natural state but it can require some honest self-searching in order to remove those obstacles that we experience. Real mental health is difficult to achieve when our thinking, feeling, behavior, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations are still based on experiences from the past. Until we heal the past, in whatever way works for us, it will continue to determine the present for us.

Ancient wisdom tells us that the way to be mentally healthy (or happy) is to live in the present. It can be said that the past no longer exists except as we keep it alive in our thoughts, feelings, and memories. We don't need to forget the past, but we can remove its emotional hold on us and allow ourselves to enjoy the present as it unfolds.

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