When you think about healthcare what do you think about it?

Well, it should be caring for the Body & Mind! From the moment we are born we begin to experience and are taught the importance of taking care of our body and our physical health. We get checkups, we get treated when we are sick, fix things when they are broken. We learn that taking care of our bodies is critical to living a long and healthy life.

The truth is that is only half of the human experience.

Why is it when we talk about Mental Health do people shy away, and fear the concept of therapy or treatment? That is because we don't learn from birth that mental fitness is critical to a quality healthy life. We fear people will think we are crazy or insane. For most of us, the mind is a mysterious thing and we think when we struggle with things like emotions, learning, impulses, and relationships it is about fault or weakness. It is not.

We get little information about mental health and mental fitness. We don't learn to spot issues. We have no understanding of how treatment can resolve issues, reduce struggles and turn weaknesses into strengths.

This is what Mental Health should be about. Caring for our mind, emotions, and mental readiness as we would our body. The mind is a physical organ. It uses chemical reactions to function. Sometimes stress and pressures in life can upset that balance. That can cause depression, mood swings, and anger. Therapy can help you identify the signals, give you the tools to head it off, and reduce the side effects of poor mental fitness.

Healthcare needs to change and how we think about it should too. Healthcare is about taking care of the mind and body. We should think about our mental health no differently than we think about our physical health.

We like to talk about Mental Fitness.

We should learn how to care for our mind, our emotions, and relationships as critical elements of our healthcare. Early detection, building good habits, how to encourage positive behaviors and how to detect issues before they become destructive to self or relationships.

Strengthening our mind and body leads to preventing mental health issues. The path to mental fitness should begin the same way we manage our physical health, through checkups, early detection, and healthy habits that lead to mental strength and the tools to manage the challenges we face in everyday life.