What is the "goal" of mental health?

A misconception I've often heard about mental health is that our "goal" is to become totally self-aware, and by doing so, become the master of all that happens in the unconscious brain. This sort of amounts to a triumph of logic over feelings, which can, after all, feel like jack-in-the-boxes waiting to sabotage our best-laid plans. It can feel invigorating at first, but if not balanced with gentle allowing of the inner self, momentum can gets lost in a viscous cycle of of self-critique and backsliding.

This is one end of a spectrum, a belief held by people who tend to live more in their feelings and impulses. There is nothing inherently wrong with this way of being. The opposite belief, held by more logical people, is that mental health lies in "not over-thinking everything". But it's easy to see how the extreme of either one could be disastrous, as leading too much with the head can lead to repression of natural and valid feelings, and leading only with feelings can lead to carelessness.

The answer isn't in becoming fully, logically conscious of EVERYTHING. No matter how troublesome or sneaky feelings can be, they still serve a purpose. Any prolonged attempt to muzzle our feelings before they're out of the gate, will lead to them becoming even more insistent on bursting forth, this time heedless of warnings. The answer lies in letting our logical and feeling sides become friends. Letting that sneaky, often-selfish lower brain come out and have tea with the protective, logical side, and letting that logical side see that feelings aren't really as scruffy or incorrigible as once thought. Feelings actually have value that the thinking brain could never come up with on its own, but they are not the ultimate truth in life.

Mindfulness is a great way to introduce these sides to each other. Through things like meditation and yoga, you can develop a non-judgmental awareness of your "lower", reactive, intuitive self, and sense it as neither good nor bad, but simply there. Eventually, the higher brain can learn to trust feelings and allow them to shine, and the lower brain can learn to trust logic to balance raw energy with wise restraint. There is a way to be whole.

For information on therapy using mindfulness and yoga, email me at andreabussinger81@gmail.com.