Piece of mind or Peace of mind? How to Improve your Mental Health.
Someone once said if you keep giving people a piece of your mind, how much of your mind would you have left?
Of course we all want our minds intact, therefore it is important we develop a peace of mind instead. So just how can we do this?
#1 Seeing the good always in others
It is oh so easy to jump into conclusions about people’s motives. To jump to our own self-righteous conclusions. To become mind readers of people’s intentions.
Often we are judging people by our own standards or by our own habits. Let me give an example.
You send a WhatsApp message to a friend. You not only see the two ticks indicating that the message has been delivered. You also see the colour of the ticks is blue meaning they have jolly well read the text.
Your eyes venture to the top of your phone screen hoping to see typing…. All you see is Online. You wait a few minutes wondering why the person is not responding. Eventually the Online status becomes Last seen 11:16. That was four minutes ago!
Your anger is now on the slow cooker. A few hours later, you will be ready to dish it out. Your friend has not had the common courtesy to respond to your message.
Those few hours do eventually go past. And still no response.
Conclusion: She is ignoring me!
Why have you jumped to that conclusion? Because sometimes you do the same when you ignore a message! Or maybe let’s just say you have an interesting imagination (see, I am seeing the good in you!). Why can you not THINK instead perhaps your friend was busy at the time? And if after several hours later or even a day later, and they still have not responded, why not conclude perhaps they just forgot that they had a message that needed replying?
We have to learn to make allowances for other people’s actions. We have to think well of others. Why think certain people do not like you? Nice you? Why should they not like you? Oh, you think they are jealous of you because you have just bought a new car, right?
For your peace of mind, is it not easy to conclude that everyone likes you? OK, you say even with Jesus, not everyone liked Him. OK, He did not get all hot and bothered about it. You are stressing about it.
Rather than stress about Jane, Lisa and Jon do not like you, cool down and think the best of you. It will also alter you relate to them. Your positive confessions and affirmations concerning them will start changing how they react towards you.
##2 Recognize everyone is different
This follows from the point above. Stop being critical of others. We are all different. We are all at different stages in life. We all have different purposes. The fact that someone did something that you would not have even dreamt of, does not mean you should get all into a twist about it.
Instead practise tolerance. Dare to celebrate their differences.
If what they do is wrong, see that they can change. Again it is all about seeing the best in others. If you can change, what makes you think that someone else cannot change?
I can tell you, you would be surprised at the people who change… Often, people who others deem as very wicked are the ones that do change. It is the so-called ‘self-righteous, never put a foot wrong’ people that are very hard to change.
##3 Programme yourself positively
Spend more time on the good news than dwelling on the bad.
There are 99 things wrong with your company but 1 thing that you like. Focus on the 1 thing. The 99 are keeping you awake and unhappy. The only one thing may be just the fact that you have a j-o-b and can pay the bill.
I can tell you that one positive thing is a whole lot better than the 99 awful things if you were to be unemployed tomorrow. The fact that you have ‘annoying’ colleagues or an unreasonable boss would pale in comparison.
Celebrate the good. It is said that grateful people attract more good things. So look out for the good things. Make an effort to find them. The world may be wicked and full of terror, but how about all the other nice things that you could enjoy?
Bad news invokes negative reactions. And does not change the situation. So choose to be positive minded and at peace instead.
##4 Have a peace of mind with God
A World War II chaplain said that there are no atheists in foxholes. Deep down everyone believes in God. Maybe you are reading this and say NO, I DON’T!
The deep truth is we all do. The Bible says that God has put eternity in our hearts. We are eternity driven. And to be eternity driven means we know or maybe ponder often as to whether it all ends here on this earth? We all believe in something. We believe there is life in other planets. I often believe that life in the other planets are the heavens, the after life.
It is not possible to not believe in anything…
To have a peace of mind, the Bible promises us a peace called Shalom. It means peace with prosperity. Prosperity here goes beyond riches but rather suggests a completeness. A wholeness. Having a peace of mind with God means knowing that God has your back. So no matter the storms that life brings, you are at peace knowing that even though you walk through the shadow of death, He is with you.
Because you realize that after all it was just a SHADOW!
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