10 Reasons Why You Should Invest In Your Mental Health

The benefits of taking care of our minds may seem inherent to taking care of your overall health, but there is still a resistance to taking the steps to improved mental care. Allow me to review ten sound reasons why you should invest the time, energy and resources into your mental health.

1. Your brain is ever-changing.

The term for this is brain plasticity, meaning, the overall adaptability of the brain to trauma and life changes. We all experience trauma and change in life. Especially at early ages, traumatic encounters can have a more significant impact on brain growth and plasticity. It is shown that infants that witness the same amount of conflict in the home as their older siblings develop and grow up to have more setbacks. However, the younger you are doesn’t dictate the ability to heal. Just like those who have had strokes in later years are able to recuperate their cognitive capacities in many cases, the sooner the help in response to the brain damage, the better the chance for recovery.

In caring for your mental health and conditioning it to be more resilient, your brain still has the capacity and potential to change and grow as you age. You may have heard it said “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but, in caring for your mind and it’s ability to improve and adapt to stressors, like they say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

2. Effects of childhood PTSD and trauma can linger.

Think about how life events at a young age shape and mold your character. The reason you have fears. The reasons you avoid new events or change in general. Something happened to you at a young age that, over time, has been embedded and you have either repressed, ignored, or faught with it internally, and silently. That has in turn likely affected your development in personality, or personal character, and it has created unhealthy connections in the brain that leave unhealthy ways of dealing with them.  PTSD and similar unresolved brain trauma are also the reason why so many abused become abusers, and why hurting people hurt themselves and others.

Christian psychotherapy is one way you can retrain your brain to process past traumas and crises. Resolving those past issues and hurts through godly counseling can help you set yourself free with much needed salve to deep soul scars.

3. Ever-increasing social technology.

Social media and technology usage in this day and age is growing at a hyperbolic rate. In my opinion, as rates of devices and screen usage increase, attention spans and abilities to comprehend layered abstract complexities decrease. Your mind is wired for not just comprehending, but experiencing layers of interpersonal connection and meaningful community. With the rise of technological babysitting “smart” toys, they are dumbing down and dimming the light on cognitive-behavioral (and intellectual) capacities. I believe the ability for our younger generations to relate to others is become shallower and narrower, resulting in social-ineptitude, slowing the recognition of social cues, and hampering the ability to mature socially.

Taking a break from all the internet offers is good for everyone. “Everything in moderation,” is something my grandma says. Frequenting your phone less and fighting those urges to check your notifications may be a beneficial thing. Make time for the real messages in life – God’s word, and other people in face-to-face conversation.

4. Suicide rates are on the rise.

Hopefully you aren’t foreign to the news of suicide rates increasing . Life is too precious to end prematurely, but people commit suicide for various reasons. To me, it appears that there may be a correlation with celebrities taking their lives, the media propagating stories about it (ie. “13 Reasons Why”) and our society in general with underlying tones of little respect of life (ease of access and wide acceptance of abortion, the tearing down of traditional family structure, the erasing of our country’s moral standards).

Spiritually speaking, America has seen brighter days when God’s truth was marching on. Nowadays, “truth” is a relative term, where Individuality reigns, and collective, moral absolutes are the thing of yesteryears. So what do suicide rates have to do with my personal mental health? I’ll give you a big hint: our Selfie-istic culture has something to do with it. You must understand the importance of Absolute Truth in relation to the human right to life, as your purpose and reason for living has to hold against the world’s mainstream current of Self-worship. This rising tide fights to undermine God’s holy value on Life itself, and nowadays you have to have a better reason to live than the answer the world gives.

5. The past can tangle our present and blur our future.

Have you ever had flashbacks or recordings replay the negative or undesirable thoughts that create guilty feelings or shameful condemnations? What struggles in your past that you haven’t faced yet will ever be a bother or in some way an obstacle if you don’t address them. They cause a side-tracked vision and can blindside you in some cases, showing up in everyday conversations, occasional Freudian slips, and unconscious motives. The progression of these notions turn into fast-held beliefs that shape your thinking and therefore your expectations of life, and aptitude for future productivity and pathways.

It’s always a good idea to learn ways to stop negative self-talk and improve positive self-talk and self-image. God lovingly and thoughtfully created you, and you were worth dying for to Him. Learning to accept God’s way of seeing you is a step toward a healthier mindset to be reminded of daily.

6. God encourages Christians to renew their mind.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:2, ESV

Not only is investing in your mental health a good idea, the Bible encourages Believers to think about “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise…”(Philippians 4:8, ESV) How else can you be rid of worldly thinking and free from the weeds that choke out the gospel in your heart and mind?

7. Unhealthy habits can become dangerous hangups.

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:8, ESV

Sure, replaying or remembering a negative memory can seem as harmless as picking a scab. The problem with that is that negative habits inevitably become hangups, which become lifestyles. My college mentor taught me, “A thought sown reaps an action, an action sown reaps a habit, a habit sown reaps a lifestyle, that inevitably ends in life or death.”

This is true of mindless and seemingly innocent thoughts that turn into reckless and endangering behaviors. Think about how adultery begins. It only takes a friendship to lead to an affair. It’s always good to check in with a counselor or godly friend or mentor on a regular basis to give you a reality check. Accountability and honest self-examination will align your thoughts and heart to repent of sin and turn to ask for forgiveness, from yourself, others and God, before the fault lines get a chance to turn into quakes.

8. Deep-seeded negative feelings are toxic.

The bitterness of a hurting heart can be volatile. When forgiveness is withheld, the offended person is hurt the most. This can turn into a poisonous cancer that spreads through their heart into a bitter attitude about life in general. It’s not that hard to happen, just think of the meanest person you know. What happened to them and how they chose to respond equal their heart’s posture right now.

Asking for God’s forgiveness and seeing an unbiased third party can remind one of the benefits and reality that mercy and grace bring. On a personal level, this is how healing can spread, to combat the disease of sin in an unforgiving heart.

9. Understanding feelings/thoughts/behaviors is crucial.

Within psychotherapy, certain behaviors are examined and seen in a different perspective when challenged by a mental health professional. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) uses a reframing approach between the counselor and client, to help the client examine and question their thinking and restructure their thoughts to healthier, more stable and in a lot of cases, more realistic ways of thinking. To understand your thoughts-feelings-behaviors and how they are connected is to bring insight into your conscience and bring more sense of why to your perspective on life itself.

10. Resolving internal conflict is healthy.

Meaningful resolution within yourself about inner-conflicting desires, feelings and thoughts can enlighten and straighten your path. Bringing God’s biblical truths, precepts and principles to your conflicts can be a light to show you the way to healthy, God-honoring patterns of living.

With mental health, expressing ones inner-burdens and conflicts through any avenue that releases those negative energies and lifts your eyes to the Lord gives exponential benefits, immediately, and in time. Some examples of self-expression can be personal prayer, corporate prayer, journaling, singing, meeting with a counselor, pastor or brother or sister in Christ, or any other avenue that grants a release of the inner turmoil.