Is there a link between courage and mental health?

What is mental health anyway?  Mental health is, at least in part, the result of having the courage to be true to yourself.

What does it mean “To thine  own self be true”?  Let’s take a look.
1.  Being true to yourself means speaking up when necessary or appropriate.

2.  Being true to yourself is choosing only action which allows you to be comfortable in your own skin.

3.  Being true to yourself means knowing your boundaries and defending them when necessary.

4.  Being true to yourself requires integrity: the concept of matching words and deeds.

5.  Being true to yourself means that you take your own mental/emotional “pulse” frequently; you check in with yourself, first, last and always.

Take a moment to think about how you feel when you don’t assert yourself or speak up in behalf of another: when you don’t “use your words” as they say in kindergarten.  If you are being true to yourself, you will notice that you feel guilty, ashamed and angry.

What about not knowing your boundaries and then not defending them?  How do you feel when you don’t follow through?  Guilty, ashamed and angry.

How about when your words don’t match your deeds?  Guilty, ashamed and angry.

And then, there is forgetting to check in with yourself before you say yes, I will, it’s fine, no problem.  Guilty, ashamed and angry.

For most of us, learning to be true to ourselves means finding the courage to move past the fear of rejection by other people.  People pleasing should be listed as a mental disorder in the DSM-IV.  People pleasing seriously hampers your mental (and often physical) health.  Why?  Because you put others opinions, needs, wants before your own.  And you pay a dear price for taking this seemingly easier path.

After all, don’t you count too?  The only person who can really know what you need and make sure that you get what you need is you.

Perhaps it’s time to move your name from the bottom of the list, no matter how uncomfortable you might feel in doing so, and putting yourself at the top.

Join the party of life.  According to Auntie Mame, “Life is a banquet and most poor fools are starving to death.”

Courage? Everybody needs it, but how do you get it, especially when you’re like the lion before he discovered the Wizard of Oz?.

You feel the fear and do it anyway.   Its alright to be afraid for it is a human emotion.

“He who faces no calamity will need no courage.”

“Calm seas do not a good sailor make.”

Mental fitness and courage are inseparable for coping with both adversity and success.

Say to yourself: “I will accept whatever comes my way with dignity and courage but I must be true to myself.”

As you approach the moment of the challenge fear rises up in your throat but you keep going.  Fear gives way to courage and an inner strength propels you forward.  You feel a little taller, a little stronger, a little more invincible.  You have slayed the dragon.  You have triumphed.  One small step inevitably leads to the next.

You may not remember learning how to walk, but you know you fell hundreds of times before you stood on your own.

Here are some other wise words about courage:

Alan Cohen : It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.

Baltasar Gracian : Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Clare Booth Luce : Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

Eleanor Roosevelt : You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

Erich Fromm:  Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his

If you’re finding it too hard to do alone,  let me help you.  877-583-2026.

Susan

www.hypno4success.com

Tags: "feel the fear and do it anyway", "To thine ownself be true", courage, mental health

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.