Here is an honest question. Have you showered today? or taken a bath? Or freshened up yet? How about the hygiene of your mind? Are you going around doing life with a mind that can easily get irritated, agitated, or tuned out or become worried and fearful? Well, that means you do not have good mental hygiene.
nnnnn
I’ll tell you a little secrete.
After a few days of wearing a mask due to protection from Covid 19, I noticed an unpleasant smell from my breath. Man, was I shocked! I thought I was imagining things. I paid closer attention and there it was, bad breath. “Dear God, that is horrible, unacceptable,” I thought. “How could that be?” I called my dentist and she told me about better dental hygiene. Brushing, flossing and using those little brushes for between the gums. I started doing that diligently with every meal that I ate, after breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have to tell you, all three were necessary. After brushing, I flossed and some more things got released. Are you disgusted by the image of this? Well, hang in there. We’re all human and have teeth with food in them because we eat. I was sure my teeth were clean after the flossing. Nope. When I used the little gum brush some more food came out. Wow, I couldn’t believe it. I was so grateful for having found this out. Of course, I had been told before that I needed to floss and I did it too. But this level of cleanliness is another level we all should know about and do it. It could save you from really painful and expensive root canals and such.
Okay, back to mental hygiene.
The fact is you don’t know that your mind smells, that is the agitation and upsetness of your mind. As I explained in my previous publishing, one reason you may not see this is because most people’s minds get agitated fast and it seems normal. You are one of them. You get used to it, too. It’s as if most people’s mouth smelled and we were used to the smell. How awful is that?
When you go to a doctor for anxiety medication and she says, why don’t you try meditating a little. You try it and find it really difficult. That difficulty you experience is equivalent to having had bad hygiene for your teeth leading to dental issues. In other words, because you haven’t properly cleaned your thoughts and the junk in your perspective, it is hard to meditate.
So, be kind, be determined, be diligent. Have pride like I did about bad breath. “No, I will not have it,” I thought and that was enough. Believe me it takes time and consistency to do the three step oral hygiene, but I will not have it any other way. My health and happiness are worth spending my time and effort in the right place. So, does yours.
If you don’t know how to take care of your thoughts, fears and worries, how to clean them up properly, I’m doing a quick class this Sunday, Sept 13 at 10am. Mindfulness for Beginners. Only 4 sessions and one hour per session. You are definitely worth it.
Here is a Mental Hygiene practice you can try daily. 5, 10, 15, 20 Min Guided Meditation