May is Mental Health Month, making it an ideal time to examine what mental health is and do a careful self-examination to determine if yours needs improving.

All too often, mental health is considered as simply the absence of mental illness, but this is far from the case. One can have poor mental health without the slightest evidence of a diagnosable mental disorder! For instance, having a low self-image, a defeatist attitude or a negative worldview is evidence of compromised mental health. Prejudice, terrorism, and misogyny are behaviors stemming from poor mental health. But these attitudes and behaviors do not mean that you are mentally ill.

Humans evolved to have healthy mental health. It’s in our genes. But along comes the experiences of everyday living and the excellent mental health that we would otherwise enjoy becomes compromised. As a result, no one has perfect mental health, but it’s possible to improve whatever its current state.

Before starting, you need to have an idea of what mental health is and how to make desirable changes. You also need to be aware that some roadblocks will inevitably occur and take measures to avoid them.

So, what does it mean to be mentally healthy? You are mentally healthy to the extent that your basic beliefs are consistent with four inbornintentions. 

Whoa! What on earth does that mean? Let’s examine these two components of mental health.

A basic belief is the meaning you have attached to your experiences. Each one is stored subconsciously and forms the rationale for your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors. Taken together, they constitute your personal “truth.”

“Inbornintentions” is a newly coined word used to convey the idea that there are four intrinsic behavioral goals that all humans naturally move towards. We are genetically motivated to behave in positive ways in the direction of 1) respecting human dignity, 2) exercising freedom of choice, 3) obtaining a sense of accomplishment, and 4) loving and being loved. 

The capacity for these four inbornintentions is present in everyone from birth to death, but how you express them depends on whether your basic beliefs are consistent with or contrary to one or more of them. The greater the consistency between the four inbornintentions and your basic beliefs, the healthier your mental health. Contrarily, the more your basic beliefs are inconsistent with a basic belief, the more compromised your mental health.

Of course, this has been an all too brief explanation of what mental health is or even a hint at what needs to be done to improve. This website offers a fuller explanation here. For those who would rather have something to hold in their hands, the paperback book “Pathways to Mental Health and Anxiety Management” is available from Amazon.com.  A series of 10 videos on “How To Improve Your Mental Health” is available on YouTube.

So, pay attention to the state of your mental health. The quality of your life depends on it. Now, smile, because you are a worthwhile human being with human dignity!