Everyone strives to live a pleasurable life, a life with no worries, no stresses, no headaches etc. and dreams to live it blissfully. But as one gets older and enters his/her adulthood, the stress and anxieties begin to emerge and this is leading to even more serious psychosomatic symptoms of mental illness which last long for days or months or even for a couple of years. People generally ignore these signs and symptoms but when it goes beyond a limit, they need to see a doctor or mental health professional. As a result, they come to know that the symptoms such as headache, lack of sleep and appetite imbalance etc. are due to their mental stress. Such incidences make them realize that they need not surrender or get dependent on medications rather take a stand for one’s own mental health. The foremost step needs to be taken in order to make a change is known as ‘Mental detox’.
Meaning and Concept
‘Detoxification’ refers to a cleansing or purification process. It involves, transformation and elimination of bodily wastes; toxins that impair bodily organ function and ones which adversely influence mental wellbeing and cognitive function.
It is the process of removing toxic substances. It is also a therapeutic treatment of an alcohol or drug addict involving refraining from drink or drugs until the bloodstream is free of toxins. It is the gradual withdrawal of an abused substance in a controlled environment. It is the first step in beginning the journey to revitalization.
For revitalization, when it comes to one’s body, we know that a healthy diet, regular exercise, and the sporadic detox or cleanse are favourable for our health. But what about the revitalization of one’s mind. Just as the body retains toxins and wastes, mind too holds toxic thoughts and attitudes. A noxious frame of mind can make one’s life a set of unpleasant life events.
Mainly, when the term “detoxify” pops up, the person thinks about a physical purification or cleansing of the body. As refining our bodies of toxicity is indispensable, a mental detox is just as essential. Collectively, both psychological and physical wellbeing contributes towards an all-round well-balanced state of an individual. There are many reasons for going for a mental detox and one does not need to be an expert to identify the benefits of mental detox since they are clearly visible in a few days of detoxification. After performing mental detoxification, an individual feels much relaxed, experiences a high level of energy, gains patience to let go of things, get an increase in concentration on important aspects, more positive thoughts, calm nature, reconnection with blissful life and gains a better version of one’s true self. In short, whenever one tries to detox his/her mind, it balances one’s body, mind and soul and everything else seems to fall into the right place.
Valuable ways to Detoxify
After gaining some fundamental information regarding the concept and the benefits of mental detoxification, let’s take a brief look on to the benefits. Some of the major and effective ways one can apply to detox one’s mind and recover his/her mental health are hereunder:
1. Think positive: One’s thoughts play a major role in framing one’s personality. A person’s nature is based on how he/she thinks, if they think positively, they become a much more positive person. One just needs to give a notion to those thinking patterns and ask them a question as if these thoughts worth one’s time. If not, make a change. It’s always important to think positive in order to be an affirmative personality with a constructive mind.
2. Deep breathe: The most fundamental way to calm one’s mind is to learn to get settled and relaxed in the present moment. And the best exercise for this is to ‘Inhale’ and ‘Exhale’. It is a simple but most effective technique to calm down oneself in no time. One just needs to be quiet, close his/her eyes, feel the air, take a deep breath, hold it for few seconds and then release it and repeat it till one gets calm and cool. This again helps a person to detoxify immediately and rests down the mental pressures. Another effective breathing control technique is 4-7-8.
3. Meditate: There have been several forms of meditation for an individual, but all forms share a common motive of mental relaxation. Whenever one feels mental tiredness or fatigue, one should do meditation or yoga to alleviate it. 15 minutes of meditation every morning fulfils a major part of one’s mental detoxification and provide immense positivity to work and play for the whole day.
4. Mental breaks: The man is not a machine to work for the whole day without any break. Just like a lunch break or the rest period, one also need to have mental breaks between their tasks in order to shed their fatigue, vent out their frustration, gain inner peace and recharge themselves for a further run. Mental breaks include having tea or coffee, reading something pleasant, watering plants, listening to music, a walk, sitting quietly in an open place, deep breathing, nurturing surroundings etc.
5. Venting out the inner feelings: An individual who is full of thoughts and emotions is just like a soda bottle, which will surely explode if shaken or stirred. The basic rule with emotions and feelings is to share or vent out in the most appropriate manner. But, sometimes a person is unable to do so and he/she becomes uncontrollable or insane. Suppressing one’s feelings is another major reason for one’s mental illness and emotional outburst. One should find the correct person (mental health professionals such as a psychologist or a counsellor) to share their thought in order to get calmed and relaxed. It is therefore suggested to channelize emotions and feelings in an acceptable way in order to detoxify the mind and improve mental health.
6. Music, the finest detoxifier: As it is well known that ‘music’ is a vital tool for enhancing the physical as well as the mental health of an individual. There have been many such renown techniques and therapies which have been successfully applied on a series of patients and found tremendous recovery results. Listening to soothing or inspirational music or dancing over elating music helps a person to lower down his/her anxieties and frustration and ultimately plays a significant role in detoxifying mental health.
7. Do a mental purge: Just jot down the weirdest thoughts persistently crossing the head over or those tiny in-cohesive bits that are blocking one’s mind. Writing them down will be another act of venting out. It will ultimately satisfy the person and will provide him/her a sense of relief.
8. Go Offline: Researches have found out that the excessive use of smartphones, television, electronic technologies, social media etc. is an exaggerated ground of depression, anxiety, stress and an overall deterioration of mental health. It has also been very well known that instead of spending time online on electronic gadgets, if individual swaps it with active pursuits such as exercising or working out, face-to-face socializing, reading books, playing sports, gardening etc. It would eventually help them to live a long life together with good mental health.
9. Shout out your creativity: Creativity is not like a toy only for the creative people; instead, it is a ball everyone can play with. Each individual possesses some unique kind of creativity, it’s just that how one showcase it and in what circumstances. Creativity also helps a person to depict his/her deep internal thoughts and feelings. Hence, creativity tests are highly recommended and used in personality testing as well as mental vent outs.
10. Flipside thought: It is a similar practice to a well-known therapy – ‘Cognitive behavioural therapy’, in which whenever negative thought strikes in mind, one just needs to replace it with the positive or more rational ones. This thought overlapping is another effectual approach to detoxify one’s mental health.
11. No more comparisons: Mental destruction begins from the comparison. Comparison brings inferiority, inferiority when goes beyond a limit, lead to inferiority complex and ultimately downgrade one’s personality. One should never compare oneself with another since every individual is unique and self-sufficient. The less one compares to others, the more they grow.
12. Focus only upon what you can control: Daydreaming about future is the most common thing an individual do but he/she forgets that these uncontrollable thoughts are going to hurt them the most when things will not turn out to be similar in the reality. One needs to realize the fact that thinking and overthinking over things which one can’t control will leave you in pain so it is way much better to focus on those aspects which can be in alignment with present i.e. hard work, determination etc.
13. Avoid stagnation: Hanging over a bad past, thinking of revenge, rolling down the negative thoughts in the head, stuck over a tragic event, bad trips of trauma etc. are some of the common instances showing that an individual got stuck or stopped from moving ahead in his/her life. This is nothing but a mental block which stops someone to think ahead of it. One needs to break this loop of unwanted thoughts and should find a way out to detoxify his/her mental state.
Consequently, these are some of the major in-hand techniques one can give a shot whenever troubled with mental toxification or mentally thwarted. Hopefully, these tips and tricks will help detoxify one’s mind, to live a better and mentally healthy life. Together with this, whenever an individual feels mentally disturbed or troubled out of any big or small reason, one should never, I repeat, NEVER ignore and one should immediately ask for help from ‘mental health professionals’ so that one can get appropriate treatment in time and one’s mental health is being maintained.
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