“Why do you want to feel good?” I ask my clients. “Because feeling bad hurts”, they say.

I can’t agree more. If we simplify our minds and feelings we can talk about good thoughts that generate pleasant feelings or bad thoughts that generate emotional pain.

Have you listened programs of mental health awareness week and you’ve learned nothing about emotional or mental health? But you’ve heard a lot about sicknesses. Scary. You want to know how to feel good, don’t you? 

Most programs discuss psychiatric disorders and health remains unnoticed when talking about mental health. They don’t talk about what people can do to think and feel good, how they can boost positive emotions, how to strengthen their minds (that stay behind all mental disorders), or how to develop emotional resilience to resist the  societal (modern?) stress.

Nobody tells you that when you break your hand the rest of your body continues working but when your mind and your emotions go wrong, your whole life is a black pitch.

Talking only about disorders during mental health awareness week sounds like we want to scare people with creeping illnesses but we don’t tell them that they can actually do something not to get sick. We wouldn’t tell them they can strengthen their body, or exercise regularly, or be outdoor at any weather, sleep and release stress, or eat healthy, live more simple and natural life.

Does it make sense to frighten people about agonizing mental sicknesses they may (but don’t have to) compromise your life and not sharing with you how to protect against them?

Well, we know that the good minds and positive feelings safeguard.

Do you find it funny or sad when you hear that one of the websites, an adult community & resource mental health center, with the logo of “NHS Foundation Trust” (publicly funded health services in U.K.) says “… mental health symptoms …” What? Symptoms of health? Is my English language a problem or the professionals got something wrong?  Fortunately, mental health can’t have symptoms, only diseases have symptoms.

If I want to remain sarcastic, I hope you got my mocking tone, the only symptoms of mental health I can tolerate, are the symptoms of think and feel good. These can be health symptoms we all want to experience. We want to feel good, but first

the mind above your feelings and me before you.

You don’t know why?

Because nobody can feel good it they think bad. Nobody can think good about others if they think bad about themselves. Nobody can feel good about others if they don’t feel good about themselves.  It is our psychology. We project ourselves on others. Good or bad, thinking or feeling. First we must think good to feel good. Only good thoughts can generate good emotions.

So, next time, when your friend complains about their emotions, be curious about their thoughts…