This is my introduction post for the MESH podcast: Mental Health with Equality and Spirituality MESHed in the middle.
These three are how we, humankind, achieve enlightenment or self actualization.
What is enlightenment or self actualization? Enlightenment is a state of great awareness, having knowledge and understanding. Self actualization is the "realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone." Thanks Oxford and Britannica. One is the spiritual term; the other is the psychology term. Essentially, a person who is self aware, compassionate, joyful, and comfortable with the unknown is enlightened (AI overview).
If half of the human race could achieve self actualization, even 25-50%, do you know how amazing the world would be? Maybe that number could be above 50% but I don't know that darkness could not exist in this realm; darkness is a purpose of this realm. You can't have the light without the dark. You cannot know true happiness without pain. But the darkness doesn't bring happiness; it is empty of happiness. It is love forgotten. It is a miserable place to live.
So how can humankind achieve enlightenment or self actualization?
Mental health treatment supports people in processing their trauma and improving their mental wellness. Trauma programs humans' negativity bias into something even harder to deal with. Human brains focus on the negative to keep them safe; trauma puts the negativity into overdrive. Everyone can make the choice to seek help, because meditation is a free tool available to all. A lack of mental wellness extends to all socioeconomic groups. Equal access to resources improves mental health; if people are able to pay their bills including shelter, food, and recreation, they are happier.
Mental health treatment doesn't address existential questions. Mental health treatment uses spiritual practices to help people understanding the meaning of life and death. Spiritual practices can also support the processing of trauma through rituals and practices. When I say spirituality, I mean a connection to something bigger than ourselves, something larger than an individual's life. It includes birth and death, community, the world, and maybe even the mystical if you believe in it.
All people need to be able to afford and access these services. If a certain community is excluded, that's fcked up. Because all people are worthy of love, no matter where they are born, who they are born to, the color of their eye or their skin or their hands, or when they were born, or what gender or sex they are assigned at birth. The lack of having needs unmet is what creates additional negativity bias. WE ALL MATTER. Even those you don't like. Even the presidential candidate that you despise. (Oh hell no she didn't; oh hell yes I did.)
All humans experience trauma; some humans experience more trauma. All people have a hard time with life sometimes; some people have experienced more bad shit and for longer periods of time. It takes a choice to choose moving towards happiness. All of these statements can be true. Those with less trauma could have an easier time getting to self actualization. It's hard really to know who struggles worst. Life can just be hard.
Any who, life is messy. Let's all be kinder to ourselves and to each other. Welcome to the MESH podcast. I am super excited to be able to support humankind's enlightenment and self actualization journey through practical solutions that increase equal access to mental health and spirituality. Let's begin.
<3xo
Sarah Ruth
Powerful Priestess aka that crazy white btch
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