What is a mental health day? What does it mean to take care of your mental health?
Photo by Hannah Midkiff Photography
Stress. It’s a word we hear thrown around quite a lot these days. I’m stressed or worried fill in the blank. At this moment I could probably fill that blank with about 10 different things so fast. Work. Family. Career. Teaching. Friends. Money. Eating. Sales. Sleep (or lack of). The list goes on and on.
One of my favorite books growing up was Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s the first book in a series most know as Little House on the Prairie the story of Laura Ingalls and her childhood and young adult years living in the Midwest between 1870 and 1894. I loved these books and can still remember the peace I felt and comfort of holding the books and reading all the adventures of Laura and her family.
When the Ingalls are living in the little log cabin in “the big woods,” Laura tells of how her Pa sang “Auld Lang Syne” on his fiddle. After he explained the meaning of the lyrics and sings it through, there’s this quote that I recall.
“She thought to herself, “This is now.” She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
Because now is now. There’s something so peaceful about knowing you are safe and that what is now cannot be forgotten. The simplicity I think we’ve long forgotten in our fast paced culture is something I love about these books. Was Laura Ingalls stressed at all? Yes! Absolutely! But most of her stress were actual life threatening worries like a bear outside the cabin, losing her dog Jack, or her father not coming home for a long time. Life on the prairie brought its own worries and dangers that I’m sure “stressed her out.” But she didn’t cling to that stress like many of us do now. She took the moments to pause.
This habit was not something she had to “practice” like we do with “self care moments” or a “mental health day.” While I don’t disagree with these things, I think it’s important to recognize that our bodies were not designed to just go go go constantly! Our stress response and anxiety response is triggered during occurrences where our lives are threatened. We have conditioned our bodies to constantly feel stressed out by things that may not be life threatening. Does NOT mean the anxiety we feel isn’t real, it just means that we may need to take step back and notice when we say we are “stressed” or feel stressed are we tired? Maybe hungry? Or maybe just need to pause and ask ourselves what we really need.
Mental health should not just be a day or event, but a habit.
A friend of mine posted a meme on her story today asking for “a crumb of mental health” for today… You feeling that you need that today too? Here’s what I sent her.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. ”
I love the promise that we are KEPT in perfect peace. Peace that’s not based on circumstances. When our mind is stayed on Him. In other words, when we rest our mind in Him or keep our thoughts directed towards Him. Capture our thoughts for Him. Fix our thoughts on Him. But how do we do that? It requires practice. It requires discipline. Get in the Word. Find little moments that remind you of His love today. Trust that what he’s doing in this crazy world is being worked out for His glory and our good.
This little crumb of mental health is actually a big piece of cake to enjoy because we can trust that our Father in Heaven is working here on earth and He keeps us in perfect peace. I’ve always imagined His perfect peace like a hug I’m leaning into, like Laura leaning on her Pa as he plays the fiddle. Safe. Secure. Perfect. Stop trying to make what you can’t control controllable. Stop making what you can’t perfect perfect. Take this little crumb of mental health and have a good mental health day.