This can be used in either a work-based setting discussed first or a home setting and being able to switch off at the end of the day.
So hygiene what does that look like, for most of us that brings up an image of washing cleaning brushing your teeth clean clothes putting on your deodorant all of these simple routines to keep our bodies healthy and fresh.
However, your mind can also benefit from a quick morning scrub and tune up. Spending even 15 minutes on mental health hygiene each day can bring a host of benefits, from improved mood and better relationships to even deeper concentration and enhanced productivity.
This concept of daily maintenance for mental health or mental health hygiene dates back to 1909, when former psychiatry patient and mental health advocate Clifford Whittingham Beers (1876–1943) Beers led national and international efforts to improve institutional care, challenge the stigma of mental illness, and promote mental health, unfortunately this movement lost its momentum and very few people have actually heard of him today
Its time to bring this simple practice back again. It would be good if a type of mental health hygiene became a habitual practice that’s so mundane it doesn’t even merit conversation around the dinner table, just like how no one discusses the fact they brushed their teeth or took a shower that day.
Mental illness is widespread. In the UK around 1 in 6 adults experienced moderate to severe depressive symptoms (ONS 2022) There’s something to be said for not just waiting around for the bad days to come. We need a shift of view on mental health in terms of how to empower ourselves. Mental hygienic practices can help prevent our natural tendency to engage in rumination, excessive self-focused thinking, and less positive levels feelings.”
What do we do about it
You might worry this feels like just one more thing to do and wonder if it’s worth doing at all. But these trivial routines are already part of our lives, We cannot skip cooking, eating or brushing our teeth, right? But if you do these activities with mindfulness, they can change your experiences and how you relate to the activities, and can bring lasting benefits
Thankfully, learning to focus doesn’t have to mean heading off to a monthlong meditation retreat; you can start practicing mental health hygiene wherever you happen to be.
I’m going to use brushing your teeth for this example but you can literally use any routine task
To begin, simply make sure that from now on, whenever you are brushing your teeth, you stay with the activity of brushing. This means not planning out your day or mulling over what your partner said at breakfast, but instead focusing on the multiple sensory experiences associated with toothbrushing.
“Feel the sensation of the bristles against your gums and teeth tongue, notice the temperature of the water and the taste of the toothpaste, At this point I want to ask a question “what is your other hand doing?”. I would put good money on the fact that you don’t know! That is all you have to do you are not ruminating on what’s to come what is going on you have just done a mindful meditation.
One great thing about this mindfulness exercise is that it doesn’t take any extra time you spend the same two minutes brushing your teeth regardless of whether you’re paying attention, and that’s also true of mindful driving, mindful eating and even mindful dishwashing and any other mindful thing you want to use.
An example with regards to how busy are minds have become was a study commissioned my Microsoft back in 2015 they found that the average human attention span has shortened from 12 seconds in 2002 to eight seconds in 2015. What will that be in 2023! brushing your teeth sounds like an eternity now !