I formed my own mental wellness program and process in 2011 because I realized that I was the one who was responsible for my own process.
It is difficult to find the right therapist the right psychiatrist Etc and I encourage anyone to try as they see fit.
the reason I formed my own process and program was because I did have trouble finding the right fit because of economic purposes and because I had exhausted my resources in my local area. I was frustrated and so were they with my symptoms and with the manifestations of my mental illness and emotional issues. Below is an introduction to my program and process.
it is a little bit of a long read so if you don't have anything else to do you can read it you can come back to it later.
What Is Mental And Emotional Self Help?
Here is my introduction to my program:
Mental and Emotional Self Help (MESH), is a free of charge peer-run, peer-directed program, which contains 4 distinct Modules.
These Modules we feel are recommended to achieve and maintain the best quality of mental wellness possible:
Life Purpose
Behavioral Awareness/Change
Life Experiences
Emotions and Thoughts Processing
There are no professionals running mesh or its groups/liaisons, many of us, including who leads mesh, have had mental health and/or emotional issues.
We have been in treatment or otherwise and we now draw a common conclusion: We self help for mental wellness; we are the ones who are responsible for our own sanity.
What we do on a regular basis, is we read self help books and/or study resources online (if the Internet is available) and we talk with one another and give mutual validation, self validation, and support. We also practice "active listening" with one another and have a general attitude of empathy and tolerance toward ourselves and each other. Mental and emotional self help does not have any members only participants we talk with one another and we Network.
We realize that mental wellness is hard-won and often in the moment. It is not a goal---we self help for mental wellness. It is a process and a goal. We are there, we get there. We look forward to celebrating it now and in our later years. We get sane, we are sane!
Carol E., MESH admin
The Basics of MESH:
The following are the basics of MESH. We do not have a specific philosophy; we embrace all philosophies and schools of thought.
However, MESH does have these ideas that we shall read at every session:
THE 4 POINTS of MESH (reflected in the 4 Modules):
Purpose “ we all have a right to get, and have, a life purpose”
We believe that having a Purpose to our lives can help us very much to feel mentally well.
Validation “ we all have a story to tell and we all have the right to tell it”
We need to validate our experiences, esp. if we have trauma issues. Even mental illness/emotional problems themselves are significant life experiences.
Discipline “ we all have a right to self soothe and feel better and discipline ourselves to do so”
We learn to have a sense of discipline and regulation. We can learn skills in this in the Emotions and thoughts process Module.
BALANCE “ we all have a right to identify and change our behaviors for better”
We begin to be aware of, and change, our behaviors.
As a result of this, our behavior and life become BALANCED.
ALL OF THIS WILL MAKE MENTAL WELLNESS.
“ we are all responsible for our own mental Wellness process”
The MESH Slogans and Sayings:
4 Issues Make Mental Illness or emotional upset
4 Modules make Mental Wellness and emotional wellbeing; We believe that these modules together will produce our mental wellness.
Life Experiences:
Validate The experiences, Support The Survivors of them
Emotion and thought Process:
You…are…in…command! Anger and fear are defense emotions. Know what you defend, defend what you know. Pick your battles. Defend yourself when needed. Without defense emotions, we could not survive. Emotions are not the problem, our affected ability to regulate them is. Sadness and depression are grief and loss emotions. know what you lost. grieve it. losing does not make you a loser.
Behavioral:
We believe people behave well and also behave badly. There is no such thing as a bad person. we don't find it productive for our mental wellness to label anyone as bad.
Life Purpose:
Everyone has a purpose for being alive and for going on. There is no such thing as a worthless person and there is no such thing as a meaningless life! We have not found it helpful to believe that anyone has a meaningless life or that anyone is worthless.
—Carol and Ani, MESH ADMIN
COURAGE is balanced faith and fear
ASSERTIVENESS is balanced peace and defense
TOLERANCE is balanced Love and Hate
STABILITY is balanced well-being and upset
CURIOSITY is balanced hope and despair
ATTITUDE is balanced inspiration and ennui
PRESENCE is balanced motivation and inertia
MOVEMENT is balanced action and inaction
AWARENESS is balanced progress and regression
REALNESS is balanced goodness and Badness
CLARITY is balanced light and darkness
CHOICE - SURVIVAL OR DESTRUCTIVENESS
And as long as we choose survival and life and reside in survival and life, so we shall survive and so life shall prevail.
So it shall so it will so it does so it is.
carol e