After our meditation period of our Karate practice, Sensei Gary shared a conversation of a friend in reference to the daily stresses brought about by interations of work, family, and current events. These stresses can affect the mental health of in a cummulative and acute way. In his conversation, there were 3 daily practices that can help with mitigating these adverse forces.

1. Meditation – taking the time to rest the mind. The practice of meditation involves sitting in a pose, breathing to a count, exhaling to a count and trying to rest the mind of spurious thoughts. This is simply put, but difficult to master. There are many classes and publications on the subject.
2. Exercise – daily routine exercise. Find a routine that will work for you. Walk, stretching, strenght training, or some activity you can consistantly perform.
3. Task Oriented activity – search for small or mangable projects, create a task plan, and work towards accomplishing the task. It may be very simple task, such as changing an Air Conditioning filter, cleaning a sink, or reading 2 pages in a book. The simple act of accomplishing a task brings positive purpose to your life. Make completing a task apart of your self-image.

These 3 things can improve your mental health by resting the mind. Bolstering confidence and improving a positive self-image because you demonstrating the ability to control some parts of your life. With stresses that can come from Social Media, partisan politics, structured work/school environments, mental health needs the same care as the rigours of Karate training does for the physical body.