The Mind Pie – Part 2

This week’s newsletter is a continuation of last week’s. You can read The Mind Pie – Part 1 here.

My 2nd mind-management rule

“When I am physically ill or mentally unwell, I only listen to my active thoughts and tune out my passive thoughts.”

This is a rule I’ve kept to for over 5 years, though it is easier said than done. It is a knowledge piece that I acquired through a combination of countless depressive episodes, therapy sessions and reading books about how to ‘overcome’ depression.

Newsflash: Many people don’t ‘overcome’ their depression, but many do learn how to live fulfilling lives despite their depression.

I’ve come a long way since I started dealing with my own depression since 2013-2014, and this rule, in particular, is one that I’ve found very useful.

In a nutshell, I’ve learned to not listen to the unkind and uncompassionate thoughts that conjure from my subconscious mind into my Thought Freeway. As a result, that has enabled me to minimise damage to my self-worth and self-confidence, and that has also made me recover more quickly from illnesses I’ve caught.

Let’s break it down.

The Inflamed Mind

Prior to 2018, the conventional understanding in medicine was that the brain is immune-privileged. This is to say that any functional compromise of our immunity against diseases does not affect the function of the brain. There is a blood-brain barrier that exists to protect the mind from physical diseases.

In other words, a sick body does not affect the mind, and vice versa. The mind and body work separately and are distinct from one another.

This mind-body dualism stems from the fundamental idea taught by Descartes that the non-physical mind works on a different realm of existence than the physical body that exists and plays on the physical realm.

But, no.

In 2018, Edward Bullmore in his book, The Inflamed Mind, explains how inflammation in the body can induce depression symptoms in the mind.

While not all physical illnesses will cause inflammation in the body, many of them do, but that is besides the point. This key point argued by Edward Bullmore breaks the notion that the state of your physical body does not affect the state of your mind.

So, falling physically ill can make you feel depressed. This means that you may unwillingly become;

sad, angry or anxious about everything or everyone around you,
disinterested in things you genuinely have passion in,
overly-critical and unkind to yourself,
lethargic of living.

These are simply thoughts, emotions and behaviours that are bad. Uncompassionate and unempathetic.

But remember, these bad thoughts fall under the category of Passive Thoughts outputted by your Subconscious Mind. You did not intentionally choose to produce such cruel thoughts.

Don’t allow these bad thoughts into your Heart (of the Mind).

Don’t blindly believe them.

Don’t listen to them.

The Cruel Chronic Spiral of Depression

We now know how our physical health can affect our mental health: Physical Illness > Mental Illness

But it is also critical to recognise that our mental health can also affect our physical health: Mental Illness > Physical Illness

It is a two-way street, unfortunately.

You can find loads of articles covering this relationship between “mental health and immunity”, but what you need to know in a nutshell is that;

Poor mental health is closely linked to a low level of immunity
Mental unwellness, a form of psychological stress increases stress hormones
Too much stress hormones can cause inflammation
Inflammation dysregulates immunity function
Increases the risk of infection and hence physical illness

And if physical illness puts you at risk of further mental instability, you’re in for a spiral.

Unless you find a way to stop this cruel spiral, you may find yourself becoming more physically sick over time, and also becoming more mentally unwell over time. It will become a chronic spiral that erodes your life force.

I cannot stress how vital it is to find a way to manage your mind, especially when it is unwell.

I know this as I’ve been dealing with this for over 10 years.

Your life is at stake.

Defining ‘mentally unwell’

For those who have been clinically diagnosed with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar etc., I think it is clear for them (me included) what their symptoms are when they are dealing with those mental illnesses. But what about everyone else?

Here’s how I would explain ‘being mentally unwell’ to my 5 year old nephew;

When you know in your heart that you can do something, but your brain cannot think.
When you want to finish your homework, but you cannot seem to focus. You’re easily distracted.
When nothing serious has happened, but you simply feel very angry, or very sad, or very nervous. You don’t know why, but you feel very moody.
Everyone has days where their mind just seems to be off. All over the place. Unstable.
On those days, your mind is not at 100%. You’re mentally unwell on those days.

Indeed, there are degrees to how mentally unwell you are on a particular moment, day or period.

But, the earlier you are able to identify kinks in the state of mind, the quicker you can stop yourself from spiraling.

So how do we make our minds more resilient?

How to build a more resilient mind

All of us inevitably fall sick.
All of us inevitably have days where our minds just feel off.

So, it’s important to know how to manage our minds so that when we do fall physically ill or feel mentally unwell, we don’t damage our mental health/self worth any further when we’re sick; which in turn makes us recover less quickly.

1. Focus on physical recovery

When you’re physically ill, your first priority is to get better.

The quicker you get your body back to 100%, the quicker you can stop your subconscious mind from producing unsavoury Passive Thoughts.

2. Stop listening to your bad Passive Thoughts

This applies when you’re physically ill as well as when you’re mentally unwell.

When you’re in either of those states, it is likely that your Subconscious Mind will produce more negative Passive Thoughts. Remember that these thoughts are untrue and unkind.

Don’t listen to them, and don’t let them into your Heart (of The Mind).

3. Listen only to your positive and kind Active Thoughts

Remember that your mind is separated into 2 parts: the Subconscious Mind and the Conscious Mind.

While you have no direct control over what your Subconscious Mind produces, you have full agency over what thoughts your Conscious Mind produces.

When you’re physically sick or mentally unwell, use your Conscious Mind to think of positive and kind Active Thoughts. Listen only to those Active Thoughts and allow them to enter your Heart.

A great practice is to think of what you would say to your best friend if they were physically sick and mentally well. Use your Conscious Mind to think what kind and positive things you would say to your best friend, and only listen to those Active Thoughts.

4. When you’re at 100% physically and mentally

The best time to train your mind to better manage itself is when you’re at 100%. Physically and mentally.

Here’s what I recommend for improving your mind-management:

Learn to distinguish the inner voice in your Heart from voices in your Thought Freeway.

This is the first step, in my opinion. I wrote about how to do this in last week’s newsletter (The Mind Pie – Part 1).
Practice interoceptive meditation to strengthen your internal perception.

While I would love to dive deeper into the topic of meditation, it is enough for now, that you are aware of the fact that there are many types of meditation practices that fulfil different purposes.

In order for you to be able to clearly distinguish between:
– the inner voice of your Heart,
– Active Thoughts from your Conscious Mind, and
– Passive Thoughts from your Subconscious Mind,

I recommend that you practice interoceptive meditation with the goal of strengthening your internal perception (interoception). The meditation practice can be as little as 10 minutes every week, or as much as 3 minutes every day.

Dr Andrew Huberman covers practice this in-depth in his podcast which you can view here.

If you’re interested to learn more about what’s included in the book, The Inflamed Mind, here’s a good summary video on Youtube. It covers a lot of the big ideas, but I definitely recommend the book for those who’d love the details.

***

Thanks for reading my newsletter today. It means a lot that you’ve read it till the end 😊

I would love to know if you found any of the things I wrote insightful or practical, and if there are any topics you would like for me to explore further.

I would appreciate it if you would comment below and share with me your thoughts.

Till next week,
Ruiz