Growing Bolder – Boosting Our Mental Immunity
In this article I share a little bit more about what the Dalai Lama means by “mental immunity”, how to cultivate and boost it. Just like our physical immunity is “a system”, which to function well, needs balance and harmony, so does our mental health.
In the beautiful “The book of Joy”, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, share how to have more joy in our life. In it “Mental immunity” is described by the Dalai Lama as “learning to avoid destructive emotions and to develop the positive ones“, in any circumstances. The Dalai Lama stresses that there is a lot of suffering in his life but he retains an inner core of absolute peace and calm.
Working with people in the later years of their life, I witness with sadness, that many who have worked very hard all their lives, having built retirement funds, a loving social network and comfortable homes are unable to enjoy life. They are often plagued with anxiety, depression, feelings of worthlessness, loneliness and powerlessness. Any untreated mental health issues, masked by former activities in their younger life stages, such as work, taking care of family or other activities, can suddenly become activated.
I notice, however, a marked difference with those who have cultivated “mental immunity”. They are joyful without less financial means, sometimes having no family or relatives, relying on charity organisations for visits, often also going through ill-health. Yet they remain peaceful and joyful. How could this be?
In this article, part I, I compare and share Harvard’s physical immunity health tips with Your Alchemists’ mental & emotional strategies from our Foundation course. We can see how similar the strategies are.
In part II, I’ll share how we can develop mental and emotional processing skills, building a self-care practice so we remain strong even in later life.
What is Mental Immunity?
If you have not read The Book of Joy[1], I would highly recommend it. This is not a book about religion (Desmond Tutu is a Christian and the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist). Both men discuss universal beliefs and themes about humanity with much humour and wisdom.
“Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness.”
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama likens our mental health immunity to our physical health immunity. When we develop physical immunity against harmful pathogens and when our immunity is strong, we are less susceptible to diseases. However, when our physical immunity is weak, a cold can be harmful or even fatal for certain patients. It is the same with our mental immunity. When we are mentally and emotionally weak, a little blip in our life could impact us in a much bigger way.
We learn therefore how to be mindful of our thoughts, feelings and emotions and really pay attention. Building mental and emotional resilience does not happen overnight – like a physical workout, we take care of ourselves, we listen to our bodies and mind chatter, but we go back to the mat. We learn mental and emotional discipline and that we are actually in control of ourselves and the reality we chose to create.
Source: Beliefnet.com
The Dalai Lama’s Eight Pillars of Joy – Balancing the mind and the heart
In their book Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama offer four qualities of the mind and four qualities of the heart. They are:
Mind qualities:perspective, humility, humour, acceptance
Heart qualities:forgiveness (of ourselves and others), gratitude, compassion and generosity.
They also talk a lot about the power of community or social wellbeing, which I will share more about in part II
The below table summarises strategies for boosting physical immunity as suggested by Harvard Health in the left column. On the right, we share Your Alchemists practices (from our Self-empowerment part I – Foundations course) to start reflecting on a mental & emotional immunity practice.
“. . . ultimately our greatest joy is when we seek to do good for others.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In part II of “Growing Bolder – Boosting Mental Immunity” we will delve deeper into some of the practices introduced here adding findings from academic and scientific research.
References
[1]Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, D. L. X., Tutu, D., & Abrams, D. C. (2016). The book of joy: Lasting happiness in a changing world. New York: Avery.