This series on Becoming a Well-Balanced Man is covering the importance of learning to maintain balance in your emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual well-being since all are critical to becoming a mature adult manhood. This next post describes why men need mental balance and suggest provides some tools ways to improve your balance of personal and professional lives.
Why Become Well-Balanced?
First, I have to state I am not a trained psychologist or medical doctor. But I do understand the importance of staying mentally balanced after my struggle with workaholism that teetered on depression several years ago. I have also read a lot over the years on the issues men face today, especially mental health, suicide, and anger.
As I wrote in The Benefits of Becoming a Balanced Man, maintaining balance helps improve a man’s self-esteem, sense of purpose, accomplishment, and growth. Balance helps boost our confidence and self-worth, fosters adaptability, and builds greater resilience to effectively manage the challenges and setbacks of life. Mature men who learn balance, have increased satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment with their life, which are important components of our emotional and mental health.
Emotional Health vs Mental Health
Additionally, my prior post, The Emotionally-Balanced Man explained that there are differences between our emotional and mental health but that they are also related.
Emotional health is about our ability to manage and express our emotions effectively. It’s our capacity to handle both positive and negative emotions in a healthy way. This includes recognizing our emotions, how we control and respond to them appropriately, and our resilience to managing through emotional stress. For example, someone with good emotional health might feel sadness or anger but they are able to express these emotions without becoming overwhelmed and can recover from emotional setbacks.
Mental health is similar but involves how our mind processes information. It’s how we think and reason, make decisions, handle stress, and relate to others. Mental health also includes our behavioral health and habits, ability to focus and learn, and mental conditions like anxiety, depression, etc. For example, someone with mental health concerns may experience depression, difficulty concentrating, or have irrational fears that cause them to react negatively under stress.
Improving Your Mental Well-being
Since mental and emotional health are related, imbalance in one area can affect the other. For instance, a person can have a clear mind (i.e. good mental health) but struggle with managing intense emotions (poor emotional health).
Both mental and emotional health difficulties can be improved with a variety of treatments, including therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes that include:
- Practicing Mindfulness: Staying present and focused on the current moment.
- Creating Mental clarity: Avoiding mental clutter and distractions, maintaining clear thinking.
- Continual Learning: Seeking opportunities for personal growth and gaining knowledge.
- Improved Problem-solving: Developing the ability to tackle challenges with logic and creativity.
Better Friendships Also Help Your Mental Well-being
Of course, its important to get a proper diagnosis if you struggle with any of these symptoms. Seek professional help from a therapist, counselor, or or spiritual advisor for any serious mental or emotional issues.
That said, I believe that good friendships can help you maintain balance in your mental and emotional health. Friends can help you find your blind-spots that may cause you issues. They can also help you get exercise and have more fun in your life; both of which are critical to our overall well-being.
Personally, I also discovered that the spiritual practices as I learn to become a more godly man, have helped my mental outlook. These practices include prayer and meditation, studying Scripture, practicing self-reflection, expressing gratitude, and serving others. Strength also comes from a better understanding of forgiveness and compassion, especially for yourself as you begin to work on balancing your mental well-being. It also helps to have GodBuddies for encouragement, support, and accountability.
Only One Man Was Perfectly In-Balance
Most importantly, I have come to realize that only Jesus Christ perfectly managed His emotions and mental health. But even He had a small circle of friends (the Twelve Disciples) with whom He did a major part of His life. The Disciples were ordinary and imperfect men. Each had flaws. Many were impulsive and emotionally unbalanced. But Jesus hung out with them and taught them to become men of God who would change the world.
Next Up
My next post will describe the components of balancing your physical health.
Wisdom for Men is based on my opinions on topics that help men become better men. The sources used for these posts are not fact-checked, but support my theory that men are better with deeper, more authentic friendships. My GodBuddy theory is based on biblical principles but applies to all men, regardless of their beliefs. Better friendships among men will help solve the crisis of male friendships and many of today’s problems… because the world needs better men!
[Feature Photo by Anthony McKissic on Unsplash]
