May is Mental Health Awareness Month - How Aware Are You?
We are constantly getting bombarded with information and our brains can have a hard time keeping up. In this era of information overload, there’s been an increasing trend in “coping” through disconnection - scrolling, binging, bed rotting, anything to tune out. This adaptive strategy might be doing more harm than good because our internal system prioritizes safety - not happiness - and when it becomes aware of possible threats it turns on defense mechanisms to make us less aware of how we’re feeling. So for Mental Health Awareness Month, I’d like to pose the question - how aware are you, actually? How aware are you of you behaviors, emotions, sensations, and nervous system reactions? You might be surprised…
If you’re new here - my name is Julia, I’m a licensed psychotherapist and I use clinical expertise based in science to guide people (like you) along their mental health journey to heal their mind, body, and Self.
I want to invite you to pause. Just for a moment. Take a breath. Keep reading, if you must, but I really think it would be helpful if you let yourself check in with yourself. Where are you? What do you see? What can you hear? Might there be a smelly smell that smells…smelly?
How are you feeling? But wait, “feeling” can mean emotions or sensations, so let’s start with sensations. How warm or cold are you? Any tightness in your shoulders? What might it feel like to shift your posture from looking like a cashew to sitting or standing a bit more upright? Can you notice anything else? How aware are you of your breathing? Because if you’re alive, you’re breathing. What is it like to become aware of your breathing?
Okay, now emotions. What emotion might you be experiencing right now? Did you think to yourself, “fine” or “okay” because those aren’t really emotions that show up on a therapist’s handy-dandy Emotions Wheel. So, really, how are you actually feeling?
Sometimes our brain engages in subconscious defense mechanisms to keep us safe. Distraction, dissociation, autopilot - these are all common terms for the process our nervous system activates when it notices emotions or sensations that might keep us from functioning. Or, in extreme instances, make us feel unsafe.
So when we feel uncomfortable, it becomes easier to just ignore that emotion or sensation. Because noticing it means we should attend to it. I mean, we should, right? Once we notice the crack in the windshield it becomes annoying to drive because we know there’s a crack and we know we should fix it. Well, fixing it might cost too much money or take too much time, so we ignore it and pretend it’s not there. Or, when someone points out that it is there, we acknowledge it for a second but go right back to ignoring it because that’s easier. In case you’re not picking up what I’m putting down, the crack in the windshield is a metaphor for our emotions. It’s easier and SAFER in the moment to just pretend they’re not there so we feel safe and protected from the anticipated discomfort the emotion (and worse, processing it) may cause.
So, how aware are you? What are you tuning out? Why do you think you need to protect yourself from how you feel?
How is your body? What bodily pain might you be ignoring because it might require stretching, resting, or worse - medical treatment? Dun, dun, DUUUNNNNN!!!
How are you feeling, really? Did that news story upset you, but you saw it on your lunch break and you had to get right back to work so you never let yourself actually feel a feeling in response to what you saw?
Mental Health Awareness Month isn’t just awareness about mental health conditions - it’s an opportunity to remind yourself that your own mental health care starts with being actually aware of how you’re feeling so you can take care of youself.
I invite you to become aware. Just a little bit. You deserve it.