Mental Hygiene

 Mental Hygiene : From the Spiritual Perspective 

We talk about general or personal hygiene, dental hygiene, bowel hygiene, sleep hygiene and environmental hygiene. But nobody talks about mental hygiene. Although, we often hear or discuss mental health.

What is the difference between mental health and mental hygiene? Are they the same? Is there a relationship between the two?

Health is defined as a state of wellbeing. Or lack of illness or dysfunction. Hygiene is a process that contributes to maintaining health. It involves prevention. While hygiene is action, health is a consequence. 

Hygiene focuses on cleanliness. Cleanliness in turn looks out to keep germs out of the way. Weeding out germs contributes to deferring potential dysfunction. 

General hygiene is taught at home and in school. Washing hands, brushing teeth, ensuring clean water, fresh and clean food, well cooked food, bathing, keeping hair trimmed, wearing clean clothes, keeping the environment clean, taking precautions when air quality is poor etc. Elderly people who tend to soil their clothes with urine or feces often require special care to maintain hygiene in the pelvic area. A few things involve visits to professionals to maintain hygiene, for example the annual or biannual dental cleaning appointment with dental hygienists. Or calling for service to change water filters. Changing air filters over the air conditioning vents in the home. Pest control treatments are a form of environmental hygiene. Trash disposal is another. We are very familiar with most of these hygienes. 

A slightly less known hygiene is sleep hygiene. When people have trouble getting a good night’s sleep, instead of reflexively suggesting medication, there are many things that can be improved that can help them sleep well. Ensure a good mattress, comfortable pillows, and clean sheets on the bed. Wear clean and loose clothing to go to bed. Don’t consume caffeinated beverages in the second half of the day. Empty the bladder before bed.Turn down loud noises, like radio or television in the home in the evening. Keep arguments, troublesome news or discussions away. Dim the lights, draw the curtains while preparing for bedtime. Play soothing music or read a calming book. Spend a few minutes meditating or praying or chanting. Create an atmosphere of peace in the room before going to bed. As you can see all these measures are preparatory. The result of these measures is a good, undisturbed, restful sleep. 

Even less known or talked about is mental hygiene. Like many other things, consideration for mental hygiene only arises after mental health suffers. Efforts begin when deterioration appears. It is somewhat late by then but never too late. 

What does mental hygiene entail? Just like a clean body, clean hands, clean teeth, clean mouth, clean feet, clean clothes, clean food and water, clean home etc here what is needed is a clean mind. People often don’t understand what is a clean mind. And if they know the definition, they don’t know how to identify the cleanliness of their own mind, let alone how to maintain it.

In positive terms, a clean mind is one that is calm, peaceful, filled with kindness, love and gratitude, sees a ray of hope in every situation. In negative terms, a clean mind lacks too many doubts, distractions, desires, desolation, worries, disappointments, disputes, detestations . Lacks fear, jealousy, aggression, guilt, shame, regret, anger, anxiety, misery, misgivings, attitudes and complexes. Essentially, in a clean mind, all the impurities are filtered out and what remains behind is the positivity. A pure essence of being. 

In the spiritual path, there are three main kinds of impurities. One is ignorance ( avaran), vikalpa( restlessness) and mul (sin). Ignorance means stepping out from the state of one’s pure existence. Instead of remaining in that state, mind goes and identifies itself with entities that belong to the realm of perception, that is matter. Then falsely starts seeking happiness from matter. That is the state of vikalpa when restlessness comes from the uncertainty of happiness. As its dependence on material objects gets stronger it sinks deeper and deeper because it can no longer deal with the absence of the objects that bring it pleasure. Such becomes the dependence that this helpless mind loses all good judgment and doesn’t hesitate to obtain the objects of pleasure at any cost, even if it is through wrong means. This is the impurity of sin or mul. 

The path to redemption goes in the reverse direction. One has to stop sinful deeds first. For that the mind must first understand and acknowledge what is right and wrong. Tendency to sin can be said to be conclusively eliminated when the mind cannot be tempted to do what is wrong even when no one is watching or no one would ever find out about it. 

That brings it to identify the objects in the world of matter that are sources of happiness for it. After identification, next step is to start practicing moderation with these objects. The principles of shama and dama are based on this. First moderation, then further renunciation.

Simultaneously turn the mind to seek joy from the soul or the pure state within. This is called parmarth. Step wise, conscious turning the attention to God or spirit or the divine nature. Once you have achieved reasonable detachment from the world of objects( including people ) you begin to understand the world of the spirit. 

In the light of the spirit you can identify the minutest specks of impurities in the mind. Literally you can see everything that goes on inside your mind. And if you are committed to being honest with yourself, you don’t try to cover up for those impurities. You just take up the task of clean up! It is like going into your dusty attic with a torchlight and start cleaning up the cobwebs that have built in all the years you havent been there. That is the least visited place in the house. 

Yesterday during the discussion that followed after my presentation on gender equity, a very kind member of the audience made a suggestion for me to take up the social cause of raising awareness about women’s issues and human rights as applicable to women. Alas, I know my limitations. I neither have the skills nor qualifications to be a public face of such important issues. I can write everything I want about anything from my experiences and everything that I see and understand but I am not fit for the limelight. I sit in the light of my own self and in that light I see all the hundreds of impurities in the mind. When the home is still being cleaned, it would be laughable to start cleaning the street. There are others who are more qualified for that. And I don’t say that with cynicism.

This morning I was working from home, doing telephone and video appointments for four hours starting 6 am. I could see how fresh the mind was when I started with the first patient and the slow slipping of that freshness with every subsequent appointment. As the freshness was waning, the impurities were beginning to make an appearance, slowly tiptoeing into the foreground. Slowness in the work, self doubt whether I could effectively handle the chief complaint of the next patient assigned to me, tinted perception when a patient asked for extra time off from work, a mental frown when a patient was turning down all recommendations I was making, a quiet worry about where the appointment was headed when a patient wasn’t stopping a rant about her problems, patience progressively getting thinned out, which in turn, created not one but two demons: firstly, a worry about the mind throwing a tantrum when patience hits the rock bottom, secondly, birthing of an attitude that was gearing up in self defense if patience were to actually run out. There were counter defenses springing into action to deflect and defeat the maladjustments. Little would anyone outside know all the inside politics of the mind. Only I could see it and maintain decorum until the end. Basically, the work at hand needed to be done without all the noise within. And the inner staff was learning to be quiet and let the work go on smoothly.

It was an exercise in maintaining mental hygiene. Weeding out troublesome thoughts and attitudes, reinstating clean outlook and earnestness. The more efficient this elf gets in keeping the house clean 24/7, the more sustainable my mental health will get. If it slacks off, mental health will face the consequences. It can only do its own job on any given day. The only social service it can offer is to share its secrets with anyone who wants to know. Alas, it can’t go do their job for them. And if it takes up a full time job of teaching others, who will take care of its own chores? So I’m back to “ mind your own business “! And there is plenty of business at hand.

One may say how do I have so much time at hand to keep dusting around my inner furniture, searching the closets of memories or looking at old shoes I had worn once upon a time? That time was gradually created by pulling out involvements from the outside, in order to attend to the essentials in personal housekeeping. And I actually started to enjoy it. Any housewife can tell you, the work around the home never stops. Outside paid jobs have limits on hours and workload and quality control. Inside the house, you are the boss. You can work as much as you want and rest when you want. You decide the quality control and you enjoy the results of the standards you set for yourself. I have never lived in such a lighted and peaceful place before. 

The elf is still working on the three levels of impurities. The mul is hopefully cleared up. Sankalp( desiring) is much reduced. Vikalp( restlessness) still has some work to be done. Avaran( ignorance) keeps playing hide and seek games. When it is a twosome there’s a different kind of fun. When it’s just one, there is joy in being complete, no pain of loneliness. 

At the end of the day the elf needs to be retired permanently and the slate cleaned. Next day, new beginnings, new elf. Accumulation of sattvic ego tends to get dangerous frequently . 

For those who do not understand much from the language of spiritual life, just take the lessons about maintaining mental hygiene each day by thinking positively. Don’t let the germs of grudges and jealousy contaminate the mind. Wash the mind with the soap of hope and water of laughter. Pat it dry with reason and moisturize with a generous amount of kindness and love. Spare time to exercise on the treadmill of learning, trying higher elevation slowly. Very likely you will not need to spend a dime on a shrink. But if you need to, don’t shy away. Shrinks are just fellow humans. You may find a friend in them.