Mental Health

From the first steps that humanity has taken until today, suffering has always been present, but with Covid19 it has additionally gained a global dimension and better visibility because it reaches every person and moves every mind simultaneously, regardless of individual social status, culture or nationality. Subsequently, with each additional day in which the human system is in an alarming state, both the uncertainty and the anxiety that arises from it increase. Concern for the future, health or social status that many people have been struggling with for months, triggers their conditioned mind, often causing counterproductive reactions, which manifest in various ways.

Unfortunately, people generally lack an understanding of both the biology of the virus and the functioning of their own body and mind, which inevitably creates fertile ground for all kinds of half-truths or false theories to flourish. With that, the mind gets pollutes what initiates an even stronger wave of fear of the unknown. As a result, people not only lack clarity to see the reasons for their own emotional uneasiness or the reasons for the failure of pandemic measures, but they also lack the ability to evaluate the controversial messages that so-called experts spread. Instead, there is a growing sense of deprivation of freedom that provokes compulsive behavior and resistance that is often directed towards the wrong source. All such reactions are currently associated with Covid19 whereby people begin to blame the virus, governments, institutions or prominent individuals for the condition they are in. With that, they refuse to see that, in fact, all the problems have existed before. Namely, they are only impurities of the individual and collective mental structures, which are otherwise well hidden and masked, and are now forced to rise to the surface, taking different forms. In their search for a way out of this mental and emotional discomfort, people believe that masks, treatment of symptoms or a new vaccine will solve all the problems that the world is currently facing. Such a perception, unfortunately, shows an alarming state of mind conditioning and impaired mental health of the current human population.

At the moment, it is extremely important for people to understand that all the limitations they feel do not come because of the government, preventive measures or masks, but because of their personal inability to manage their own mental structures, which are currently collapsing due to the challenging situation. This inability has been clearly demonstrated over the past months, when people had a hard time to discontinue habitual behavior despite being constantly reminded of the consequences. In contrast, falling back

into the trap of already established conditioning was, as expected, much easier. In fact, many people still do notunderstand how, when and why measures, aimed at protecting their own and others' physical well-being, must be applied. The situation is even worse when it comes to measures applied to protect mental wellbeing, primarily because most people are not even familiar with these measures and therefore cannot even see their necessity. The current growth of confusion, ignorance, frustration or hopelessness, is a sign that people still struggle to recognize all the faculties of their own body-mind and the way to deal with them. In other words, as long as these faculties are unknown, the tools and measures used to maintain their optimal functionality can neither be seen nor properly applied.

Hence, whenever the unguided mind is triggered by information provided by the sense organs, it will create response paths based on already available "information library". The system will categorize triggers and act according to the principle of "punishment and gratification " and thus will also define the future reactions. If the level of awareness of the person is low, this process will also strengthen the conditioning. Although the trigger’s threshold and intensity vary from person to person, primary triggers always have an external origin. In situations where this external trigger source is closed or limited (e.g., limited social contacts due to a pandemic), the conditioned system reacts with typical withdrawal symptoms whereby the warning mechanism is switched on, leading to mental agitation, depression and a range of toxic emotions.

Yet, this is exactly what makes the current pandemic a powerful life lesson that gives people the opportunity to finally face and do something about all of the toxic elements currently rising to the surface. It is also an opportunity for people to clearly see the functionality of their minds and to understand that the development of mental performance was originally aimed at preserving as the individual so the humankind. In the technological age, however, this powerful mechanism is increasingly used only as a container in which everything is collected without filtration or purification. For this reason, the acquired information is not assimilated and integrated and therefore not transcended in knowledge. Instead, the mind becomes inundated with information to such an extent that the receptivity, required for adapting to constant change, is drastically reduced. This activates a mechanism that aims to prevent another flood of additional information, for a shorter or longer period, and thus to protect the mind. As a result, mental walls are created that will eventually lead to people being trapped in their own mental fortresses. The stronger the mental walls, the greater the fear of what might be behind them, which leads to the creation of additional mental formations. In the final phase of this process, life only takes place within an imaginary reality that is limited by personal mental walls. However, since the mind is in constant search for new stimuli, there will always be mental discomfort and any attempt to remove it would not be successful. Namely, the mind that is in such a state is only receptive to information that does not endanger its construction, and will try to somewhat subside discomfort and quenchen the thirst for fresh information by allowing passing of additional information, however only after this has been filtered, reshaped, or recycled.

The mind that arises during such a process, becomes overcrowded and entropic over time, thus starts interfering with the free mental flow. This creates a feeling of inner deprivation that gives birth to the desire to acquire everything that seems to be missing. People do not see the counterproductivity of such action because they do not understand that the urge to collect does not arise from the void, but on the contrary from the disorder. When the mind is in a state in which the degree of entropy exceeds the threshold of what is commonly accepted as a normal, it is characterized as a "dysfunctional mind." It is forgotten that this threshold is also defined by the conditioned mind and therefore depends either on the degree of spiritual maturity and clarity (on the individual level) or on the degree of maturity of the majority (on the collective level). Thereby, the degree of individual and collective maturity is not identical. This is also the reason why some people may not feel in tune with the culture or time in which they live.

This shows the extent to which clarity of mind that accompanies spiritual maturation is important for human development and well-being. For this reason, every society, especially in times of crisis, such as the one in which the world is currently in, must think seriously about the quality, scope and application of the measures that not only protect individuals and communities but also promote mental health and the human maturation. Unfortunately, the world in general is still trying to find the right path, which is also reflected during this pandemic. Locked in a dualistic mindset, global society is mainly focused on the physical manifestation of the pandemic, neglecting its non-physical manifestation and their interdependence. Because of this, although great efforts are being made to prevent the virus from spreading further, the mental problems that arise when people are isolated or cut off from the social and emotional support to which they are used and which normally maintain them, are still not taken into account. As a result, compulsive behavior also spreads, which is particularly accelerated due to the way the modern world disseminates information.

The best investment that global society can now make is investment in understanding and right utilization of the mental faculties of our species. Thereby, learning about oneself also means learning about one's mental problems, emotional turbulence, or the thought process, but as well about nature, life and existence. Yet, this knowledge cannot be obtained in the way that people are used to learn in today's world. That is, a superficial gathering of information, shortcuts, theorizing, or anticipating immediate results, does not lead to a deeper understanding of all available facets and interactions that mind has. This is also not a topic that can be forcibly imposed on children and people, as this knowledge can only be acquired in a way that possesses compassionate patience, similar to that offered by a parent to a child who is just beginning to walk. Yet, just as some parents are not equipped with the maturity necessary to support the full flowering of the child's abilities, so the world today is not yet mature enough to give wings to the next generation. The fact is that most of the people who make up today's global society, still don't understand their own thoughts, feelings and body even after 30, 40, 60 years of living in this world. Therefore, they cannot pass to others the necessary knowledge about skills that they do not have. But what is far worse, their ignorance makes them pass the wrong assumptions and beliefs on to the next generation.

Some of these misconceptions that are passed down from generation to generation are the way we approach problems in general. Namely most people commonly take a reactive rather than proactive approach. Such an approach has not only gained a foothold in in every area of human culture (in economy, medicine, politics, environmental protection etc.), but also in every level of individual life (relationships, emotions, health, intellect, etc.). The current situation shows that also problems that have occurred due to pandemic are approached exactly the same way, being mostly observed in isolation and without consideration of their complex interactions. Because of this short-sighted and isolated view, the world is still looking only for remedies for the manifested symptoms and not for curing the roots of the problem.

Yet, the situation is not hopeless, and we can actually take care of our well-being. The only thing we need is to act in a way that takes into account all aspects, and not just the part our conditioned mind suggests. This is especially important if we want to alleviate our mental suffering, which can only be successful if the healing of the whole system is taken into account. Thereby we must keep in mind that the alignment of physical, mental and energy bodies is never a linear process. Namely, even if we integrate all the parts, the whole picture is not displayed at once. Although the "puzzle" is complete and thus our consciousness is automatically lifted, the picture that the “puzzle” shows only becomes clear with time. In other words, at first, we are only aware of the part of the conditioning that is imprinted on us, whereby newly attained awareness of one's own conditioning acts as a jump-start for the reprogramming of the body-mind and the corresponding reaction paths to external and internal stimuli. The corrected paths, in turn, raise awareness even further. In this way, awareness and reprogramming work hand in hand, with the increased awareness clearing the mind, which is why the conditioning is better exposed and reprogrammed, what in turn leads to higher awareness and an improvement in the mind-clearing process. That simple means that, as awareness increases, the continuous reprogramming gets more successful, what leads us, gradually, to our original unbiased nature and freedom from any mental discomfort.