In 1963, at the age of 29 I wound up in a mental hospital... Discovering why it happened took me a long time to learn. There were multiple reasons...A major one was lack of knowledge regarding nutrition...being on constant diets from the age of 13 on. I was not getting the nutrients I needed to feed my brain, because I was always trying to keep my weight down. The brain requires nutrients in order to function. If the brain doesn't get fed, people will space out. For my first 29 years of life, I was not getting the nutrients I needed...but I had no mental issues. However, a major stress put me over the edge and I wound up in a mental institution being given drugs. Drugs are not an answer...nutrients for the brain and body are what people require. I love people and have always had friends. The last six years, I have led a very solitary life, but my every moment is filled and I have had no down time. I am a writer...and I write daily. I never get depressed or bored. One of the things I do daily, is keep a journal regarding the foods and supplements I ingest in order to stay on track. When you feed the body right, you are also nourishing your brain. My Journey to Wellness free newsletter covers everything you would like to know about health in my 64 year search for the truth barbaracharis.substack.com
I search through all the muck that bogs down online platforms for intelligent, meaningful writing that addresses important topics. Well, here it is! You are a stunning thinker and writer, Sarah. You are a gift. Please, write. Write and write!
I'm so interested in this topic as a way of understanding both myself and others.
Becoming a grandparent, for example, is in one sense evolution's way of saying your services are no longer required.
We talk about a "loneliness epidemic" but you'd think that the ability to handle solitude would be a survival trait if you assume that throughout our evolutionary history there would be times in someone's life where they would be alone.
One of the most important truths I have ever known is to “not believe everything the brain thinks”.
The Cree medicine woman I studied with for years taught me that energy hits us from the outside in. Thought precedes emotion, emotion causes physical reactions.
The energy bodies from the inside outward are physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and intuitive. If we are able to observe things that approach us at the mental level, and make logical decisions about whether or not to agree with them, it is possible to not have either an emotional nor physical response. (Difficult to imagine, yet completely true).
I've been married 34 years but really enjoy my alone time. I've always been "good at" being alone. I wonder if it came from chaos in my family and solitude was a calm escape. I played by myself and used my imagination for entertainment.
I'm not a Buddhist, but I learned the thoughts create emotions and emotions determine action or inaction somewhere. It made profound sense to me, and I've written about it many times because when I learned and tested this in my life, I felt like I had won the lottery!
This was the most beneficial lesson for me concerning mental health, bar none. Does it mean I'm no longer mentally ill, no. Does it mean I'm no longer on mood altering medication, no. But, it gave me the knowledge necessary to be my own agent. My first milestone, and I don't think I was alone here, was accepting that my brain lied to me, and not just sometimes. After the practice of self-awareness, and being able to fully develop the ability to observe my own thinking ("second brain"), I was free!
I loved your article, and although I don't know all the science stuff with the brain, or why our brains do what they do, I didn't need to in order to become more self-aware and responsible for my thinking. I'm glad that someone who gets the nitty gritty is writing about it. Thank you! 🙏
I think media and social media have a lot to answer for here. We watch these tv shows thinking we should all have a tribe of women and friends who have zero personal life and only exist to be with us every second of the day. Maybe those people exist. I'm not one of them. And lots of other people are introverts too, and happy to exist in quiet solitude ☺️
In 1963, at the age of 29 I wound up in a mental hospital... Discovering why it happened took me a long time to learn. There were multiple reasons...A major one was lack of knowledge regarding nutrition...being on constant diets from the age of 13 on. I was not getting the nutrients I needed to feed my brain, because I was always trying to keep my weight down. The brain requires nutrients in order to function. If the brain doesn't get fed, people will space out. For my first 29 years of life, I was not getting the nutrients I needed...but I had no mental issues. However, a major stress put me over the edge and I wound up in a mental institution being given drugs. Drugs are not an answer...nutrients for the brain and body are what people require. I love people and have always had friends. The last six years, I have led a very solitary life, but my every moment is filled and I have had no down time. I am a writer...and I write daily. I never get depressed or bored. One of the things I do daily, is keep a journal regarding the foods and supplements I ingest in order to stay on track. When you feed the body right, you are also nourishing your brain. My Journey to Wellness free newsletter covers everything you would like to know about health in my 64 year search for the truth barbaracharis.substack.com
I search through all the muck that bogs down online platforms for intelligent, meaningful writing that addresses important topics. Well, here it is! You are a stunning thinker and writer, Sarah. You are a gift. Please, write. Write and write!
I'm so interested in this topic as a way of understanding both myself and others.
Becoming a grandparent, for example, is in one sense evolution's way of saying your services are no longer required.
We talk about a "loneliness epidemic" but you'd think that the ability to handle solitude would be a survival trait if you assume that throughout our evolutionary history there would be times in someone's life where they would be alone.
Thanks Sarah for much to think about.
One of the most important truths I have ever known is to “not believe everything the brain thinks”.
The Cree medicine woman I studied with for years taught me that energy hits us from the outside in. Thought precedes emotion, emotion causes physical reactions.
The energy bodies from the inside outward are physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and intuitive. If we are able to observe things that approach us at the mental level, and make logical decisions about whether or not to agree with them, it is possible to not have either an emotional nor physical response. (Difficult to imagine, yet completely true).
Wonderful essay.
I've been married 34 years but really enjoy my alone time. I've always been "good at" being alone. I wonder if it came from chaos in my family and solitude was a calm escape. I played by myself and used my imagination for entertainment.
Covid seclusion was easy peasy for me.
I'm not a Buddhist, but I learned the thoughts create emotions and emotions determine action or inaction somewhere. It made profound sense to me, and I've written about it many times because when I learned and tested this in my life, I felt like I had won the lottery!
This was the most beneficial lesson for me concerning mental health, bar none. Does it mean I'm no longer mentally ill, no. Does it mean I'm no longer on mood altering medication, no. But, it gave me the knowledge necessary to be my own agent. My first milestone, and I don't think I was alone here, was accepting that my brain lied to me, and not just sometimes. After the practice of self-awareness, and being able to fully develop the ability to observe my own thinking ("second brain"), I was free!
I loved your article, and although I don't know all the science stuff with the brain, or why our brains do what they do, I didn't need to in order to become more self-aware and responsible for my thinking. I'm glad that someone who gets the nitty gritty is writing about it. Thank you! 🙏
I think media and social media have a lot to answer for here. We watch these tv shows thinking we should all have a tribe of women and friends who have zero personal life and only exist to be with us every second of the day. Maybe those people exist. I'm not one of them. And lots of other people are introverts too, and happy to exist in quiet solitude ☺️