25 - Indirect versus direct work

Indirect versus direct work I don’t think there’s anyone around who would disagree that mental health is important. But because you were never taught how to look after your mental health, most of us don’t really know how to address it, so we go about taking care of our minds through what I’ll call indirect work. Indirect work is exercising, spending time in nature or among friends. It is most definitely important and part of a complete mental health routine. Spending your time in positive, productive ways is a key component, super important. There’s also avoidant indirect work we use not to feel bad in the short term. This can be alcohol, drugs, Netflix, social media, or anything “positive” that’s done to the detriment of something more important in your life. Indirect work is one side of the equation. To compliment it we also need direct work. Activities that the primary purpose is to improve our quality of thoughts, awareness of our feelings and body sensations, and increase our kindness towards ourselves and others. The great thing about direct work is done correctly really doesn’t take much time at all. In fact a couple of minutes a day done consistently reaps huge benefits. So make sure it’s part of your daily activities.