Not all heroes wear capes: Conscious effort
While this week end I was in a sess with a patient of mine, a deeply bright young adult that goes not by he or she but by ‘they’. I asked them “today is world mental health day and I am speaking on the matter later this afternoon. What would be your tips for maintaining a good mental health balance?”. They looked at me and said “I am 17 years old, what tips could I possibly give you?”. I told her about ‘reverse mentoring’. “You have been through sh-it and I am pretty sure you have some takeaways on how you faced it that you could share to the world .”
Then they went with the following that litterally blew my mind away:
“ You are my therapist and you have repeatedly been telling me that 90% of the cure to most of our challenges were awareness. I agree and yet I think it is not enough. Awareness is a good start but you need to put it in motion. The ‘conscious effort’ is the key.
When you decide to have a healthier life and wake up at 6am to go to the gym. This is conscious effort. When you check what you put in your mouth in order to be more healthy, this is a conscious effort. And to decide whether to be in a good state of mind or not, here again is a conscious effort.”
They are 17 years old and they reverse mentored me in just a minute.
