My Thoughts On Sound Mental Health

Dear Readers: As a way of thanking you for allowing me to come into your lives through my column over the past 24 years, I am offering my thoughts on sound mental health.

• Remain strong and have a focus and direction, but allow for change and flexibility as the need arises.

• Seek balance in all things except love and compassion -- two vessels that can never be filled.

• Give of yourself with no regard or expectation of receiving anything in return, as the joy of giving will overwhelm you.

• Let anger leave you with the speed of light and come upon you like the movement of a glacier.

• Strive for a marriage where joy and happiness shine like the sun but arguments and unhappiness seem like the faintest stars.

• Find a job that you enjoy waking up to most days but that doesn’t follow you home at night.

• Find people you like to be with, but don’t expect every single person you meet in life to like you.

• Learn to say no in a kind, straightforward manner, but don’t let feeling guilty be an echo.

• Make forgiveness a gift you readily give and learning from experience a gift you readily accept.

• Let optimism be your default mode but realism your spell check.

• Let belief in a higher power support you through the speed bumps and potholes of life.

• Don’t be surprised when your teenagers don’t think logically and act irrationally. These are signs of the disease of adolescence.

• When your wife is also your best friend, your marriage is made to last a lifetime.

• Don’t try to be good friends with your children when they are young -- there will be plenty of opportunities for friendship when they become adults.

• Wake up each morning by thinking “this day will be special.” Then work hard all day to make sure it happens.

• Don’t let modesty prevent you from giving yourself a pat on the back for your accomplishments, because sometimes this is the only pat that you will receive.

• Boycott “pity parties,” especially your own.

• Make physical and mental exercise strong habits and your lifelong friends.

• Keep very tight reigns on the need to control. Use control like a good cook uses salt, a pinch at a time.

• Make tact and diplomacy the dynamic duo of your communication skills.

My observations are part of my wish for each reader to have a happy, healthy holiday season and new year.