Helping your Mental Development

We are taking the week off of school. (That’s one of the benefits of homeschooling.)

It’s been nice.

We’ve gotten a few projects done, had some time to volunteer, and spent time doing Christmas activities.

It’s been a little hard on my oldest, though, because there isn’t a real schedule. She thrives on a schedule. I like schedules, too, but this week I’ve just been creating a to-do list and chuncking my time. Our morning routine has stayed the same. Meals and bed times are the same. But everything in the middle has been free time and project time.

I’ve gotten a lot done. Her? Not so much.

Because I have created habits, I’ve been able to still do the things that are most important for me.

Like writing every night.

One of my journal prompts this week asked, “Over the past year, what methods/activities have helped your mental health?”

It was a timely question.

I’m taking a class right now and the focus for the past couple of weeks has been on mental health. We read chunks of several books and listened to some audios, did some thought journaling and had discussions.

One book we read from was The Seven Habits. Steven Covey writes, “Most of our mental development and study discipline comes through formal education. But as soon as we leave the external discipline of school, many of us let our minds atrophy. We don’t do any more serious reading, we don’t explore new subjects in any real depth outside of our action fields, we don’t think analytically, [and] we don’t write.”

So the question is, now that you are out of formal school, what are you doing to develop your mind?

Covey suggests two things.

1. Get in the habit of reading good literature.

2. Write. He specifically says keep a journal and write letters

Another concept of mental health that we discussed was leisure time. Typically we think of leisure time as the activities we do for fun in our free time. Mortimer Adler says that leisure time activities are self-rewarding and meaningful. Leisure activities make us better. They are good to do and get good results.

We came up with a good list of leisure activities in our discussion.

• Developing artistic abilities

• Serving

• Studying good works that are difficult

• Political activity

• Perfecting a physical skill

• Teaching others

• Working on your character

• Writing

• Learning a new skill

• Exercising/physical activity

I can’t remember if I’ve always enjoyed learning, but I know it has been a big part of my life since I’ve become a mom.

Some of the things I did this year to help with my mental health include:

• Listened to podcasts (I think only I discovered them this year)

• Joined the MDM Academy (Mission Driven Mom)

• Read lots of books and participated in discussions

• Started a blog

• Wrote weekly blog articles and nightly journal entries

What are somethings you have done this year to develop your mind?