Finding Your Own Underlying Mental Health Within

Finding Your Own Underlying Mental Health Within
By
Bill Cottringer

“The obscure takes awhile to see, but the obvious even longer.” ~Unknown author.

Just about the time I finally think I have the main purpose of life figured out, up pops something else with a slightly different flavor and depth. I think the problem is that the common goal of life has many different names, shapes and sizes. But no matter how we describe “it,” it doesn’t really change, except in its communicated appearance through words according to the speed, style and direction in which we are looking for and finding it.

Right now at this point in my life, I sense I have always been on a journey to discover my own inner, underlying mental health—the core of my true self—and its awesome potential to grow, improve, do good and be happy with itself doing these simple things. And I think this is really a very common journey on which we are all traveling at our own speed, style and chosen direction. It is the differences in those three qualities where all the arguments arise, along with the corruption of unnecessary mental un-health along the way.

I am unable to imagine a better start to a happy ending—being given a solid underlying mental health and the human intelligence to nurture, improve and grow it. That is why we cannot deny even a glimmer of hope during the darkest of times, try as we may. We always know in our bones, that “it” is there to find and use for our own and others’ benefit.

What we have to do is discover this underlying mental health by peeling back all the artificial layers of reality that we have created to keep from seeing it as it really is. Of course, we all seem to spend a great deal of time looking for “it” out there usually in bizarre, impatient ways—outside ourselves—at least until we finally realize it has always been right here inside all along, despite the many illusions and delusions to the contrary.

So why do we waste so much time looking for this inside mental health and wholegrain happiness out and about in a world we are usually misperceiving? Because the speed, style and direction of our pursuit are all so entertaining and believable and that fills the void enough to think you have “it.” That is until you wake up to the ultimate reality behind these many false ones: The judgment you make between things that feel good and make you happy and those that make you feel lousy and unhappy (which results in those feelings taking hold) actually occurs inside you. Wow what a discovery!

What does this wonderful discovery lead to? Simply the power to question this basic judgment between okay and not okay, needing to be based more on intuitive, direct soulful experiences without any judgment, rather than on all the other over-imagined and over-interpreted safe space out there between you and the experience. This discovery can make you feel very foolish as to why you have been wasting all your time trying to discover your own underlying mental health and happiness in all the wrong ways and places.

I can’t begin to understand or explain why we usually have to fail at something before we learn to succeed, except that this odd path eventually does lead to what we all are destined to enjoy—the abundance of our own underlying mental health and well-being. Finding this true self behind all the façade we work hard to project, is kind of like the sculpture chipping away the irrelevant parts until the object art piece is revealed. Only then does it become pure beauty and truth for others to enjoy, especially the artist.

There is a good reason why it takes so long to discover your underlying mental health and the authentic happiness it brings. It is because this particular reality is so well hidden from view. It is so obvious that it takes longer to see, even longer than the more obscure things we search for. Plus this reality is inside and can’t be found in all the outside realities that pre-occupy our attention and efforts.

The bad news is the longer it takes you to discover this most precious gift, the less time you have to apply it in life and reap the benefits; but the good news is the longer this process takes, the more you enjoy the experience when it does come in the real now moment of time, and sometimes that is all that matters.