Has Your Mental Health Been Whittled Away?

Often in life, our mental health can be whittled away, but when we know this, we can find ways to restore.

As a young boy one of my favourite activities to do was to get a knife and to whittle away at a piece of wood.

Nothing elaborate, just a pointed end on a piece of Manuka to use as a spear in an imaginary game of Tarzan.

For me, I was reliving a combination of Huck Finn, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. I would whittle away at that piece of wood until it was sharp as a toothpick.

If I needed to cut a piece of wood in half, I would just whittle and whittle away all around the branch until I could snap it in two. Shavings, ever so thin, would litter the ground.

Over time, I have come to realise that my Mental Health is vulnerable to being whittled away at.

Hurts, cuts, things said, frustrations, tiredness, sleeplessness, demands, they all take little slivers of your resilience away. Heaviness fills the day, joy is gone and just one more cut and a little pressure and SNAP, you’re broken.

You think you’re stronger than you are, that you can push through, but in reality you are flesh and blood, dusty to the core and Superman without a cape.

As a friend said to me once, ‘Don’t let the buggers grind you down’, well they eventually did, but I am rebuilding and growing stronger day by day.

Mental Health Whittled Away

What have I learned from my Mental Health being whittled away.

Take care of yourself first.
It’s not selfishness, it’s self care. If you are constantly giving out, soon you will become empty yourself. What restores your soul? I wonder if you have some stinky thinking about yourself, that you don’t deserve self care? Jesus himself rested and looked after himself. God also rested after 6 days of creating the universe. So are you greater than them?
Whittles are normal, its the quantity that will cripple you.
Being hurt, taking some knocks etc is normal. It is just that if you get too many over a long period and there is no healing or recovery then they add up. Actually they can multiply up to a huge fragility. How deeply soul tired are you? I am amazed constantly at what some people have gone through. The cuts and the pressures they are exposed too, but everyone has their limit. What’s your’s?
Have a Weekly Recovery Plan.
What restores your soul? What gives you life? God calls his people to have a day of rest, a Sabbath, a ceasing of any kind of work. What do you do that restores your deep dry well? Write out a list, plan it into your week, defend it with all you have.

Here are some examples of activities that restore me:

Reading books on my Kindle. It is so good to just sit and be still, cup of coffee and get absorbed into a good book.
Reading the Bible. Slowly and meditatively, listening to what God is saying.
Going over my encouragement journal.
Sleep, both at night and little naps in the afternoon.
Creating something tangible with my hands.
Silence and Solitude. Separating yourself from the busyness of life to be quiet.
Playing with our dogs. They like it too!