Natural mental health

 See my long essay, split into three parts; Natural mental health (part one)

Note to self

Rational thought, followed by deliberate conscious intention, is such a weak tool for bringing about action - let alone change - that I have to carry instructions to myself on a cue card!

I doubt the below will mean anything to you, but then it’s not meant to!

(The more astute may realise some of these half sentences are cribs and at least one lifted in its entirety.)

Whatever happened to, ‘..the best is yet to come…’ (2011, 2019)

Human beings are notoriously bad at predicting. What we are good at, both instinctively and through the acquisition of further skill is anticipating in the short term, ‘the two second advantage’ [1] as some have called it. Many, unaware of how much of life is highly sensitive to initial conditions, boldly go in for futurology. The key to anticipation, having made one move, is how able are you to dump everything you think you know, and make a fresh assessment of the new, current and different situation? Think of all those sports where the ball travels so fast that you must start your move before it has been hit! And when you miss, how fast can you forget?

However, we are always being told by others to set aims, objectives, goals, plan and sign-up to mission statements. When I posted the following in 2011, I was playing that old trick, that rarely works, of hoping that a public declaration of intent would force me to get on with it and comply!

Screenshot

Things don’t turn out as we intend, the best attitude to ‘failure’ or indeed anything which might be regarded as a mistake, is to see it all as part of an inevitable process and an opportunity for new learning. You can even go so far as to regard depression in this way, as always reactive to something; you feel down in response to a loss (of any kind), is your response grounded in a real event where sadness or grief really is the right emotion, or is it that things just didn’t turn out the way you planned them? If the latter is the case, one legitimate response is to conclude that it was simply a lousy plan in the first place.

Events happen, change occurs around us whether we like it or not. I was a psychiatric inpatient for a brief period at the end of 2011, and for a month or so in the spring of 2012, the autumn of 2014 and the summer of 2016. My father died in 2014, he’d been the last of the previous generation, so his estate contained within it not only the possessions of many direct ancestors but their ‘life documents’ too [2]. In 2014 the sea wall outside my window collapsed and in 2016 I moved home. But I should confess, that all of this is by way of a distraction - for there is a sleight of hand in what I’ve written so far!

As stated in the post, all the writing was already half complete, I wouldn’t have had the nerve to assert their contents if they hadn’t been. Now, the first and last have already been posted, leaving just the meat in the sandwich. But, having had the pleasure of finding things out, the kick of discovery (to misquote Feynman) [3] I’m bored and face the tedium of laying out the argument and evidence step by step. (The answer to that kind of task is of course mindfulness!) Distraction is sorely tempting, like transcribing and publishing the audio recordings I have (conversations with 2 clients, a nurse, 2 support workers, a student and an educator.) The passage of time and an already tested form of presentation takes care of any confidentiality issues. Come to think of it, this is more than a Masters thesis, more like a PhD!

(I ought to hurry up though, because I want to claim for myself the phrase Ways Of Being With, and the concept of Social Craftsmanship.)

Of course, real intellectual confidence would be not feeling the need to do any of it. The most obvious recent example being flash Dave. In the course of doing a first degree you realise you’ve already proved to yourself your capability to do this kind of stuff and your attention shifts. Just how long does it take to become Prime Minster? And remember, political careers always end in failure, so at the first major mistake, get the hell out and find something better to do!

[1] Ranadive, V and Maney, K (2012) The Two-Second Advantage

[2] Plummer, K (1983 & 2000) Documents of Life

[3] Feynman, R. P (1999) The Pleasure of Finding Things Out 

Bibliography of the half-written!

Never say never again - inpatient 2016

The view of Haytor from the Haytor Unit, a view I'd first seen 22 years before when it was called the Edith Morgan Centre (did the 45 mile version of Ten Tors in 1977.) (photo by Nick Hewling)

Luckily I was transferred to the old Cypress Independent Hospital within the week (Community Care Trust as was.) (photo by Nick Hewling)

Some argument about Wordsworth, probably me saying something about always read the original and remember the context - wild daffodils, between the edge of the mere and the tree line. (photo by Nick Hewling)

Not difficult to scare oneself (photo by Nick Hewling)

Still had to serve-out 28 days, part of deal, still cheers! (selfie by Nick Hewling)

 

Time and space - inpatient 2014

Location on, screenshot by Nick Hewling

Tortured by the view, photo by Nick Hewling

Selfie, clearly I had more kit than 'they' did, photo by Nick Hewling 

1.12.2014 10,48 food obsessed, photo by Nick Hewling

2.12.2014 17,00 must have been out, photo by Nick Hewling