Hygiene is a concept that most of us begin to learn as toddlers — washing our hands, brushing our teeth, etc. Most people are socialized to integrate their physical hygiene into their daily habits — to the point that many people no longer need to make a conscious effort to complete their hygiene tasks. For some, we might complete these tasks while being completely zoned out or focused on something else — the body just seems to take care of it for us while the mind is elsewhere.

A few years ago I heard the term mental hygiene mentioned in a video while I was working. I didn’t think much of it at the time, just left the video playing in the background. I didn’t think to look into it and just moved on with what I was doing. Maybe that video planted a seed in my subconscious somewhere because one day I noticed something odd.

One day it hit me that it seemed like almost everyone in my life had this common belief. A belief that memorizing things and holding certain knowledge in our minds at all times makes us more functional and productive members of society. I realized that I had believed this too for most of my life and had never thought it was odd before now. In fact, since I was a child I believed I was inadequate to others around me because I couldn’t hold as much information in my mind as they could. I started to question whether this belief was true…I started to wonder if there was a better way to think.

Mental hygiene is the practice of attending to our mind like we do other parts of our bodies. When I first was introduced to this term, I started to reflect a lot on myself and my life. I wondered why I wasn’t taught to care for my mind like I was taught to wash my hands. I realized I wanted to change this. I was very curious to see if I could make a difference in my life by practicing “mental hygiene”.

Mental hygiene allows us to experience more clarity in our lives. We see more, we understand more, and we can create more. When our minds are not consumed by our thoughts, we can place more focus on observation. This means we can take in more information about our internal and external world as we experience it. Having more mental clarity also allows us to see correlations and patterns in the world around us more clearly. We notice more systems around us and can better understand how these systems work just by observing them. Lastly, the mental clarity experienced from proper mental hygiene gives us the space to think more original thoughts and act more intentionally. We tend to create more rather than repeating behaviors or thoughts over and over throughout the day.

The core of mental hygiene is meditation: the practice of observing without judgement. The concept of meditation can turn a lot of people off, especially because it has become such a marketed concept on social media and in the wellness industry. It seems to have become an overly complicated topic, but meditation itself is extremely simple. There is no correct way or time to practice meditation. It is simply a shift of focus that allows the mind time to rest and rejuvenate. This period of rest can be a few seconds or it can be an hour, the length of sessions is not as important as it is to make meditation a habit.

Put simply: mental hygiene is the practice of allowing the brain regular periods of rest throughout the day. The effect of mental hygiene is to see ourselves, others, and the world around us more clearly rather than through the filter of our thoughts. Observing our experiences more clearly empowers us to make better decisions in our lives.

Although there are endless tutorials on meditation online, there is no perfect way to meditate. It is a practice that you’ll need to approach creatively and be ready to experiment with — your meditation practice should be customized to fit you and your lifestyle. The goal is to make it easy enough for you to do regularly until it becomes a habit. Whether it’s 1 minute 10 times a day or 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night — no amount of meditation is too little. It’s also no one else’s business how often and how long you meditate, it’s for you and you can do what you want.

These are the basic steps I follow for my meditations:

• move to a place with minimal external stimulation, sit or stand comfortably, close your eyes
• shift focus from the mind to the body — let your mind know it has done well and after a short break it can get back to work
• notice the feeling of energy in your head, notice as that energy moves down through your shoulders, to your fingertips, to where your feet rest on the floor — notice these sensations while breathing deeply and slowly
• if focus returns to the mind, gently return your focus to your breath and the feelings in your body — do not get angry with your mind, it is okay to keep returning

In conclusion, mental hygiene is a practice that is just as important as physical hygiene. Allowing the mind to rest is necessary so that we can use our brains rather than letting our brains use us. Caring for the mind allows us to observe more, understand more, and create more. It allows us to be better informed so that we can make more intentional decisions. As mental hygiene becomes a more common practice, maybe society as a whole will begin to make healthier and wiser decisions. In the meantime, the personal benefits alone make it a worthwhile investment.