How to Improve Our Mental Health with Dr. Ben Bernstein

In today’s episode of the “Helping Families Be Happy” podcast, host Christopher Robbins, Co-founder of Familius Publishing (A Husband, Father, Author, Fisherman, Backpacker, and Aspirational Musician based in the Central Valley of California) talks with guest Dr. Ben Bernstein (A veteran Psychologist, Educator, Keynote Speaker, Author, and a Performance Coach for Academy Award, Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winners. His client lists include CEOs, Dentists, Athletes, Attorneys, Physicians, Business Executives, Opera Singers, and Actors). You can reach Dr. Bernstein at his website -- https://www.drbyourbest.com/.  Today Dr. Bernstein talks about the ways to improve our mental health. 

Episode Highlights

• 01:40 – Dr. Bernstein is the Founder and Artistic Director of the ‘Singer’s Gym’, a nonprofit training workshop for professional singers that have vitality, spontaneity, and connection in their work. 
• 04:00 - Dr. Bernstein says that he is deeply a person of prayer and a man of religious practice, but you don't have to have a religion to have a spirit, because everyone has a spirit. 
• 05:40 - There's a reason that all the sages and saints for 1000s of years have been talking about the breath because it's a real vital connection from vitality.
• 08:00 - A very healthy thing to do for your mental health is to appreciate somebody in your life daily. Appreciating means expressing gratitude to someone in your life and then expressing gratitude to them.
• 10:00 - Dr. Ben heard a philosopher on the radio say once, “We're built to be givers, not takers”.
• 12:00 - You wouldn't even be here today if it was purely negative. There always is a positive side, we were not created thinking we are a loser.
• 14:00 – Christopher summarizes what all Dr. Bernstein spoke about during the episode.
• 16:25 - Dr. Ben says that we do have different kinds of mental conditions that are diagnosable, however, in his practice, and in his life he has dealt with so many of these, even in the most difficult circumstances through love. 

Three Key Points

1. Mental health is one part of our overall health, however, Dr. Bernstein uses three-legged stool which is body, mind, and spirit. When we talk about mental health, we seem to be focusing only on the mind but we are also a body and a spirit. When all three legs are equally strong, our mental health becomes equally strong too. Mental health also depends upon our physical, and spiritual health. Dr. Bernstein says that wherever we construe spirit, he views it as a motivating force. So, Dr. Ben speaks a little bit about the health of each of the three facts. The most important is to help your mind through your body is to get connected through your body to the world.
2. Dr. Bernstein mentions that he has a radical view about the definition of mental health which is that mental disturbance unless it's a genetic or a brain disorder, it's always a disturbance of some kind of love. We're meant as human beings to give to each other to prove our love to give. When we pull away from that, we're often in a state of fear or anger. As a result, we cut ourselves off from the connection that we all have and we all need from each other.
3. It's all about positive connection, the more connected your body is, and the more connected you are to others, to nature, or the more you appreciate people, the more mental health you will have.

Tweetable Quotes

• “The thing you missed is that 3 of those books were published by Familius.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein
• “October is a Mental Health Awareness Month.” - Christopher Robbins
• “When you hold your breath, the message that your brain is getting is that you're dying.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein
• “Ground yourself right now, grounding means feeling the chair support, you feeling the floor support, we really get out of touch.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein
• “The spirit connection in the spirit has two parts to it.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein
• “Appreciation we know from lots of research has a lot to do with mental health, so that's one thing I would recommend.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein
• “Looking at your thoughts about yourself is really super important.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein
• “I think we're all here to serve one another.” - Dr. Ben Bernstein

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast  Apple

• Dr. Ben Bernstein Website Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Twitter
• Podcast Editing