Day 51 on which I wonder how thousands of years of thought have led us...nowhere.

I still find it strange and fascinating that we have so many well-defined options for getting and keeping the bodies we want, but so few for creating the minds we want.

Sure, there are widely varying opinions about which diet and/or exercise plan is the right one, or the best one; but there’s no question that there are plenty to follow, and that most of them, if followed, will work.

But where’s the equivalent “emotional diet” or “mental workout plan” that’s guaranteed to keep us happy, engaged, able to cope with the world and other people and things that we need to do?

Because I want one. I want a checklist of things I can do to be mentally and emotionally healthy. I want to be told how many hours a day I have to do them, and in what order, and how many reps I need for maximum efficacy.

Philosophers, religious thinkers, and the psychiatric community aren’t a lot of help; they’ve largely spent their time arguing about what ought to make us happy. If one doesn’t buy into the idea that the highest virtue is pleasure, or surrender to God, or living in harmony with nature, or reason, or mortification of the body, or [fill in your favorite spiritual or philosophical belief], the instructions that follow about how to reach that state of being are sort of useless.

Just as I don’t need to understand the mechanism by which eating less junk food causes my body to become lighter or lifting weights makes it stronger, I shouldn’t have to find a philosophy or religion to which to subscribe in order to find a set of actions that leads to greater mental health.

Similarly, my physical health isn’t culturally dependent; I’m going to get fat and weak if I eat too much and work out too little whether I’m an American living in the 21^st century, or a Maori living in 100 BCE. So why should it be that what makes me happy, or mentally healthy, depends on the culture in which I was raised?  Sure, there are cultural norms, and sure, fitting in with or breaking those norms leads to internal conflict. But those norms are almost always control mechanisms, meant to keep the population behaving in a way that works best for the ruling class. They’re not usually things that, absent the pressure brought to bear by others, are natural, or pleasing or, in and of themselves, creators of happiness or peace or resilience.

What I’m saying, and what I suspect philosophers have been struggling with since they had time to look up from their pre-historic plate long enough to think thoughts, is that there should be a set of behaviors, skills, and practices that lead all people to be mentally and emotionally healthy, whenever or wherever they live, and in whatever circumstances they face.

Perhaps I’m putting too much emphasis on a parallel between physical health and mental/emotional health. But I find it so odd that we’ve named and created (or are trying to create) therapies for every single physical ailment, abnormality, disorder, discomfort, misalignment, or cosmetic flaw, but barely understand what creates mental and emotional strength, comfort, and flexibility.

And the worst part is, the lack of coherent thought about what defines mental health, or happiness, or about what leads to it, is REALLY impeding my ability to create leading indicators that guide my about what to do every day to reach that state of internal health.

Would someone PLEASE come up with a unified theory of mental health? Happiness? Anything? It doesn’t seem like much to ask.