Our thoughts and our feelings are intrinsically linked. If you want to feel good, happy, relaxed, capable, you have to adopt the right patterns of thought to achieve it. This is the basis on which most mental health treatment is based. Yes, there can be medication and other means of support, but most of the help out there is about learning to think in ways that will lead you to feel better.
Some people’s lives make this a particularly tough process. But all of us will feel better if we think in helpful ways. A lot of this is about habits of thinking and learning the thought patterns that will ensure that day-to-day life is good.
The last section focused on the ways of thinking that are essential in building resilience, so that when an emotional trauma comes along and derails us, we can recover faster. This section is about looking after yourself mentally between those big life events, although of course following these Rules will lead to a healthy attitude that can only help at those times. But you want to feel as good as you can all the time, and the people you know who always seem chilled and easy going and happy are people who follow these Rules. Sure, some of us are naturally healthy to begin with and others have to work a bit harder, but these Rules make strong mental health and a positive outlook an option for all of us.