By: Frank James, IV, Special to the Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper
Mental obesity is a problem in the United States. How many Americans have minds that are overweight from digesting unhealthy mental food? There are fitness centers, gyms and diet plans galore in the USA to get the physical body in shape. What is needed are mental gyms to keep people’s minds lean and in a healthy state. Many US citizens need a diet plan. The diet plan that I am referring to, is for the mind. Everyone in the US, and the world, needs to monitor the thoughts and images that they mentally digest.
Everyone likes to eat physical food. Whether it is fine cuisine prepared by a chef, or chicken fingers from a gas station, people love to eat. The purpose of this article is not to put people on blast for their body structure. It is designed to make people take a look at the mental food they are digesting. Who knows? If you watch what you digest mentally, it may lead to a change in your Body Mass Index (BMI).
One of the most unhealthy mental foods a person can consume is judgment. Here is an example of how judgment can fatten a mind. You are on social media and someone posts a deed someone in another country has performed. Right away your mind makes a judgment on if the deed was something positive or negative. If the post is about something, or someone, that has done a deed deemed negative, the comments reflect negativity. Now, multiply this negative judgment by say, 50. Over the day while on social media you digests 50 negative posts, and read numerous comments from others. What type of mental meal do you think that you have consumed from social media? Time to take some mental Slim Fast.
I know what many of you are thinking. How does judging others affect me, or my health? Think about the following example. You are having a great day and someone tells you about an issue that you feel strongly about. The issue takes you out of your calm mindset and puts you into a judgmental mind that starts critiquing the information told to you. This criticism leads you to a debate with the person who brought the information to you. What has happened to your great day? Sure, you can recapture the feeling you were experiencing before you were exposed to the information. What about the time that you used debating and analyzing the information? You will never get that back. Sadly, many people are never able to regain the calm that they enjoyed before being fed the mental meal. Time to hit up the mental GNC for some fat burner.
Begin your diet by taking time and analyzing what you mentally digest over the course of one day. Be honest and assess the information you are greedily mentally digesting. Ask yourself, “Is this wholesome mental food?” Millions of US citizens do some form of exercise daily to attempt to stay in shape. How many do mental exercises to free their mind? Many healthcare providers claim that a diet of healthy food can extend your life. How would your life be if you adopted a diet of healthy thinking? Thinking positive thoughts that are free from being seasoned by the spice of judgment? The heart is one organ that may benefit from this mental diet.
Monitor your mind and begin a mental diet that releases you from a main course of judgment and condemnation. Many of you exercise your body to keep it lean and healthy. Why not monitor your mind while going on a mental diet to cut down on the act of judging others, and events, that really have no impact on your life? Who knows? A mental diet may actually extend your life.
Frank James IV © 2025
beingfrankwithfrank@gmail.com
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the writer and not of the Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper or HT Group, LLC, its staff or management. “Being Frank” is a bi-weekly column exclusive to the Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper.
