Hi, My name is Janet Reuben Okon. I am a Writer, Inspirational, Lifestyle, Health and Wellness Blogger.
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme for this year is “Community”.
While researching on this theme, the first phrase that I thought about was “Intentional living”. For a community to thrive and for healthy communal living, intentional living plays a key role.
This week, I will be your health educator and consultant and we will discuss on the role of intentional living in mental health. I’m so excited!!!💃
I dedicated 2024 as A YEAR OF INTENTIONALITY and this is how it ended ✨
This message sent to me from my girl, Deborah Ameh, perfectly describes my life ❤️.
All my life, I have lived in Nigeria as a Nigerian and I’ve seen how common and normal it is to shout at people, insult, laugh at, mock, demean and belittle people daily. Also, there are personal experiences I’ve had from primary school, secondary school and university. It feels like everyday it gets worse because the economy has made life harder for many people living in Nigeria.
I saw this tweet yesterday and it made me think of how it is very normal to speak to people very rudely because it is what we see people do everyday, and according to the older generations, “it is the best way to pass your message”. Meanwhile, this particular trait does a lot more harm than good to one’s mental health, especially in demeaning them, lowers their self-esteem, makes them unable to hone their gifts & potentials fully and make the best out of life. You see this play out when Nigerians step out of their homes and move into public spaces and they start thinking if their ‘good enough’ for the position at their workplace or at the school they attend or in their relationships, making them compare themselves to others and this leads to imposter syndrome. Here’s our blog post on “Imposter Syndrome”:
WHY PEOPLE STRUGGLE TO LIVE INTENTIONALLY:
✨Regret
✨Past Trauma
✨Limiting Beliefs
✨Toxic Environment
✨Life challenges
Why should we be intentional about mental health?
🎊It makes us want to create a beautiful life for ourselves and others.
🎉 It makes us the best sibling, parents, friend, partner, cousin, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, grandparent, colleague, neighbour.
🎊 It makes us grow.
🎉 It elevates our mind, well-being as well as career.
🎊It makes us live a healthy and fulfilling life.
🎉 It makes us detailed in our giving, action, the words we speak, etc.
🎊 To sustain success, we need to be intentional.
Deciding to live intentionally (a thoughtful life) has transformed my life and my mental health and I hope you choose to be intentional about your life today because it is a life-changer!
✨ Through Prayers: This reminds me of a song that I was listening to last night and it’s titled “Intentional” by Travis Greene.
A constant prayer for me in 2024 was for God to help me to be Intentional: intentional about how I speak, relate and live life.
✨Through building a personal relationship with God: Last year, I started a journey with God called “the journey of transformation” or “personal development”, this is because I chose to live intentionally in life and this meant building my life with God first. The truth is that I didn’t just want to live a life that doesn’t align with my passion and purpose and the only way to partner and build with God is to live intentionally. A key scripture for this article is Jeremiah 29:11 💕
✨ Affirmations: You can say affirmations to yourself in the mirror, you can write post-it notes and place them around the house or you can say them to yourself in your mind alone. No matter your method, with time, affirmations will work to enhance your awareness of intentional living, improve your mental health and even help you achieve your goals.
How do you use your words? Do you use words to impact your life as well as others negatively or positively?
✨Introspection: Last quarter of 2024, I decided to dedicate 2025 as a year of introspection. This means examining my thoughts, actions and character and so far, it’s been an amazing journey. Wow, what an intentional life!
✨Personal development: Work on yourself by discovering your strength, weakness, gift, passion, purpose and build on them to help others. Developing them makes you intentional about how you share your gifts, talents, crafts to the world.
✨ Build capacity:
🌟 Read books: reading Joyce Meyer’s devotional e.g. My Time with God has enabled me to be more intentional about life.
🌟 Watch YouTube videos e.g. Dimma Umeh’s YouTube Channel – Dimma Umeh is a Blogger and Digital Creator. Dimma has become one of my favorite Bloggers because of how intentional she is about her life, people as well as her viewers. I’ve learned to become more intentional about how I write and blog.
🌟 Listen to podcast e.g. You Can Rest Here by Mazino Malaka. I highly recommend this podcast episode:
✨Make Intentional Living your habit and lifestyle: There’s no university Janet without intentionality, especially on my toughest days. I incorporated intentional living into my daily life and today, it’s my lifestyle.
✨Journaling: This is a great way to be intentional about your mental health because it makes you reflect on your thoughts, words, actions and live better.
✨ Do what makes you happy: I enjoy & love blogging and it makes me happy. This has enabled me to build an intentional life.
✨ Follow mental health pages on social media such as @n.d.i.d.i on Instagram.
✨ Practice and apply what you’ve learned about the role of intentional living in your community because change begins at home 💕
✨Share this post with your parents, siblings, niece, nephew, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandparents, friends, colleagues and neighbour.
✨Share your story: Do you know anyone who finds it difficult to be intentional about their mental health? Let’s build an intentional life around mental health today and everyday. Please share the story below and let’s keep the conversation going. Thank you ❤️
There are years that I ask questions and May 16, 2025 publication has answered! I can’t believe (I can believe o!) that I get to live this life. It took so much work on myself to get here and I am so grateful 🥹🥹🥹🫶🏾. Writing this article using my phone note app (which has never happened before) makes me so happy!!! As a pen and paper writer 😅, this is really different and exciting. This blog post was very difficult to write (it stretched me) but I’m so glad it’s now live on our blog! I want to say A BIG THANK YOU to my girl, Deborah Ameh for making this possible because I spoke to her about deciding to build my life intentionally and she became my cheerleader 😂❤️. I really love how intentional I am about my life and I hope it only gets better because this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I’m screaming…Thank you God!
Happy Publication Friday, My Artoftruezeal Family 💃💃💃 It’s Mental Health Awareness Week! 🥳🥳🥳 The most special thing I’ve done for us this week is publishing an article about the role of intentional living in mental health. Oh, this is why I do what I love and love what I do – writing & blogging 🥰.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11 KJV
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Well said, Janet!! Prioritising yourself and your needs can make a very big difference. Listen to yourself, understand yourself and be intentional about everything that concerns you and watch how your life transforms completely.
Yes! I’m so glad you learned from the article. Thank you dear ❤️