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Since this section of The Holistic Writer is all about the mind, I thought I’d cover some basics of mental health. A healthy mind is free to be a creative mind that supports your writing talent.

Definition

Mental health is defined as a state or condition on which an individual feels a sense of well-being. This gives him or her the capacity to live life in fulfillment of what he or she wants to achieve in accordance to the available resources. This condition also provides an individual the capacity to be resilient to the stresses he or she meets and to respond to these challenges without having to compromise his or her well-being. This also makes him or her productive and fruitful for him- or herself and the community.

Mental wellness could also be defined as the lack of mental problems or disorders. People who do not present diagnosable behaviors that could qualify as a mental disorder are seen as mentally healthy. For example, a man with an obsession on things may not necessarily have a mental disorder like obsession. Thus he is said to have mental wellness. But when this obsession is combined with an unrelenting compulsion to do the object of obsession, the person may be diagnosed with a mental disorder called Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD.
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In your lifetime, you will — guaranteed — run into people that always want to have more. More of your time. More of your creativity. Just plain more. They want to take advantage of all that they can get out of you. These difficult people want more without working for it. It is frustrating, but you need to find a way to cope with these kinds of people so that you can avoid stressing out over it.

This happens a lot to writers. Many people don’t value this talent in you and want to you work for peanuts. And, you may feel the need to do it, despite what it can do to your self-esteem.

However, there are things that you can do to make this situation better and to let those people see that you are not going to accept this type of behavior. You have the right to stand up for who you are and what you want for your life.
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They say a clean desk is the sign of a clean mind. But I say this: Instead of using somebody else’s definition of organization, how organized do you want to be? And what does organization mean to you?

When we talk about getting organized, people usually get an impression of a spick and span office with not a paper out of place. But my experience has taught me that a neat office does not necessarily have to be a very organized office. If you throw away every single piece of paper that comes to your office, certainly your office will be neat … but not organized.

I believe that organizing is a relative term. I kind of have to, since my idea of organization is not always that of others I know. I do know, regardless of who you might talk to, it is most definitely a matter of convenience.
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There is a widespread and mistaken belief that having Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD is a bad thing. Even as the ADD “afflicted” brain without doubt holds out a few challenges, it puts forward a few hard to believe advantages, as well. Not to toot my own horn or anything (as I “suffer” from ADD), but to help my fellow writers with ADD (research shows that writing is career that often attracts people with ADD), I’ve listed below a few of characteristics that I have seen over and over again in people with ADD.

1. Empathy
People with ADD have a highly developed capability to identify with others, and to see a lot of diverse points of view. Maybe it is because we take in a whole lot of information all at once. Maybe its because we had a tough time socially when we were growing up. Who knows? It’s just something I’ve noticed.

2. Ingenuity
I have on no account come across a a person with ADD who was not ingenious. Painters, designers, sculptors, film makers, writers, musicians and comedians — the list goes on. Creative aptitudes are plentiful. Composers Mozart and Beethoven are assumed to have had ADD, and possibly Leonardo da Vinci, as well.
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