How to define mental health

How to define mental health for 8th graders?

    Pain does not just come from tripping and falling or scraping your knee or having a headache, getting our teeth pulled. There is also the type of pain that comes from facing a challenging situation, having to endure a heated argument, someone being mean to you, failing a class, losing a game, and pain of being told we have an upcoming appointment with the dentist. This type of pain does not stem from the physical, it is pretty much invisible, there is no visible wound.
    But the feeling of the pain that comes from it can be even worse than what we get from getting our teeth pulled. This type of pain can lead to negative thoughts and we can end up doubting ourselves. Such as the pain of failing an assignment might change how you feel about yourself and doubt whether you are cut out to succeed in high school. And pain from mental causes can have significant physical effects.
    Have you noticed how the experience of arguing with someone or facing false accusations can make our blood feel like it is boiling or we might feel like want to break something. So much of the intense feeling of anger, and the heated thoughts that arise from anger, flow from our conditioned response to this pain, and a lot of it can be simply explained as just us being human. Since so much of this is about our thoughts, memories, so much of it is not visible and resides in our minds, we treat it as something separate from physical health. We call it mental health.
    Mental health is our experience of pain, feelings, emotions, discomfort, challenges, our sense of balance or imbalance - all coming from stuff going on in our minds. It involves the way we think and the we way make decisions. It involves our memories and how we view ourselves. It is strongly impacted by our relationships and the way we relate with others, for instance - words we hear from others can be painful, we experience all this in our minds, and whatever comes from our minds is part of our experience of mental health.

    Comparing mental health to physical health is a way for group facilitators to help 8th graders immediately grasp the concept of mental health, its relevance to their lives, and the importance of caring for their mental health. Although the term "mental health" will likely be a new one to them, or one that they do not fully understand how to define. However, they would immediately be able to relate to the physical feelings of mental health concerns, and our job is to help them conceptualize these experiences as connected to the domain of mental health. In fact, we may often associate mental health strictly with  disorder and illness rather than view it as a basic facet of our day-to-day experience as we would with nutrition or personal hygiene. What we want all the 8th graders to take away from day one is that mental health matters. It is as real as the bellyaches we feel if we drink too much soda. It impacts our day-to-day lives even if we do not know to name it as mental health. And our responsibility to care for our mental health on a daily basis will determine our outcomes in life, just as caring for your hygiene and nutrition plays a significant role in your well-being.