How Mental Tools Aid Healing
I have a cast on my right arm and hand because of a fracture near my wrist. Interestingly, this cast isn’t what’s healing the bone itself. My body is doing that on its own, slowly. So why wear a cast? It’s not a magic fix; it’s there to protect me from doing more harm while I heal. The cast works as a shield, allowing the bone and tissues to stay aligned, so I don’t have to constantly keep my arm immobile through sheer awareness alone. Without the cast, I’d have to be hyper-mindful of my every movement—and I’m human, so that level of awareness would be next to impossible to maintain all day.
This is a lot like mindfulness practice. Being mindful, like healing without a cast, means paying attention and keeping yourself from unhelpful actions or thoughts. Practicing mindful exercises is like building your own “mental cast”—one that trains you to stay aware and aligned without constant overthinking. A gratitude practice, for example, helps me notice the privileges and joys even when life feels tough or mundane. Meditating means I don’t have to struggle to pause before I react in intense moments; it just becomes part of how I operate. Practicing short actions that counter procrastination trains me to start without waiting for a push.
Just like wearing a cast, practicing mindfulness daily lets us create new, conscious habits over time. And like all tools, mindfulness exercises come with a learning curve. Every time we use them, we practice patience and form a new, steadier baseline.
ACTION: Make a promise to yourself to practice one small mindful habit daily. Keep it simple: maybe list a few things you’re grateful for while brushing your teeth or take a minute to focus on your breathing. The more you repeat it, the more it will become part of you.
