I have been thinking a lot lately about the division and violence in this country and how much it relates to mental health. And then I remembered this quote from Montaigne’s essay “On Virtue:”

Except for order, moderation, and constancy, I believe that all things are possible for a man who is fundamentally flawed and failing. This is why, as the wise say, to judge a man properly, one must mainly observe his common actions and surprise him in his everyday life.

That part about all things are possible resonates right now. People are capable of horrendous acts. But even the best of us can also be thrown off our games by the daily challenges of life. Pyrrhonism, as Montaigne understood it, is supposed to help us in those moments where our minds can get tangled up. If we can hold conflicting, contradictory thoughts without final judgment, Pyrrho believed, we can achieve serenity.

I believe this is wrong, because it’s backwards. If we can achieve serenity, then it is possible to hold strong beliefs in check. For example, you could hear a political view that you disagree with strongly, while still believing in rights to free speech and that violence is the wrong way to settle political disputes.

But if your mind is tangled up — if ideas have taken hold of your mind and won’t let go — anything is possible. That is why our habits are so important.

Montaigne had an interesting view of these habits that I agree with — they don’t all have to be good habits. They can be rituals that are basically neutral or harmless and they can vary person to person. For example, some people can have a drink of alcohol every day after work and it helps them maintain a sense of balance in their lives. Who is anyone to tell them this is wrong?

Personally, I require four daily activities to keep my sanity. For one, I need to take a microdose of lithium orotate. It’s a very small amount of lithium, roughly the same amount you’d get from drinking a couple bottles of mineral water, but I’m convinced that it helps keep me calm and balanced. There is good evidence that microdoses of lithium in drinking water significantly reduce suicide rates, and I believe it could have a wide range of benefits — it deserves further study.

The only other substance I need on a daily basis is eight shots of espresso. I usually take these “doses” in the form of two lattes. I usually prepare at least one of them at home, because this habit can get expensive and the coffee tariffs in place right now are absurd. But I do like getting one of them out because there are people at coffee shops I like to see and say hello to each day.

I also enjoy seeing people at my F45 gym each day — and the combination of the workout and social activity is important to my equipoise as well. I’m usually ok missing one day a week, but this week my schedule was nuts and I missed three — I haven’t taken it well.

Finally, I need to write something for myself every day. I’m usually engaged in a writing project which takes that up, but lately I’ve been throwing in one-off personal essays like this one as well.

These are my activities that keep my mind clear, that permit me to keep my mind untangled, so it can then continue to be engaged in the world without it eating me alive.

I wouldn’t recommend this same course of behavior for everyone, but I do believe that our culture needs to get serious about mental wellness — that the lack of mental balance is quickly becoming a life and death issue.