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Do you continually say to yourself or to others something that amounts to "Help, poor me"? It doesn't matter. Because if you look deeper than that, you might be able to find an area of consciousness which looks at that as though you are watching yourself as an actor or actress in a movie, and you are blissfully enjoying the show, and barely, if at all, involved in the plight of the actors, including the protagonist, you. 

The above is every bit as accurate for a mentally ill person as it is for a person in the mainstream population, someone who could practice mindfulness if they thought it might help them, not knowing how much it would help them. 

When I was a youngster, I would marvel at the adventures of Captain Kirk, space traveler, a man who would go to various planets and beat up extraterrestrials or make out with female extraterrestrials. I started watching the show when I was maybe seven years old, and the show may not have even been into reruns. At five or six, I watched the first moon landing on our black and white television equipped with its vacuum tubes that would make the primitive thing work most of the time. 

Something powerful got the character, Kirk, through all of these hard challenges he continually faced every weeknight at five o'clock. Was it bravery? Bravery will only do so much. It can help you to overcome your fears, but will it sustain you? No, it won't. You must be happy while you are amid your harsh times, and that is the only thing that works. 

Uncertainty is intrinsic in life. No one can predict the future. Nostradamus could not predict the future, albeit he made some forecasts that were quite amazing. Mental illness is painful and frightening to go through. What might sustain us through an acute episode is the hope that things will be better, as soon as they are back to normal. Psychiatric medication can dull the mind and can prevent you from being aware of much. 

Yet we have another level. When this level is connected to the point where it reaches the conscious mind, you could feel a continuous undercurrent of bliss. You always had this, but up until now, you might not have been conscious of it. But it kept you going. 

Almost every week for the past 11-plus years, I've reported faithfully on the horrors of being mentally ill. I've done this from a space of enthusiasm. How did I do this? How do Black leaders report faithfully on the many hardships and injustices that nonwhite people endure? 

Gautama Buddha said that suffering is intrinsic to life. Yet, I must add that joy is intrinsic to life. 

You do not need to become Buddhist to practice mindfulness. You do not need to abandon your Christianity, Judaism, Islamic Faith, or any other practices of worship that you need to do. You do not need to abandon your agnosticism or your atheism. Mindfulness works. It forges a connection between the deep-seated joy of living, to your conscious mind. You become aware that you are happy.