So what comes to your mind when you listen to the word “health”? To me, health is physical, as well as mental. We’ve had enough talks about physical health, now let’s take a look at Mental Health.
If you Google the term, the first thing you’ll most likely see would be the Wikipedia definition, that states:
‘Mental health is the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the state of someone who is “functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment”.’
The meaning of these words is quite clear. Yet, unfortunately, a lot of us don’t understand. To us, the ‘lack of mental illness’ is all that matters. And at times, we even ignore those due to a simple lack of awareness of these illnesses and their symptoms. But for now, let’s keep illness and lack of it aside and focus on mental health as a whole.
For easy reference, let’s divide mental well-being into three parts:
• Emotional
How well do you let your emotions take over? What kind of emotions you have churning in you most of the time?
• Social
Where do you feel you stand in society? How do you react to societal changes and societal pressure, and how much do you let society affect you?
• Psychological
What kind of thoughts guide you in everyday life? What thoughts make who you are? How do you define yourself, and how do you view yourself?
All these, and more help you recognize the state of your mental health.
Marie Jahoda, a social psychologist, has given some key points to check, and perhaps improve, one’s own mental health:
• A positive attitude towards self
• Personal growth
• A true perception of reality
• Environmental mastery, which includes adaptability and healthy relationships.
Just as we have medicines and therapy to take care of physical health, there are ways to keep your mind healthy:
• Get professional help, it works.
• Connect and interact with others. Talk, discuss. Just be there.
• Stay positive. I know it gets overwhelming at times, and it’s easier said than done, but it works, and it gets easier with practice. All Iz Well.
• Be physically active. Workaround. Dance. Clean (it worked for Monica, it could work for you ). Go on walks. Go Out!
• Get enough sleep. Can’t emphasize this point enough.
• Develop coping mechanisms. Life and the world are two cruel elements. They try to break you all the time. You need to build up your strength to fight back. For yourself, and for those you care about.
I have spent the past 2 years and more on learning about mental health and improving my own. It’s time we all realise its importance. It is something we don’t talk enough about. This should change. But more importantly, we need to act. Keep your mind healthy, and watch the magic unfold.
In association with Sangamwasi https://blog.sangamwasi.com/
A Budding Doctor on the outside. A Hibernating Poet inside.
These words define the mess of reality and abstract that Nidhi Singh is. It’s funny how someone who talks so much can still find a need to indulge in more ways to express her thoughts. From a very young age, she has enjoyed the art form as an expression of her inner self, ranging from prose to poetry to drawing to dance.