Hello, Readers,
Hope you all you are keeping healthy and safe.
I am back with a new topic today, that is, MENTAL HEALTH! Now, when I say "mental health", some words that will come to your mind are "Depression", "Anxiety", "Anger Issues", "Bipolar" and the likes. And, I would absolutely agree with you on that as, these words do, in fact, are related to mental health. We are able to associate with these words with mental health is for the sole reason that these are mostly the issues we hear and talk about. But let me tell you, there's more than "Depression", "Anxiety", "Anger Issues", and "Bipolar" in Mental Health...
How about we start with understanding what exactly is this "Mental Health" you keep reading over and over again?
Mental health is a state of well being, where you are able to identify your abilities, deal with the usual stresses of life, function or work productively and finally, be a part of the society. It is, essentially, taking care of your mental state, your emotions, feelings, behavior and thoughts towards self and others.
In our day to day lives, we often forget to take care of how we are feeling, what we are thinking, how are we behaving; we fail to pause and think before speaking, or taking an action; we fail to express ourselves openly. We fail to take care of our Mental Health.
Why is it so important for us to take care of our mental health, you ask? I'll tell you!
Let's say, you wake up late in the morning and drink tea or coffee, then eat your breakfast and rush to get ready for work. Once you are ready, you leave for work, however, you're late, and your boss starts yelling at you in front of your colleagues. Well, naturally, that made you angry, as well as embarrassed. Even though you are angry and embarrassed, you choose to set it aside and get started for the day, as you had a of pile of work to finish. As you keep focusing on your task, prepare for meetings, presentations, discussions, you don't get time to eat your lunch. No matter how much you do, the work just doesn't get over. Something or the other keeps on coming your way. By the time your work day is over, your boss comes and hands you over a couple of extra tasks that needs to be completed urgently. Now, you have to take that work home because it's almost dinner time. You reach home, freshen up, cook, finally eat, and then sit down to work again. It's getting late, and you are tired with so much on your plate. You fall asleep while working, and again wake up late with your work not done, so you take the work back to the office and start working.
Now, this keeps happening to you over and over again, for a long period of time - a month. It starts making you irritated, ill at ease, annoyed by anything and everything that people are saying, stressed, overwhelmed, and finally, one day, it ends up in an outburst.
Finally, all the feelings and emotions that have been piling up, came out all at once, making you feel overwhelmed.
Now, pause, take a minute and think about it; if you had expressed your anger and embarrassment in the form of exercise, or just writing it down in your journal, you would have let it out. If you had to asked for help from a colleague with the extra work that you were getting, you would not be overloaded. There are so many things you could have done to keep you from having that outburst, like exercising, journaling, yoga, relaxation exercise, taking a day off, talking to a person you're close to, and so on.
It is important to take care of our mental health, because:
It keeps us from having emotional outbursts,
It helps us cope with the daily stressors in our lives,
It keeps us functioning like a well-oiled machine,
It keeps our body healthy,
It helps us build social connections and be an active part of the society,
Being able to help yourself and others when in need,
Being able to identify and understand your needs and wants,
It helps you function productively in your daily life,
and the list goes on...
Mental health is as important as your physical health. It's like both sides of the same coin, if one is affected, the other is automatically gets affected. We live in a society where the awareness and acceptance of mental health issues is poor; rather it is stigmatized. We often feel ashamed to talk about our emotional concerns, our behavioral concerns. We make it seem like a trivial matter, when it's not.
Being able to accept that you are facing challenges handling your emotions, your feelings, maintain a work-life balance, feeling lonely for no reason is how you take care of yourself. Asking for help from Mental Health professionals like Counselling Psychologists, Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists is how you take care of yourself.
Always remember, it is ok to feel how you are feeling.
Let's work together to have a healthy mental and physical self!