MENTAL HEALTH

Is the real wealth that needs to be built and worked upon!

Dr.P. Madhurima Reddy 

MA, M.Sc., MEd, M.Phil., Ph.D., Ph.D.

Psychologist, Life & Business Coach 

Peak Performance International Trainer 

NLP Master Practitioner Licensed (UK)

“Health is a state of complete mental, social and physical well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” – World Health Organization, 1948

That was said over 70 years ago by WHO, but the importance and relevance of that statement is only growing each passing year. Isn’t it? It is so simple yet truly a profound statement. We should not be satisfied simply with absence of any disease but it is the positive wellbeing in all spheres that we should strive for. I will even add the well-being from a career/business/finance perspective as another vital aspect that should be considered.

It is all interconnected with the physical, mental, financial, career/business and the social domains as well. A difficulty or challenge in one area that is impacting another area is reason enough to look at them from a holistic perspective. Of all these things the most important thing of course, is the Mind.

It is the strongest and most important organ of the entire body and directly contributes to the wellbeing of every other area either positively or negatively. When we talk of mental wellbeing there are two definite areas we need to take note of:

A) Awareness related

The degree of awareness one has about this important area varies greatly from one to another. There are a lot of factors like one’s immediate environment, the kind of social and professional circle one has and the conditioning that happened during childhood.

B) Ability related

This is simply about how well one copes with the modern day challenges. Awareness is a good starting point but that alone may not mean much. One needs to be honest with oneself about one’s own inner world, both in terms of the positive as well as the negative factors at work.

There are different challenges and related mental states to be overcome as outlined below:

● Rejection and failure (during education, job prospecting, career growth or even on the relationship front)

● Periods of loneliness (during various transition phases, there could be people experiencing job layoffs or some other transition challenges)

● Due to some loss or traumatic/tragic events (loss of a loved one or some kind of accident or mishap)

● Guilt and low self-esteem due to opportunities either completely or partially missed.

While all these problems can impact our state of mind, it is our mind that has all the resources within itself. It just needs to learn efficient and effective tools for not only dealing with the challenges but also make most of the opportunities that life presents to us.

Before we talk about the tools of the mind, we need to be conscious of various symptoms that serve as warning signals. Both physical and emotional clues are important, if we want to gain greater control over the most important organ of our body i.e. the mind.

● Physical symptoms like body aches/pains, muscle tension, sweating/palpitation, oversleeping or sleeplessness, difficulty in breathing, some other impairment etc., are such things are to be observed and not ignored as your body reflects the state of your mind.

● Your emotional state also gives valuable hints – confusion, apprehension, feeling angry or sad, feeling helpless, emotional outbursts, repeated negative feelings, wanting to escape from it all and feeling suicidal – these are again not to be ignored or suppressed. They simply need to be appropriately addressed rather than allowing them all to accumulate and cause massive problems.

The key point is that it takes an alignment of the body, the mind and our emotions on a continuous basis when we want to achieve something worthwhile in our life. It is also equally important to catch oneself early when there is a definite misalignment, so that the right corrective actions can be put in place.

The terms Anxiety & Depression are not just limited to the lives of celebrities alone. These are getting more widespread as the challenges of modern living are on the rise. Covid-19

with cascading implications is only making the situation more difficult to cope with for many people.

It is simply a phase of life one goes through; however, denying the problem does not help. There are definite ways to cope up better and there are ways to avoid too.

For coping up better, the following will help:

● Eating freshly cooked nutritional food

● Exposure to the sun and fresh air

● Physical exercise, breathing and relaxation techniques

● Routines that promote wellbeing

● Supportive company of good and well intentioned people

There are ways to avoid too as these don’t solve the problem. It is similar to pouring further fuel into an already burning fire.

● Binge eating of Junk food and/or carbonated drinks etc

● Substance abuse

● Too much TV, Netflix or even internet

● Negative and toxic people

When problems are of an intense kind they need to be faced and not feared, but it also takes support from the right kind of people. Just well-intentioned people alone will not do as it involves their possessing the right amount of expertise. Just like you don’t rely on your neighbourhood grocer for advice on which stocks to invest; *your mental health challenges are NOT appropriate to be resolved by anyone who gives you a listening ear.*

You do need to consult experts and professionals who have made it a Life-long crusade to make a difference in this area.