Nchumbeni Y Jungio
Counsellor, Unity College, Dimapur
‘Health Is Wealth’ is a familiar line for most of us and often find ourselves using it in our conversation which may suggest how all of us are conscious of our health in some way or the other and the awareness about the importance of maintaining health to be able to face various life challenges but often time we tend to forget the Mental health component in our ‘Being healthy’. Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It is playing a role in the way we think, feel, and behave.
Let’s reflect on the given scenario -
“A lady in her late 40’s planning to finally get married had a sudden tragic situation where her father had a cardiac arrest before her big day. How do you imagine the situation and the emotions of the family members as they go ahead with the most awaited wedding in their family?”
WHO defines health as ‘“a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
Mental health is equally important like any other domain of health in every developmental stage of our life from childhood till old age, everything is interconnected where an imbalance in one functions may affect directly or indirectly the overall homeostasis. In the particular scenario cited above, we can imagine the possibility of how the emotions may play out and the behaviour of the family members, there may be a difference in the way each individual reacts which also suggests the variation in the way an individual functions. Thereby giving us an understanding of how the way we adapt to demands may be different.
Our mental health is going to contribute to our everyday challenges and how we react to them. When we are mentally healthy it will help us in recognizing our strengths and limitations, working efficiently, and being productive, and adapting to the changes that might come along.
We also need to understand that mental health will not remain constant like any other situation of our life and depending on our life circumstances, changes will be experienced. As we go ahead exploring our life there will be stressful, happy, exciting situations............. and a moment where we feel so low and the thoughts of giving up might pass by.
Some of the common ways which we can implement to take care of our mental health –
• Healthy eating habits
• Maintaining a proper sleeping routine
• Engaging in exercises regularly
• Expressing thoughts and emotions to the people we are comfortable
• Connecting with the people around you
• Taking a break
• Engaging in healthy activities we enjoy doing
• Being grateful
• Avoiding the use of intoxicants
The diverse emotions that we feel may get resolved and no longer disturb us but sometimes it may continue to linger on and become more complicated, it can happen to anyone of us, which may bring us to a juncture of ‘what can I do? What’s next? It’s over etc. Let us remind ourselves that if we are willing to try there may be still an unexplored path where help is available leading to greater understanding. If the situations that we are facing are having a significant impact on our lives creating instability in our mood, behavior and affecting our productivity then it may be a reminder that something is not going right with our mental well being and we might be needing assistance and asking for help is not a sign of weakness but it takes courage to reach out for help.
We can ask for help by-
• Checking on how we have been taking care of ourselves.
• Opening up to the people we trust (family, friends, mentors, partners, etc) what we are going through.
• Reaching out to professionals (Counselors, Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist, Psychiatric Social workers,
Psychiatrist) if we feel that things are getting out of control and is having an impact on our daily functioning.
“Let’s continue in becoming a better version of ourselves”.
