Sound Mind

"Are you mad?"

"Things will get back to normal. Listen to nice songs"

"You are confusing yourself.Everything is alright"

There are more crude sentences to demean a person's thoughts when he or she goes through mental health issues. "Mental health" is a he who must not be named in this country. It is like virginity, sex, menstruation and few other things, that are blatantly visible but it's a sin to talk about. It cannot be shared or discussed or even revealed. But no one knows "Why it's concealed".

Our mind is like any other part of our body. It needs care, love, sympathy and above all, some attention. It can be comfortably ignored but in the longer run, it will detach us from the surroundings.

The journey of mental health attention is beautiful in a way that it pauses the mind. For sometime. To seek happiness. To seek help. To seek human touch. To question the swirl of events. To find the path towards happiness. To a place of greater good. It is distressing to see myself, my friends, my family and people around me to carry the stigma of mental disturbances. I personally feel it's a blessing, it's a powerful tool to rediscover ourselves. There are a few things that I feel needs to be addressed at personal level to get a momentum in dealing with our "selves".

"Who decides who deserves to be heard? Who decides who is sane?"

When we are in the phase of questioning ourselves, our identity, integrity and our life itself, it means we are vulnerable. When we are vulnerable, needless to say, we need help. And we should seek for it. But before we seek help, we have barriers. To break and shatter. And my experience says, no one else will break it for me except myself. Unless we make sure that "I deserve to be heard", we cannot expect the right help to seek us. The biggest lesson through this is, to have the courage to reveal our true self to get the proper care. Once we break those fears, insecurities and labels on us, we are ready to be heard.

"The power of human touch"

Though there are many problems in the society, at the individual level, we all have a handful of people, friends and family, who are there for us. Who never ever judge us. Only they can heal us. We should trust them and give ourselves to them. The only easier way is to listen to them and trust them and place our burden on them. Will they accept our burden?. Definitely they will. Because these are people who pour love, who cannot be well unless we are well, who can accept us and tolerate us despite our good and bad. When we seek help, we should actively seek for help from only these people. And there are also individuals in this same world, who are ready to breed on our vulnerability. And can make our life more miserable, because all they want to do is to make sure that we feel lesser, we feel lost and we feel insane. And avoiding them is the best medicine.

"Sound mind, Sound body.
Sound body, Sound mind"

The professional help and emotional support can be given from outside. To help and be better. But our body should be receptive to receive it. And the only things we should concentrate on are, "Good food. Peaceful sleep". It might sound very primitive, but unless we have a sound body, we cannot have a sound mind. Our food and environment reciprocates unto ourselves. It makes a huge difference to be near nature, to feel the wind, to see the trees and to inhale fresh air. It will give us a calm

 mind. It might not be possible for all of us to escape our city routine to get close to calmness. The least we can do is cultivate inner calmness, by good food and good sleep.

  I don't have a formula to get better in mental health. I don't have any professional experience. These are just my observations. It might help or it might not. When I read Dr. Payal Tadvi's suicide, it hit me personally. Casteism should be uprooted. But how are we going to make ourselves not feel lesser?

It is a journey. When we feel disturbed, its not a single event. The people we come across, the situation we go through, the struggles, the concealed worries, the yearning of love, the disappointments - all these either can make or break us.

Finally, what I want to share is, "Introspect, and look within yourself. Be courageous to find answers. You deserve it. No one matters more than yourself"

Once you are ready to be better, people and the environment will heal you!

Start living 💙