~By: Sarah Shania Miranda
Mental health has emerged in conversations more often than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From meeting many friends and family and experiencing the physical affection of one another to self-isolating during a time of struggle for many has had an impact on people. The pandemic led to a financial crunch for many which accelerated the personal crisis.
When faced with a mental health issue, one often thinks about going to a therapist. While that is the answer, not many of us put ourselves through therapy and are often in denial for quite a long time to accept help. The main reason being, you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge. Many of us go through experiences in life, following patterns handed down to us by our past experiences, not knowing that the actions we take or the things we think actually affect our mental health on a daily basis. While it’s easy to push things under the rug, or tell everyone, “it’s not me, it’s them”, ultimately, even if it is them, one still has to own up to one’s own emotions.
The harsh truth is that mental health is very uncomfortable. It’s about sleepless nights, waking up in the middle of the night in terror, having panic attacks out of nowhere, dissociating emotions, body dysmorphia, and feeling sad and lonely without a reason. One can experience feelings of betrayal by your own body and mind, feeling powerless and out of control, like you’re in the passenger seat of your own life.
It’s not the big things but the little things that matter when it comes to mental health. Putting your phone down early in the night, saying no to that extra drink at the bar, putting an end to the extra workload to please the bosses – it’s all in the little choices we make that impact our mental health. As we all know, small decisions as such will have bigger advantages in the future. Little things like spending time with oneself, getting to know our strengths and weaknesses also is a big step of learning to love oneself and keep up mental wellbeing. Sometimes when one is unable to figure out their disadvantages and weaknesses by themselves, that’s when professional help is required. Visiting a therapist is proven beneficial in a lot of ways to find what bothers oneself and find a solution to deal with it rather than avoiding it.
There is a misconception about going to therapy due to the stigma attached to it. It can be embarrassing to many. What society will think and say is the core factor that stops people from seeking help. We need to realize that it is not a weakness to seek help professionally but instead, people need to pat themselves on their backs to be bold enough to speak about their weak points openly.
In the end, humans have the divine animal instinct to protect one’s peace of mind. We celebrate mental health days as a duty but the process that goes into it lasts much longer and definitely not as easy as it seems.
The posts and captions can always wait, instead, take the time out today to look deeper and self-evaluate where your state of mind currently is. When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. Bettering your mental health helps you see things for what they truly are, be it good or bad. Moreover, it helps one make decisions from a more neutral and positive state of mind of accepting reality and developing an optimistic attitude towards negative situations.
The journey towards better mental health will see ups and downs. The road to a healthy mind is definitely not a perfect or easy-going path but, it is worth it.
(The writer Sarah Shania Miranda is a final year student of Hospitality Management at V. M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE) based at Raia in Goa)
