SHONIMA MALHOTRA
Let me start with two questions. Have you have ever had a fever or hurt your leg? Almost everyone. Now, have you ever felt nervous before an exam or a presentation? Again, almost everyone.
When our body is hurt, we know what to do. We rest, we take medicine, and we see a doctor. But what do we do when our mind is hurting? Most of us do nothing. We just carry on.
Health is a very broad term. But usually when we talk about health we restrict ourselves to ‘physical health’- a strong and healthy body free of illness and able to perform everyday activities. But this is just one component of health, other components being mental health, emotional health, psychological health and social health.
As the saying goes, ‘There is no health without mental health.’ A person may be absolutely physically fit but may be constantly stressed, anxious, depressed, lonely and emotionally disturbed. Can that person be called healthy in the true sense of the word? No, because his state of mind is not stable. In other words, he is mentally not healthy.
Mental health means how we think, how we feel, and how we handle life. It is about how we feel inside and how well we are able to handle the problems and challenges of daily life.
Many people believe that a mentally healthy person is someone who is always happy and never has any problems. That is not true. Every healthy person feels sad sometimes. Every healthy person feels angry, worried or scared sometimes. These feelings are absolutely normal.
The real difference is in how we handle them.
Let me give you an example. Two students were expecting to come first in class. Both of them came second. Both felt very sad. The first student thought, ‘I am useless. I will never be good enough.’ He stopped studying, stopped talking to people, and stayed upset for weeks .The second student also felt sad. But after a day, she spoke to her teacher, found out where she had made mistakes, and said, ‘Next time, I will work harder. ’Both felt the same pain. But the second student did not let the pain take over her life. She is the one we call mentally healthy. Not because she felt no pain, but because she could handle it.
So, in simple words: mental health is our ability to handle the ups and downs of life without breaking down and not allowing them to completely take over our lives.
Mental health starts with understanding our own feelings. Ask yourself, “What am I feeling right now? Am I angry? Am I sad? Am I scared? Or am I just tired?” Giving the feeling a name is the first step. A doctor must diagnose before giving medicine. Naming the feeling is the diagnosis. The name decides the fix. The same “feeling bad” needs different solutions:
- Tired in the body -> rest, sleep
- Tired of doing everything alone -> ask the family to share the work
- Angry -> pause, then talk
- Lonely -> call a friend
- Worried -> make a plan
Moreover, as said ‘Name it to tame it’. Naming a feeling makes it weaker. Research shows that putting a feeling into words calms the brain’s alarm centre. It helps us catch problems early. If we don’t name it, we pick the wrong fix: snap at someone, scroll the phone, or push on until it piles up. Think about a fight with a friend. If you do not understand your feelings, you may shout and say hurtful things. But if you notice, “I am very angry right now,” you can take a little time, calm down, and talk later. That one small pause can save a friendship. Also remember this: sometimes people do not even realise they are struggling. They feel low, tired or irritable for so long that they think it is normal. That is why it is so important to notice how we are feeling.
Life today is very different from the life our parents and grandparents had. Let us look at a few things that affect our minds. First is pressure and comparison. Marks, ranks, and ‘who got how much.’ When we keep comparing ourselves with others, we forget our own strengths. Second is social media and screens. On social media, we see only other people’s best moments: their holidays, their celebrations, their achievements. We start feeling, ‘Everyone’s life is better than mine.’ But that is only half the picture. Also, scrolling late at night steals our sleep, and without sleep, our mood suffers. Third important factor is loneliness. This may sound strange, because we are more connected than ever. But a person can have hundreds of online friends and still have nobody to talk to. Many elderly people live alone. Many children and adults feel unheard .Fourth, less sleep, less play, and less time outdoors can also affect our mental health. When we sit for hours, sleep late and eat badly, our mind also feels heavy. Fifth, keeping everything inside can also be problematic. Many of us do not share our worries because we fear, ’What will people say?’ But a worry that is kept inside only grows bigger.
The good news is that mental health is like a muscle. It can be built with practice with some simple steps. Name your feeling. Once you name it, it becomes easier to handle. Pause before you react. Talk to someone you trust. Remember, talking is not weakness. Look after your body. Get enough sleep, eat well, and play or exercise every day. Balance your screen time. Spend that time with your family or friends instead. Ask for help when you need it. There is no shame in it. Finally, when we fail or fall short, let us treat it as learning, not as the end of the world. ‘Next time, I will try harder ’is one of the healthiest sentences a person can say.
Let us promise ourselves that we will take care of our minds as seriously as we take care of our bodies. Let us stop treating mental health as something to hide and start treating it as something to understand. Because, at the end of the day, success is not just about how much we achieve; it is also about how well we live, how we handle our struggles, and how we care for ourselves and others. |
