Monday, December 18, 2017

Keep in mind

2017.
This was the year to mental health. I dedicate this year as the year I learnt about the importance of a happy mind, than good grades or monetary achievements. Actually, any achievements deem invalid without a healthy mind.
2017 crept on too fast and left even faster. Personally and through family and friends, I've seen the effects and affects of an unhappy mind. Even the newspapers and TV channels were full of events and deaths caused due to a unhappy mind. Even then, the stigma around this issue hasn't been lifted. Why?

Is it really that impossible to grasp that the conscious mind is a part of the body? Just like the nose, your legs, the stomach, the mind too needs a little self care. Maybe the symptoms of the mind aren't physical manifestations or even remotely tangible, but that's what makes it even more dangerous. It creeps on without a sound and kills you little by little. Mental health should honestly be the top priority of every human being on earth right now. The kind of fast paced stress induced lives we like to label as the 21st century living is a cry of help for mental health institutions to be the most important type of governance the people need. The mind is the sole reason you make sense of this world and create meaning to your existence and yet we don't seem to take care of it.

Some days, everything gets so overwhelming yet you feel underwhelmed. You are unable to explain this hole in yourself that your emotions either switch off or go on a total overdrive. You don't ask for help because you don't know what's wrong. You can't explain it as you beat yourself up when you see the utter helplessness in the friends and family you've confined in. So you cut off. I mean it seems only logical right? You're the only person in the world who has spent maximum time with your own brain. Your mental health is something only you would know since for starters you are the only person who has spent time with it. Your identity is a result of your mind. Everything as you know is a result of the perception your mind gives you. So cutting off and only focusing on your mind, alone seems logical, right?
But logic doesn't always work. Yes science and facts are always right and logic has worked all these centuries to in mathematics and reasoning, but even science has its limits. So many things work but only in theory. It's actual manifestation in reality is another story. The same with logic, in the logical sense of practical steps, it seems only logical to cut off everyone and deal with it yourself. But it's not the reality of the solution to your problem. Just like you need a doctor to fix a fever, you need professional help. It's just as logical too.

Many times we confide in our friends and family about our issues but a general observation of my almost 21 years of existence has told me the everyone in this current world can do with some therapy. Everything is ever changing as we all try to cope with the changes while simultaneously handling all the pressures and expectations. I mean, we're all overwhelmed humans trying to survive and make sense of this confusing world by underwhelming our emotions and mental health.

So to all my friends who have confined in me and vice versa, we're all just headless chickens who gives each other a sense of comfort, but the real step into the right direction is asking for help. Talking always helps and we need to support each other. But there's only so much we can offer before it takes a toll on either of us. So what can we do? Ask for help. Real, professional help. Life's unfair and bad things happen to good people, bad people win, wars are fought for no reason and there's a whole load of unpleasantness happening. Can you imagine how hard it would be to look at the better side of things if your mind itself isn't happy enough? The world is a shit-storm as is, let's not make it things worse with an unhappy mind. Let's work to make your mind a happy place to be.

Bad days are going to happen irrelevant. Things will go wrong and you will lose. But with a battle going inside your head, it will get even harder to fight to find solutions to your problems in your life. All your energy is spent in treating the wounds your unhappy mind creates, you become tired before even actually living, and that my dear friends, is the biggest tragedy of them all.

So let's work on our mental health. "Mental health before everything" is our new motto. Nothing comes before keeping our mental capabilities contend. Let's collectively work on removing the stigma and making not happy people, but happy minds.

So here's to 2017, the year I dedicate to mental health and making all future coming years to keeping my mind happy. The year I dedicate not only to my mind but also my friend's and family's mental health as the utmost priority.

So my dear readers, don't forget to water yourselves. Just like you water flower regularly to watch them bloom, I hope you water yourself. Water yourself with loads of self care, kindness and love. Just keep breathing and taking time for yourself, learn to breathe and let go of anything holding you back from taking care of your mind.
Remember, mental health before everything. Go make your mind happy for that's all that really matters.
Here's to working to a better mental health worldwide, 2017, here's to you.

(if anyone out there needs a friendly ear to vent out to or just someone to talk you, I'm here. Always here to make the mind a happy place.)