There is a wise saying that,
“Life is a roller costar ride. It has its ups and downs. But it’s your choice to scream or enjoy the ride.”
When you say to scream or enjoy, the role of mental health comes into play.
Mental health is an important term that has been widely used these days. It has become an integral part of health and wellness. In fact, there is no health without mental health.
The Concept Of Mental health
According to World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a meaningful contribution to his or her community.
Here a state of well-being is a sustainable condition that allows us to feel good and function well. It includes experience of happiness and high level of life satisfaction as well as a better quality of life.
This is followed by getting aware about own abilities. Realizing our own potential helps us to build a better world for ourselves. A good mental health gives us an opportunity to unfold our own abilities and cultivate a sense of purpose.
Yes, life is stressful and there is no other thought for it. But, a good mental health permits us to remain emotionally balanced irrespective of stresses. This allows us to return to normal life quickly after facing bad happenings.
Work is an important aspect of everyone’s life. It not only take care of our financial aspect but also help us to learn and grow. When we are mentally healthy, we are more enthusiastic about learning new things and developing skills. A good mental health improves our ability to focus, which subsequently enhances overall productivity.
When we are at the best phase of our mental well-being, we do something altruistic for the benefit of our community. It could be doing range of good acts like helping our old neighbor, paying taxes, making philanthropic contribution, fighting for human rights or volunteering for organizations.
Components of mental health
Mental health is not just a mere an absence of mental illnesses. It encompasses important aspects of human life including emotional, psychological and social well-being.
Emotional well-being involves our ability to regulate our own emotions. It is a state of feeling balanced with the ability to restore the balance even if disturb by challenging life event. It is our ability to stay in complete harmony with ourselves without getting disturb by internal or external situations.
It includes a practice of self-acceptance, self-compassion and self-forgiveness to maintain a healthier inner dialogue. This is our unique ability to get engage with problems in a healthy way.
Psychological well-being refers to feel happy with the life and functioning effectively. It covers various aspects of life such as satisfaction about own life, freedom to make our own decisions, ability to manage everyday situations, cultivating positive relationship with others, developing a sense of purpose and becoming a better person.
In spite of challenges, psychological well-being makes us to think and feel good about the life and derive meaning from it.
Social well-being is a sense of belonging to a community and making contribution to the society. It refers to the relationships we have and how we interact with others. Social well-being allows us to build healthy, nurturing and supportive relationships with the people in our society.
Thus mental health determines how we think, feel and behave. It also determines how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. It also means how we see and perceive ourself, what do we think about ourselves, how do we feel in comparison to other people. It also gives us an account of how mentally strong we are and how we handle the challenging situation.
Mental health matters
Mental health is as important as physical health. For example, when we have a viral infection, we go to a doctor. He/she prescribes us medications and advice us to take a rest for few days. The people around us understand our condition because they can see it. But if we are going through something disturbing like failure in examination, no one can understand it’s psychological impact.
Challenging situations in life such as loss of family member, divorce, break up, job loss or emotional abuse are usually taken for granted. No one can understand the negative impact of disturbing situations on mental status of a person, including an affected individual too.
Mental health issue is not something to ignore or hide. It can negatively impact the way we feel, think and behave. This subsequently affects our relationship, productivity and social connectivity.
Therefore, open discussion about mental health among people is essential.
Also Check : Let’s Talk About Mental Health
Everyone has their own coping mechanism to deal with challenging situations of life. Some people successfully move from bad experiences, some pretend to be fine and others still suffers in emotional pain. Those who pretend to be fine or suffers in pain are more prone to declining mental health.
Prolonged sadness, irrational fears, excessive worry, social isolation, disturbed sleep pattern, changes in eating habits and substance abuse are common signs of deteriorating mental health.
Nurturing mental health
A good mental health and overall quality of life go hand in hand. Ultimately, a good mental health leads to better daily functioning, better relationships and a sense of life satisfaction. Therefore, it is extremely important to nurture this valuable aspect of human life.
Staying mentally healthy doesn’t mean we are not going to face problems in life. It just means we have ability to overcome challenges and bounce back quickly from adversity.
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Disclaimer
Mediclin Brain Health’s content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
