“Mental health needs a great deal of attention. It’s the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with.” — Adam Ant

Mental health is essential to living a healthy balanced life. Mental health refers to emotional, psychological, cognitive, and social wellbeing. It impacts not only our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors but also how we manage stress, make decisions, and handle stressful situations. As physical health helps our bodies to stay fit, our mental health helps us to gain better mental competence.

As we learned in our curriculum from school-age that food, shelter, cloth, and education are the fundamental needs of humans. Similarly, we should include mental health as a basic need and make it a priority.

People experienced a wide range of feelings and thoughts. It is including feeling stressed, helpless, anxious, frustrated, and depressed. It has given rise to suicide, self-harm, crimes, and various mental disorders or illnesses. When it comes to physical health, people are more aware these days. People are fostering new healthy eating habits, diets, and cosmetics to look after their physical health. But what about Mental Health?

There are some myths about Mental illness. Society believes that people who go through mental illness:

• never recovered enough to contribute to their community
• unstable and unpredictable
• dangerous to their surroundings
• paying the price for their bad Karma

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but a stigma shames all of us. Taking care of your Mental health is not selfish. Self-care is vital to mental health. A healthy person is a precious gift to their family and community. It is also crucial to recognize the seriousness of Mental health challenges.  Mental health is everything that we needed to live healthily and happily. It is time to emphasize our emotional wellbeing more than anything. With a healthy mind, we can achieve everything.

To accomplish a healthy life:

• take care and focus on yourself
• find care & support, talk to professionals
• develop and practice coping skills
• acknowledge and express your feelings
• learn relaxations techniques
• rest your mind, body, and soul
• stay connected with others
• keep a positive perspective

Good mental health enables you to:

• accomplish your full potential
• cope with the concerns of life
• work actively and productively
• handle negative situations
• manage stress, anxiety

‘No health without mental health.” (The National Institute of Mental Health)