In these worrying times, mired with confusion and a sense of dread, we can do more than just play the Victim to our circumstances. We can stand to attention, decide to change our conditions, and take charge of our own lives. What are you doing to shrug off these Weapons of Mass Distractions (WMD)? How do you treat these symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? How can we support mental health wellness? What can we do to shift from Mental Illness towards Mental Wellness?
1) Stay fit. Move around, even if it means at home or within the vicinity of your residence.
2) Eat better. You need not spend on costly, organic, foods. Just ensure your get a complement of nutrients (vitamins, minerals, herbs, water, protein, good fats, and complex carbohydrates).
3) Keep your mind alive, alert, and appreciative. Mental health illness is more widespread than we tend to believe. Spread good cheer. Immerse yourself in positive language.
4) Stop sending out videos without discernment (distinguishing right from wrong, fact from fiction. The road to sadness is paved with good intentions. Without clearly and cleverly validating authenticity of content of online videos, we may be promoting a legion of fear-mongers and haters. Stop this unintended infection of non-discerning minds.
5) Be responsible for your responses, reactions and emotions. Entitle yourself to ‘feel’, yet ensure you experience different range of emotions. Feeling down, depressed, helpless, useless, are signs that we need to do something different.
6) Change your ‘state’, and change how you feel. By doing something different, moving about, engaging in conversation, learning, having a healthy argument, doing chores, can lead us out of our ‘loop of being stuck’.
7) Be inspired by the actions and abilities of others. Read about the achievements of others. I am inspired by physically-challenged athletes, entrepreneurs (who failed and succeeded later), outliers who accomplished much, and people who are just ‘hungry’ to be better.
8) Write. Write about anything. You can review the contents of a book, TV series, restaurant or film. You can write a short poem. It doesn’t matter if it does not rhyme. The goal is to start something intellectual.
9) Practise cleanliness and personal hygiene. This cannot be over-emphasised. Cleanliness is next to staying healthy.
10) Read more. Read an actual book, and dust the pages of our sullied minds.
11) Stay curious. Ask questions. The worst questions are those never asked. There are few stupid questions. There are responses of stupidity: Being insensitive, inconsiderate and impatient.
12) Engage with others – online, and face-to-face. Conversations can be directed towards being educating and uplifting.
13) Stay away from ‘toxic’, paranoid and fear-mongering people. They can poison the best of intentions. Play Devil’s Advocate, however avoid being typecast in this role for too long.
14) Fear is a bodily response. Acknowledge your fear. Question it. Direct your fear into alertness and consideration for others. FEAR can be interpreted as ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’.
15) Keep yourself busy by learning a new skill. Learning activates and awakens the brain to make new connections. Fire off your neurons. Making mistakes if part of growing new neural connections, and subsequently, you become more ‘intelligent’.
16) Keep racial and discriminatory remarks to yourself. It spreads faster than wildfire and infections.
17) Love all. Serve them all.
18) Caveat: Practise your discernment, diligence and decisiveness. You don’t have to agree with everything someone says.
