Times Of Swaziland: MENTAL HEALTH ADVICE FOR THE NEW MONTH

MENTAL HEALTH ADVICE FOR THE NEW MONTH
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Runsford Laryea on 06/08/2024 07:31:00


THE toughest battle that we face is the one that goes on ‘between our ears’;
in our heads and fundamentally, it is our brain that carries the psychological
burdens that life throws at us with each passing day. The weight of these
traumas, life-changing experiences and hardships take their toll on our psyche
and without the right amounts of attention paid to it, tends to wear down the
individual, to the point where ‘it begins to show’ by affecting their
everyday functioning and consequently, then coming down with a mental illness.
The reason that propels the wave of mental health advocacy finds justification
in that; our mental health serves as the ‘base’ from which all our thoughts,
emotions and subsequent behaviours stem from and for that reason alone, it
should be a lot higher on our lists of ‘things to take care of’. How? One
may ask. Well, the response to that would have to begin by reiterating the fact
that, as individuals, we are built up differently - both physically and
psychologically - and on account of that, the same way we process and experience
life differently; it is in a similar vein that we differ even in how it affects
us.
Ways
This, therefore, means as individuals, we need to derive personally tailor-made
ways to take care of our mental health. It is here that maybe there exists a
large vacuum in terms of enough knowledge of the practices, activities and
particular ways in which to stabilise your mental health and ease some of the
psychological pressure they may feel they are under. I say this mainly because,
some (if not most) of the ways that we choose to employ do more harm than good
and this locks us in a ‘vortex of redundancy’ that always leaves us in a
similar or worse position than we previously psychologically were. Many people
find being financially extravagant or spending numerous nights out a worthy way
of resetting and relaxing themselves, for instance, overlooking the fact that
they still have the ‘aftershocks’ of that to deal with after.
It is because of this that I hold the opinion that may be if people were made
more aware of healthier; less costly - more wholesome ways of pampering their
mental health, the message would be easier to transmit. I always put it out
there that we are beings who exist better when we have our emotional bonds and
attachments with others firmly in place. Therefore, the need for family, friends
and any kind of psycho-emotional support is necessary for your mental well-being
as an individual.
You need those sorts of interactions (and exchanges) in your life as they are
the ones that keep you in check, keep your monitoring yourself and making sure
you are consistently at your best. That is one way. Another is, learning to
self-reflect. This is an extremely difficult skill to master, but it remains
quite handy to have; this is basically you taking time to evaluate yourself,
your actions and your recent behaviours - putting those together to come up with
what state you are currently in mentally. People tend to struggle with this
because it calls for you to be extremely sincere and sometimes harsh on
yourself, but the rewards of it make you a better-rounded individual.
Other ways to secure and improve your mental health is to invest in a passion;
if there is anything that you can do that will cause a sprout of pride and joy
from within you is totally worth it, besides, it does wonders for your
confidence and esteem. The most important decision you have to make is finding
the perfectly tailored activity for you and do that. Send comments to
runsford0505@gmail.com