What is Mental Health?
Just like physical health, we have our mental health – which consists of our feelings, emotions, thoughts, moods. Feeling down, anger and stress is a normal part of life just like positive emotions- happy, confident, carefree. Depending on what is going on around us, we are all affected by positive and negative emotions. These are everyday feelings.
Every human being faces negative emotions at some point in their life. It’s okay to take a break, heal, and enjoy something you like whether sports, dance, music.
Most of us like to share good things but we don’t share how we feel. Sometimes when you are always feeling low, negative emotions run through your head constantly, losing interest in everything. If we are physically unwell we go to the doctor for help but if we are mentally not well in that case too we need help from a professional who can understand us.
Many experts say that exercise can help you when you feel low. It releases hormones called endorphins which can help in regulating your mood. Sometimes talking to your family, friend, or professional can help you to understand your mental health and cope up, but if someone does not like talking, then they can prefer writing their thoughts or even they can try out different things like dance, music etc.
Healthcare and lifestyle choices also influence mental health. Now due to the advancement of science and technology, there have been tremendous advances in terms of medicine and treatment for all illnesses including mental illness.
However, overmedication of treatment of mental illness where we are primarily treating mental illness with the help of medication is less good than compared to natural and holistic mental health which includes social and economical determinants as they play an important role in determining our mental health status.
Social Factors that Influence Mental Health
Early Life Development/ Child Development
If you have experienced poverty, deprivation in your early years that can lead to blunted coping skills later on.
Education
This is the most obvious one. The more educated you are the better you can take care of yourself. If you are less educated, it can lead to things like learning helplessness etc. Lack of education can also contribute to mental health problems.
Employment Conditions
If you are employed, you have better mental health and satisfaction than compared to when you are not employed but even if you are employed- then you will be having high demands and low control over the environment that can be very easily lead to workplace stress, like if you are satisfied and have a well-balanced job that can lead to workplace fulfilment, so there is kind of different ways where the dynamics at play in your workplace or employment can affect your mental health.
Power of Ritual
Alternative therapies such as yoga, meditation, acupuncture, herbal remedies are found to be beneficial not only for our physical health but also for mental health. Yoga and meditation are also a popular cure for a variety of psychological issues.
Sudarshan Kriya Yoga
Sudarshan Kriya Yoga is a cost-effective treatment for curing a variety of disorders like stress, anxiety, Post Traumatic Disorder, substance abuse etc. Sudarshan Kriya yoga is also found beneficial for reducing stress and depression levels.
Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini Yoga, a very popular technique in the USA has been found effective in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder and also reduces episodes of depression.
Summing up
Experts have found physical health plays an important role in our mental health. If we exercise our body releases feel-good hormones which are found to be beneficial for regulating our mood and lowering down levels of stress, depression etc. Yoga and meditation play an important role in our culture for not only being physically fit but also psychologically fit.
