The Log in the path to choosing Mental Health

Having started a company on Mental Health, one of the biggest challenges infront of us is - how do you get people to place it high in their priority list while they have several other priorities in that list ? While a lot of people in urban settings do agree that Mental Health is important and are talking about it now - yet one of the hurdles to taking steps towards optimizing our Mental health, is the question - "Is it really that important?"

As humans, we tend to put importance on things based on the consequences we see - even with physical health, it is when we 'see' the effects of poor physical health in our own lives or  in the lives of people around us, we understand why we need to prioritize it. The question really boils down to this - is the temporary pleasure out of an unhealthy habit, today, more important to me than the potential consequence I will face sometime in the future - and most of us, including me, often choose the temporary pleasure today - "for who knows whether we live tomorrow - so live for today"

While living in the present is very important, it is equally important to strike a chord of balance with the present such that we do not lead ourselves into a future 'present' which we would not like to live in. 

While fixing this perspective is crucial, there is another side to this coin. Sometimes, it is not our choices that negatively impact our health - it can be the personal and professional settings that we're in - that offer something meaningful or valuable to our other priorities. For such situations, we NEED to be able to draw a line when it's our health vs what the personal/professional setting means or offers.

 Let's take a real life dilemma to really understand this point. When we have people depending on us, or when we have family ties to maintain - we accept the trauma in the work place or relationship because it enables us to maintain that which is important to us -- our responsibility to provide, and our cultural standing that is based on those relationships. A large population of humans go through this; not realizing that while their intent to value their family or relationships is good - they are choosing to ignore the fact that one day, the price to heal from the physical/mental wound, will put the family/relationship they were trying to protect - in a worse place. To deal with this situation, our past generations used the band-aid of  'toughen up'. With this band-aid on, they kept taking blows that they weren't equipped to handle. The result? Behavioral coping mechanisms developed in them that destroyed a lot of other things around them - especially family lives.

The impact did not just stop there. The trauma of being raised by such individuals created such a repulsion against 'being tough' that we're now seeing a new generation that has adapted hyper-sensitivity as a response to any inconvenience to them. The trauma of being forced to be strong has created a rebellion mechanism where any inconvenience is being painted as negative instead of as a tool to become stronger -  oh the Irony. 

We come back then to the topic of balance, to be able to balance our priorities such that we do not sacrifice one for the other, and if there comes a situation where we must sacrifice, we better hope our priorities are in the right order for a sustainable future. 

What helped me prioritize Mental Health ?

I realized that being in my best Mental state helped me offer my best to my other priorities - family, work, etc - I fought for my Mental well being, when required, against my other priorities. While there were temporary disagreements and a feeling of discomfort - in the longer run, restoration always happened. 

Here's how I managed to maintain a healthy balance - I said 'No' to the good I could not do, and said 'Yes' to the good that I could do. The more I did the things that I said 'Yes' to, the more I found myself getting closer to saying 'Yes' to things which I once said 'No' to. Meaning ? When you take the small steps that you can take today, you'll grow to a point where you'll able to take the big steps tomorrow. As you prioritize Mental Health - you will also start getting strong enough to take bigger sacrifices for your other priorities, but always remember, say 'No' to the good you cannot do, or the sacrifice you cannot make without losing yourself.

Take Aways - 

1. Mental Health must be placed amongst the top priorities in your life
2. Balance is key - don't always sacrifice everything else just so you're Mentally content. Make sacrifices in accordance to your own strength - that is the only way to grow Mentally stronger and increase your capacity to keep sacrificing more.