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October 10, 2022 By Divya Thampi 5 Comments

Let’s Talk About Mental Health

mental healthIn 2020, we released a study that revealed how 43% Indians are plagued with depression. But surprisingly, even in large metros like Mumbai, awareness of mental health is low, stigma is high and discrimination against people with mental health concerns is a harsh reality. The very recommendation that one should see a therapist or a mental health professional is received with distaste at best and anger at worst.

What is Mental Health?

The world over ‘Mental Health’ week is being observed but do we understand ‘Mental Health’?  It is important that we first understand what “Mental Health” means. It does not just refer to the absence of illness, rather it denotes a state of mind that allows people to believe in their abilities, work productively, cope effectively with day to day stressors, reach out for help when feeling overwhelmed, relate to others, and to work towards their highest potential.

While the mental health condition of a person is established by the individual’s ability to manage his/her thoughts, feelings, actions and interactions with others, mental illnesses and disorders are  often caused by a combination of factors including social discrimination, lack of protective policies, poor working conditions, poverty, lack of education, below average living standards, abuse (verbal, physical and sexual) and absence of familial or/and social support systems. It is true that certain genetics and specific personality attributes can make people more vulnerable to mental health issues, however contrary to popular belief, these are neither the only nor the most significant contributors to mental illnesses or disorders.

According to a survey conducted nationally, in 2018, on the attitudes towards people affected by mental health concerns, the top three attitudes prevalent in India were found to be the following:

  1. People with mental illness should not be given any responsibility
  2. One of the main causes of mental illness is a lack of self-discipline and will-power
  3. Mentally unhealthy people should have their own groups – healthy people need not be contaminated by them.

If one is diagnosed with cancer or with Malaria, would we ask them to get their act together and get better or expect them to use will-power to cure themselves? In terms of its prevalence and the number of people impacted by it, mental health issues are no different to physical health concerns and they need to be addressed with the same care and concern that is adapted to tackle a physical ailment, rather than with disdain and scorn.

With the existing attitudes, it comes as no surprise that the affected people, as well as the families, refrain from talking about their concerns or seeking the support they need due to the fear of being judged or labelled. But there are changes each of us can make that will help in creating an environment that promotes positive mental health.

Here are four steps you could take to do your bit in reducing social stigma attached to mental health concerns:

1. Educate Yourself About Mental Illnesses

General beliefs that people with mental illness are dangerous or are violent are myths which have unfortunately been propagated by movies. Often people with mental illnesses are victims of violence and abuse themselves. Question every stereotype and treat people with respect, irrespective of their diagnoses.

2. Stop Using Labels

Often people say things like ‘she is depressed’ or ‘he is schizophrenic’. The mental illness that someone deals with, is just one aspect of their lives and not their identity. Hence use language that separates the person from the health issue. For example, we could say “she deals with depression” or  “he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia”. Use language that’s respectful and sensitive.

3. Support People

Remember that people who deal with mental health issues make important contributions to the world. Did you know that Mr. Kjell Magne Bondevik, the ex-Prime Minister of Norway had suffered from a depressive episode in August 1998 while he was still in power? He took some time out to recover and continued as PM till March 2000. Do not judge people to be incompetent or dismiss their capabilities based on a mental health condition they may be suffering from. Treat people with dignity, just like you would like to be treated yourself, had you been in their position. Encourage the actions that your own family members and friends take to overcome mental illness, support their efforts to get well and lead productive lives.

4. Encourage & Initiate Open Discussions

If you yourself have dealt with or are dealing with mental health issues, talk about it. Your courage will help in creating awareness and empower many others. If it is a family member or friend who is dealing with it, talk openly regarding the illness with their permission and in doing so, you will take away the shame attached to it.

The first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Brock Chisholm, in 1954, had quite aptly declared that “without mental health, there can be no true physical health.” On this very important day, let’s pledge to do our bit by becoming advocates to reducing the stigma surrounding mental health concerns and promote a world of inclusion and sensitivity.

For more on Mental Health, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to Emotional Wellness Expert Divya Thampi’s classes on GOQii Play.

#BeTheForce

July 21, 2022 By Luke Coutinho 2 Comments

Overcome Worry – The Biggest Obstacle To Weight Loss & Your Health!

Overcome worryDo you eat food peacefully or with worry on your mind? Do you exercise happily or with worry on your mind? Do you also go to bed worried? Are you low on energy through the day and only the thought of outside food or entertainment can cheer you up? Are you unable to overcome worry?

Do you accept defeat when:

  • Your weight does not budge
  • You have a restless night sleep
  • You give in to food cravings
  • Your friends around you seem to lose weight faster or look better than you

A roadside advertisement for a certain brand of motor oil read “A clean engine always delivers power”…

So will a mind, free of negative thoughts, and very positive or in other words, a clean mind will deliver power! Therefore, flush out your negative thoughts, give yourself a clean mental engine, remembering that a clean mind, can always deliver power.

Why You Need To Overcome Worry

Overcome worry - obstacle to weight lossMost of our obstacles to weight loss and health are mental in character. You might say, “mine are not mental, they are real”, perhaps so, but your attitude towards them is clearly mental. “Worry” is the most subtle and destructive of all human diseases. Through “worry”, we have the dangerous ability to manifest diseases, stress, failure, defeat, anger, frustration and depression.

Do not accept defeat so easily. When your weight does not budge, be patient and instead of giving up, be more consistent with the things you should be doing to lose weight. It took you months or years to pile on fat, what makes you think it will go in few weeks without some sacrifice and effort?

Are you being honest with yourself when it comes to your food, exercise and eating outside?

Ask yourself, if the defeat that you have accepted is because you keep comparing yourself or your body to those around you? Your friends? Your social circle? If yes, then you will never be happy with the progress you make, you will get further depressed and you will fail. Have you even seen any two actors with the same body type? How can you ever have the same body as someone else then?

Comparing ourselves with others is the most drastic mistake one can make when it comes to our health or weight. Your benchmark for progress should be you and what you did yesterday, compared to what you will do today and tomorrow. Keep getting better, getting consistent and that will get you to your goal and peace of mind.

If you struggle to sleep, filter your thoughts and your mind. Easy to say, but hard to do. However, you must make the effort if you want to sleep well again. Worry stems of our insecurity, greed, fear, low confidence, guilt and other factors. Sometimes, you have to let go and if you don’t, your health will make that decision for you.

One of the best exercises to combat insecurities is to count your blessings

overcome worry - gratitudeTake a paper and write down all the things that you have and are grateful for. This should come from your heart. When you are done with this, your problems and insecurities will suddenly seem less. When you begin to eliminate worry, your energy levels automatically increase.

You see, we have over 60,000 thoughts running through our heads everyday. So it’s difficult to focus on what we have (which is usually enough) and instead fill our minds with chaos, which in turn stems worry and negativity. This causes stress and we all know by now that stress causes disease, a weak immune system, and is the biggest- I repeat ‘THE BIGGEST’ obstacle to fat loss and sleep.

Don’t see yoga or breathing as just an exercise. Use that one hour or 45 minutes to actually reflect, count your blessings, pray or analyze the goodness in your life. It is being proved today that the best way to cure a disease or a pain, is not to focus on it, instead focus on everything else that’s going well in your life.

To reach our goal, just have faith. All religions preach this and most people fail to follow or believe in that. Use a day or a weekend in a month for you to weed out negative thoughts, detox your mind, relax your body and count your blessings. Worry is a down payment on a problem that may NEVER occur and worry has never been known to solve a problem.

We hope this article helps you stress less and overcome worry! To know more about how you can beat stress, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach for further guidance by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce

May 12, 2022 By Divya Thampi 1 Comment

The One Practice That Can Change Your Life

As she drifts between sleep and wakefulness, her mind brings along a sense of dread; just like a faithful pet would bring a rag doll, and wait, panting in anticipation, for her to wake up. Even before she can start to tell the difference between her own snores and the chimes of the alarm clock, the phone nudges her with notifications about the never-ending list of things to be done. She almost falls off her bed, phone in hand, stumbling from one task to another, trying to keep up with the demands of the day. She races against time, determined to make progress. But as the clock ticks on, her attempts to swim through the sea of distractions, hardly seem to work. She finishes her day feeling exhausted, with a nagging sense that very little has been achieved.

If such stress laden days, sound all too familiar, you are not alone. But knowing that many of us feel this way, hardly brings any reprieve from reality. However, one simple daily practice has the potential to change this experience quite drastically.

How Would You Like Your Day To Begin?

Before we talk about that practice, let’s look at what kind of day we would ideally like to spend – Personally, I would like to wake up feeling rested and refreshed, feeling excited and hopeful and in spite of the zillion things that need to be completed during the day, I would like to feel at peace with myself. Does that resonate with you? If it does, read ahead!

What’s That ONE Thing?

The one activity that could change the way we start and end our day, is Meditation. According to the Buddhist definition ‘Meditation practices are techniques that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emotional positivity, and a calm seeing of the true nature of things.’

It is the one activity which will not change the circumstances or the people of your life, but has the potential to change the weather inside your mind. In 10 to 20 minutes, it could help your internal weather to change from grey, cloudy and chilly to pleasantly sunny, warm and hopeful. 

How Meditation Helps!

When you meditate regularly, you get better at holding your attention in the present moment. This automatically leads to less distraction. It also improves your ability to process sensory information. Personally, I find myself more capable of holding back angry retorts and loosening the hold of obsessive thoughts, much more now than when meditation was not a part of my life. This is not surprising given the research which shows that regular meditation enlarges the pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for logical thinking, and decision making) and reduces the Amygdala activation (the key brain structure known as the emotional or fear center of the brain), leading to improved emotional regulation! According to Dr. Keith Holden, in his book “Power of the mind in health and healing”- “Regular meditation may even help prevent age-related brain atrophy, which has the potential to protect against memory loss and improve brain function as you age.”

In broader terms, a regular meditation practice helps you feel better about yourself, bring more harmony in your relationships, develop your ability to perform better at work, improve your creative thinking and foster the ability to stay calm in the face of uncertainty, not to mention adding to your overall sense of wellbeing.meditation

Yes, You Are Already Good At It! 

Before I started practicing meditation, I used to think that it is meant for people who have a lot of time at hand. For someone who has retired from work life for instance, or someone who doesn’t have much to do. But I couldn’t be farther from the truth on both fronts! (being retired from work life doesn’t mean one is not busy). Meditation is beneficial for every single one of us. The busier you are, the more beneficial it is for you. You may not realise it, but whenever you are in a state of “flow” i.e. when you feel happily engrossed in a task, that you feel competent to do, and enjoy doing – you are meditating; you are meditating on that one task, with absolute focused attention and there’s this feeling of being in a different plane. You are meditating every time you sleep deeply. So, you are already practicing certain forms of meditation in your life and are good at it. Hence saying that “meditation is not my cup of tea” doesn’t hold water (or tea).

Conclusion

There’s no aspect of your life that goes untouched by the benefits of meditation. As an emotional wellness coach and counsellor, I get to hear hundreds of mental health concerns from people on a regular basis. No matter what the complaints are, meditation almost always features in the list of ways in which people can overcome those issues and move towards short term and long mental wellness. So, when do you plan to start?

We hope this article helps you! If you want to begin your meditation practice, check out some interesting articles on Healthy Reads. To get more meditation tips from a certified expert, subscribe to personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce 

May 9, 2022 By GOQii 3 Comments

How Can Walking Help You Overcome Stress?

overcome stressStress is inevitable given the fast-paced life all of us lead. It is something that can take over us completely if we do not make an effort to overcome it at the right time. There are many ways you can minimize and cope with stress and walking is a great way to overcome stress!

Most believe that walking only helps one lose weight or get into shape. But, it’s way more than that. It also helps you overcome stress. Exercise in almost any form can act as a stress reliever. Being active can boost your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries. Walking is one way to lower your stress levels.

Any kind of Aerobics exercise (more than 2 minutes of walking is Aerobic exercise) has the power to swing an individual’s mood. If it is done every day, it can enhance self-esteem as well.

How Can Walking Help You Overcome Stress? 

Pumps up your endorphins: Walking increases your overall health and your sense of well-being and preps you up to take more steps every day. Walking also has some direct stress-busting benefits. Whenever you do any kind of aerobic activity you release endorphins (feel-good hormones). The higher your level of endorphins, the greater your sense of calm and well-being. No wonder that walking can make you feel so good!

Meditation in motion: After a fast-paced game of racquetball or several laps in the pool, you will often find that you have forgotten the day’s irritations and concentrate only on your body’s movements. As you begin to regularly shed your daily tensions through movement and physical activity, you may find that this focus on a single task, and the resulting energy and optimism, can help you remain calm and clear in everything you do.

Improves your mood: Regular Walking can increase self-confidence, it can help you relax and it can lower the symptoms associated with mild depression, stress and anxiety. Walking can also improve your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress, depression and anxiety. All of these walking benefits can ease your stress levels and give you a sense of command over your body and your life.

So whenever you feel you are stressed, go for a walk and come back feeling good and stress-free!

We hope this article helps you! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more on exercise and fitness, check out Healthy Reads. If you are new to working out, join a LIVE GOQii Pro Class within the GOQii App and get the right guidance, in real time by an expert. Download the app and book an online class now.

#BeTheForce

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