Hey there! You can call me GG. 🙂
The idea of mental health found a place for itself in my mind only when I was in my college. Until then, health entirely meant the physical aspect. Long story short, I was in a chaotic state while pursuing my engineering degree at NIT Trichy. My first and second years were gruelling, harsh and had a devastating impact on my mental state. I had a multitude problems from every front I could imagine – academics, career, relationships, and the protagonist of the story was existential crisis.
If what I am talking about here seems obscure, let me give you some background. I was an extremely studious person throughout school. Thanks to a sudden bombardment of existential questions and figuring out the meaning of it all, I lost my interest towards scoring high right at the perfect moment. Fortunately, my previous work paid off and helped me get a place in a good college. However, this state of mind followed me till college, and it was just the beginning.
Fear dawned within me. Actually, that’s an underplay. Fear and confusion “reigned” over me. My confusion: “What am I going to do with my life? What do I really like? What is the purpose?”, and all that sort of stuff. I just couldn’t bring myself to stability at that time. Days, months, in fact, years passed by as I was stuck in this state.
The Turning Phase
On one hand, I did enjoy my days there – Outings, late night talks and mini-adventures. The carefree nature I once imagined I could never have, also thrilled me. However, it were those same factors (people) that put me into depression for the first two years. Depression. Yes. Not sadness, depression. It wasn’t particularly people, but my thoughts which led to that state. I realize this as I reflect back now.
The turning phase came when I realized that this problem was not going to solve by itself. At the same time, this was something that I can tackle. My first break came as I began ranting about this to a close friend of mine. That lifted down a humungous weight off my chest. Next, I started listening to motivational stories – note, not motivational videos of people screaming, “Do this, do that!”, but inspirational stories of real-life people. I changed my eating habits, started pursuing new hobbies, went out, talked with more people. I was trying to figure out my passion, whilst reassuring that it’s going to be okay even if you’re late in discovering it. As time flew, I started noticing changes. A lot of them. I started becoming more stable, had lesser fear than before and felt a lot more at ease.
12 Wellness and Health Journey Pointers That I Follow Till Day
What I mentioned here was merely the nutshell of the things that I did and the time and patience it took for the internal transformation. If I were to list down the few key things of my journey so far, they would be:
1. Remember that it’s going to be okay.
2. You’re not alone in this battle.
3. Try sharing it with someone, if you’re comfortable with it.
4. Eat well. Eat healthy. ENJOY eating.
5. Do all the good physical stuff – yoga, breathing, exercises (it was dancing in my case).
6. Read, watch or listen to a lot of good stuff (remember, what type of content you consume is extremely important).
7. Consume relaxed content (the previous point was to focus more on inspirational or educational stuff). Stuff like music, anime and gaming always cheered me up.
8. Have a person you can look up to either in your personal life or some famous personality.
9. If you have ANY addictions in any form, try to get rid of them as early as possible (at the very least, reduce them).
10. Go out. Travel. Near or far, if you have the chance to go out, just go to that mountain or beach or forest, and enjoy the beauty of nature.
11. Start a new hobby. Few which I enjoy – writing, photography, cooking and dancing.
12. Interact more with people.
Also, get yourself around good people. I don’t mean to say some people are bad, but some relationships can be really toxic. For example, someone might applaud hustle culture, but that might not be suitable to you. Another example, you might be in a circle where everyone has a partner, but you personally feel that it isn’t the best time for you to get into one. Basically, end or loosen ends with toxic relationships that pressure you to do something you don’t like and surround yourself with people who can energize you, motivate you and keep you smiling.
These are some of the things that I did which eventually helped me to have a more healthy and stress-free state of mind. I really do hope and pray that this article is in some way helpful to you, the reader.
P. S. Hearty kudos to the team for the idea, vision and the work behind the Wellness and Health Journey.
Best wishes & peace :D!
GG is a first year MBA student.