Article

“In every season and in every domain of life, mental wellness matters” – Nagamani Krishnamurthy 

Every day you come across a wide variety of situations – some of them make you happy, some make you sad, some others make you anxious and yet others may get you scared! You may be able to deal with some very easily but some might be challenging. Have you noticed that YOU, as a person, deal with similar kind of situations in different ways! Sometimes, you are the best, sometimes you are not! But have you thought about the reasons for this difference in your behavior? Why are you good at dealing with some situations sometimes? What goes wrong in some other times?? If you notice, YOU are the CONSTANT and the situations keep changing. When you find it difficult to handle a familiar kind of situation, it is frustrating! But, calm down! It is your frame of mind which alters every time and if you are in the right frame of mind, you know your strategies. 

What decides your frame of mind? Is it internal? Is it external? How can you make yourself more efficient in most of the situations? If these questions are haunting you, read on and stay till the end! 

The first factor to consider is your “Mental Wellness”. If you are maintaining your mental wellness, then you will be able to handle most of your situations with the right frame of mind. So, what is mental wellness? What does it take to be mentally healthy? I am not a fan of bookish definitions, rather I would prefer you to define mental wellness in your own words because your words make more sense to you, than anyone else’s! It will be easier for you to remember and work on it! 

Let me give you some base for your thoughts on defining mental wellness – 

• Do you identify your emotions in every situation? 

• Do you know how to express it? 

• Can you identify others emotions?  

• Are you able to figure out how to communicate after understanding the situation and emotions of all people involved? 

• Do you take the right actions after comprehending all of the above? 

Well, I am sure it has set you thinking about yourself in varied situations. Pick one situation and try to reflect on all of these questions. If you get stuck in any question, don’t worry. You will get there! Try and answer all of them honestly and truthfully. Do you know why you need to be honest, psssst! “Because you are talking to yourself. You are the only ONE whom you should not cheat!!! Never!” 

Let me help you in being truthful to yourself by deconstructing the process. 

Identify your emotions:  

• Think of a situation you were in recently 

• Reflect on the emotions that you experienced 

• It is a good idea to list all emotions that you know and keep the ones which you felt while crossing out the ones you didn’t during that situation  

Learn to express using the right words: 

• Think about every emotion 

• Choose words which describe your feelings 

• Evaluate whether this will communicate precisely and does not have any words which will  mask/distort your feelings 

• Think of the right body language which will validate your emotions 

• Use the right facial expressions to authenticate your emotions  

Identify others’ emotions: Visualize the situation in all details to  

• Recall the words, expressions and body language including the order in which you experienced.  

• List all the emotions you can see now 

• Recall the emotions you identified during that situation 

• Note the differences in what you remember against what actually happened 

• Recall your response/reaction to others emotions 

Respond, do not react: When you are in a situation and you are in a conversation - 

• Wait for 10 seconds before responding 

• During this time, tell yourself to calm down and comprehend what the other person is trying to say 

• DO NOT  BE JUDGEMENTAL 

• DO NOT ASSUME ABOUT THE OTHER PERSON 

• Focus on the current situation, DO NOT GO TO PAST SITUATIONS 

• RESPOND, do not react immediately! 

Respond appropriately: One of the major issues that most people face is not being able to act according to their thoughts. Though you may be able to go through all the above steps and decipher what you should do, you may not say/do it. To achieve this,  

• Decide what should be your response 

• Choose the right words 

• Prepare your body and mind to say/do the response you have chosen 

• Take courage and just DO IT! 

Now that you have the basis for defining ‘Mental Wellness’, go ahead and define it. Here is my definition – Mental Wellness is a state of well-being where you are able to deal with circumstances/challenges in every sphere of life, be it emotional, psychological, social or functional. It is akin to physical health – If you are physically fit, you can accomplish physical tasks with ease. In a similar manner, you need to work towards keeping yourself mentally fit so that you have the right frame of mind to deal with every situation with ease!  

So, what are you waiting for? Start working out to keep your MIND and BODY FIT! And I will be right back with you to continue our journey in taking care of our mental well-being! 

About the Author

Dr. Nagamani Krishnamurthy is an educator who started her journey as a chemistry teacher 34 years ago. Since then, she moved on to become a teacher, trainer, a coach, a researcher and an early childhood educator but at every stage she retained the underpinning principle of education as a process of nuturing children's EQ and empower them to be equipped with skills to deal with challenges at every stage of life. She has designed a unique early years curriculum strategy Balavikasa's L.E.A.D. which weaves human values and 21st century skills into child development. 

Her passion for creating bespoke teaching strategies has inspired her to design many courses for children at different stages catering to their individual needs and learning syles. She is the founder of Balavikasa Educational Academy where she conducts training programs for children, young people, parents and teachers. She strongly believes that every child has the potential to excel amd every teacher has the power to bring out this excellence in every child. 

Currently, she is vising India to support early years reform at the national level and is on the panel of experts at NIPCCD, NCERT and Govt of India. 

Meanwhile, get to know more about me, visit https://linktr.ee/balavikasa  

Reach out to me on balavikasa4u@gmail.com