Health indicators
We all try to maintain physical fitness as much as we can. Exercise, walking, Zumba are some of the activities, that is done for maintaining physical fitness. But we do not care for mental health fitness. This is because; physical fitness can be observed visually and measured by standards like weight and height.
Mental health has no visual appearance. Mental health can be self-assessed by the happiness factor. Higher the happiness better is mental health. Now the question is how to decide happiness. Let us first define happiness.
Definition of happiness
Happiness is in successfully achieving our goal. The goal could be anything. It could be being praised at home or office, or learning something new, or completing any other activity. When a person feels happiness in most of the daily activities, he/she can be said to be happy. Also, one who gets sound sleep and gets up fresh after sleep is said to be happy. It can be said that such a person has sound mental health.
Health is the foundation for success
Mental health gives us the inspiration to see dreams and drives us to work towards them. It also allows us to be innovative. Physical fitness provides us the energy to work towards our goals. The two combined together allow us to decide and reach our goal. In short, these two factors are the contributing factors to our success.
A human being starts dreaming in his/her early childhood. But firm ideas start taking shape around the age of 13-14 years. This is the stage when their interests and skills need to be explored. Every individual has unique and distinct strengths. Parents need to take the help of a career counselor to discover their child’s strengths at this stage. His/her career needs to be planned that matches with the unique strength and skill. This ensures developing the sound mental health of that child.
For adults, it is often observed that most people work to earn their livelihood. But they are not happy in their job as their job is not of their interest. When a person is forced to spend half of his/her life working on something that is not of his/her interest, it affects that person’s mental health. It shows in their performance, success and happiness.
Factors affecting mental health
Apart from the above over-commitment is a major factor affecting mental health. Over-commitment to own family or to office results in pushing own interests down. Though such over-commitment wins praise from family members or bosses, these are temporary. In the end, it is self-achievement that wins respect in family, society, and profession. Over-commitment results in sacrificing self-development.
Tips for maintaining sound mental health:
- Do not continue in a job you dislike. Find a career of your interest. Reskill yourself to be eligible for the career of your interest. Once ready for a new career, change your job.
- Always give time to your own interests and self-development.
- Have a perfect work-life balance.
- Never ever over-commit, whether it is personal or professional.
- Learn to say a polite but firm no. It may cause temporary bitterness. But in the long term, it eliminates a lot of stress and strain.
- Learn from the past but do not stay in it for too long.
- If you fail or commit a mistake, do not keep that guilty feeling for long. Think of the future and proceed.
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