The World celebrated Mental Health Day with all the might and strength it could during the lockdown period. Google Meets was one of the platforms where Talks, Discussion, Lectures and Presentations took place.
मनी वसे ते , an extremely mind refreshing Mental Health Program by Prof. Vedavati Paranjpe-Surve, founder of Samvad and a Counseling Psychologist and Ms. Mugdha Desai, founder of Srujan and a Clinical Psychologist. The program was very well managed and anchored by Mr. Chinmay Shivalkar, the thought behind Unscripted Creation.
Basic questions right from Who is a Psychologist? Someone who helps you know you a little better and helps you get through the rough patch of your life and How does a Psychologist help you? Not only with learnt theories but by understanding the reason behind you approaching him and then, guiding you to know what is apparently right and wrong for you. The program reached to the most important topics like “ How DEPRESSION is just a trending word” and “How OVERTHINKING is really an important issue.” The program went in the correct flow with day to day life examples used to explain the most difficult concepts.
When asked about overpowering negative thoughts and being happy,
जनी सर्व सुखी असा कोण आहे is what Prof. Vedavati believes in because apparently, ‘Happiness 24/7’ is a myth. Negative thoughts can be mastered only when you know the roots of them. Happiness can be achieved only when you know what Happiness is for you. DEFINE YOUR OWN HAPPINESS is what Prof. Vedavati says.
Did you know Pleasure and Happiness (सूख आणि आनंद) are two different concepts? Yes. They are two different notions. Pleasure is usually related to your physical activities like, a morning after an adequate sleep will be pleasurous. But happiness is ethereal and is past pleasure.
While giving a beautiful example to understand this, Ms. Mugdha said,
“If you see a childbirth, you will never want to go through that process but, despite of knowing the pain that a woman goes through during her labor, which is absolutely not pleasurous but, because she thinks BEYOND pleasure and about the beautiful moments of the future, she is HAPPY while giving birth.”
Thus simply explaining that, Happiness is beyond Pleasure.
Recreating moments that made you Happy in the Past, not expecting unrealistic outcomes out of oneself, not losing hopes and ACCEPTING CHANGE is what makes you content, they said.
Addressing Acceptance, Ms. Mugdha quoted that, “A temporary phase in your life should not force you to label yourself incapable permanently.”
Considering the human mind as a workplace, dividing the mind into compartments and assigning the divisions work and ticking actions of each of them to analyse the accomplishment at the end of the week, will help one to reach their aims in a systematic matter.
“Sadness is temporary and doesn’t stop you from doing your day routine but, Depression doesn’t let you be happy even in the extremely happy moments. Sadness is not Depression, Sadness IS A PART is Depression.”
A small part of how Meditation helps in calming oneself down was on the list too.
Knowing the mood and considering it while having a fruitful conversation with your partner is very important because an important issue might get an unexpected reaction due to the current mindset of the person.
Talking about conversation, conversations that one builds in their minds are quite common these days, instead, Overthinking is the correct word to be used.
How do you avoid that?
One, know the root from where the overthinking began.
Two, understand if it is the need of the hour.
Three, if you know that it is unimportant, drop the thought.
Four, fears in your minds lead you to overthinking. For eg. What If I am not liked by everyone? This is an unrealistic expectation forcing you to think about irrelevant topics leading you to spoil your own day. So, to not spoil your own day, LIVE IN THE MOMENT. Ms. Mugdha Desai stated a Kung Fu Panda quote in relevance to this saying,
“When Po was overthinking about if he could ever be able be a dragon warrior and thought of quitting, Oogway said to him ‘You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There is a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present’.”
Answering a question about Anxiety, Ms. Desai said that,
“Anxiety is a Mass Issue these days. One deep roots oneself into detailing because of Anxiety, to not let anything go wrong. And not going wrong is impossible but, going wrong and Accepting yourself and improving with the time, that is important.”
“You cannot judge your Life’s book by a mere Chapter,”
she added and continued saying that Loving yourself in situations like this is a must.
Prof. Vedavati then spoke about how Loving oneself is not only pampering or overlooking one’s mistakes but to challenge oneself and do things that help one grow and then, no one can stop a healthy mind from blooming into a beautiful human altogether and the program concluded.
The program ended on a positive note with all the participants content about their questions answered and the Hosts assured them for being just a call away when in need!
