Category: Mental Health

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How To Stay Positive And Be Proud Of Yourself In Life #MentalHealth #Itsmychoice

With all the goals I have accomplished in life, whether big or small, personal or professional, I am really proud of all of them. There were times when I had a brief moments of doubt, whether I am doing it right or not but, not because I wasn’t sure but because my decision could have impacted many lives.

But at the end what matters is, whatever you do, you need to be happy only then you can make others happy. I am sure most of you will agree with me on this. Even the most mundane achievement can lead you to exceptionally content places in life. I seriously feel, we should never underestimate ourself. Every accomplished of mine led to where I am today and don’t you think that’s enough to be proud of?

No matter where you are and what you do, people are here to judge you, assess you and evaluate you for anything and everything. But these things should not matter if you are convinced with your decisions.  It’s your choice and be proud of it. Each goal you attain is worthy of celebration, especially when it takes you closer to your dreams in life.

When  I say I am proud of myself that is not just confined to my career choices but the way I have over come certain setback in my life too. A lot of people think that you can be only proud of yourself when you have accomplished something but we all know that  success means different to different people. So being proud of ourself is not contingent upon reaching some external standard of success, rather it is an internal state that arises when you feel good about who you are and what you have achieved.

As a coach and a trainer it gives me immense pleasure when I aid my clients in improving their relationships, careers, and day-to-day lives. I help them in clarifying their goals, identifying the obstacles that is holding them back and assist them in identifying various strategies to overcome them. And while doing this somewhere unconsciously I am helping myself in becoming a better person as every day there is a learning.

But is it easy to stay positive and happy all the time? No Not really. What about the times when you mess up things? What about when you are just not feeling proud of yourself? But the good news is, there are things that can keep you sane and things you can do to help turn that around.

6 Ways To Stay Positive

Focus on your positive qualities

Keeping positive qualities as a focal point can lead to both psychological and physical well being. It keeps you motivated and do not let you distract. It gives you the strength not to give up if you encounter difficulties along the way. It makes you look at failure and problems as blessings in disguise.

Engage in things that make you feel good

Do what you like. So if you carry out things what makes you happy it help you to stay positive. So everything is interrelated. When you are taking care of yourself and doing things you enjoy, it is hard not to feel a sense of pride.

Do not compare yourself

Remember each one of us are on our own journey and comparing your own progress to someone else’s is only going to make you feel worse. So focus on your own journey and be proud of the person you are.

Positive self talk

Pat your back and remind ourself that you have survived a lot of things in life that’s worth acknowledging. Not many people comes out of their challenges and setbacks stronger and the fact that you  didn’t let those setbacks defeat you is more than enough to be proud of.

Learn from your mistakes

When a person does mistakes, it shows a lot about their growth and the lesson’s they have learned along the way. When you learn from your failures and try your best to avoid repeating them, it says a lot about you and your personal development.

Be helpful

I am not boosting myself but one of the quality that made me a coach and a trainer is being selfless. We live in a selfish world and when we show act of kindness and compassion, you show other’s that there are hope and love amidst the darkness.

Doing all of these will give you a sense of happiness and make you feel content.

“This post is written for IT’S MY CHOICE Blog Train by Gleefulblogger & Wigglingpen ( in association with ) Vedix & Kerala Ayurveda

This post is part of Blogchatter’s #CauseAChatter

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How Higher Self-Efficacy Helps In Better Mental Health? #Mental Health #CauseAChatter #CampusToCorporate

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According to Albert Bandura, a social cognitive psychologist, self-efficacy is defined as:

The belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.

Self-efficacy is about your belief in your abilities in dealing with different situations. It is very important to understand how self-efficacy impacts the mental health of a student, in specific. It plays a vital role in your life, as it not just affects the way you feel about yourself but also how successful you will be in your personal and professional life. It has a huge impact on your psychological state, behavior as well as on motivational level.

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Positive Speaking and Mental Health Goes Hand In Hand #CauseAChatter #MentalHealth

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Would love to begin my post with inspiring positive quotes that I have come across and has become mantra of my life

“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”

“Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.”

“You cannot control the behavior of others, but you can always choose how you respond to it.”(Roy T. Bennett)

I have always believed in the power of subconscious mind. The words we use in our mind often describes our life, our surroundings, our relationships and us. Therefore it is as important to keep an eye on our internal dialogue as on our spoken words. For example if you constantly utter self depreciating language in your internal dialogue, you are actually allowing the power of words to work against you. So our whole life depends upon words. Therefore, speak with mindfulness.

I am sure most of you heard yourself saying things like

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A Purpose Driven Life Helps In Mental Peace #MentalHealth #CauseAChatter

What makes a life worth living for? Yes to make a life more meaningful, it has to have “PURPOSE”. In fact purpose guides decisions, influences behavior, shapes goals, offer a sense of direction and adds meaning to our lives and gives us mental peace that each one of us are craving for. A life without a purpose is a life where we don’t live we merely exist. Purpose be it small or big, conscious or unconscious, forms a fundamental of all human actions. The greatness of ones life depends upon what one lives for. If one wants to live well or act sensibly one needs to have purpose. Today people have everything to live with but nothing to live for as they lack purpose in life.

In relation to purpose their are two kinds of people, one who is externally motivated. They move from one contingent purpose to next. For example, while in school and college, they just want to pass. After that they want to get a job, once they get a job, their aim is to earn money and satisfy their needs, but once they enter a phase of life where they have everything and don’t have much expectations from life that’s when they begin to feel the pang of not having lived to a worthwhile purpose and might get into mental health issues. As someone rightly said, life becomes worth living, when their is a cause worth dying for. The second category of people are those who are self motivated, they take ownership of their life. They are few in numbers but are driven by self-embraced purpose. They understand that responsibility with accountability if practice with sustainability leads to credibility. They are responsive to external demands and do not get intimidated by external pressure.

So what category would you like to be in? I am sure the second one. Remember there are two known widespread epidemics, one is boredom and second one is depression. So if you don’t want to get caught in this clutter, try to find out your purpose in life.

Lets discuss purpose of life with respect to different aspects of life:

People who lead a purpose-less life are the ones who complains the most about not having time, are too busy as we say, ‘doing nothing’. And people who have identified their aim, never crib about not having time as they are busy doing what they are meant to be. Therefore if I say time is a function of purpose I won’t be wrong.

Consider life as a raw material, it has to be shaped into something significant through individual action. As the aphorism has it, ” Life is what God gives to us; personality, that is what we make of the life given to us, is what we give back to God”. Here individual action is, strength of character or will without which no good intention can be put to work and realized. How to we distinguish between good and bad and choose former? Is it not in relation to what we live for?

Discipline definitely remains one of the most important aspect of successful life and will do so forever. From the perspective of purpose-driven life, do’s and don’ts’ is the way to do what needs to be done. Not only does practice allow one to establish a positive action. It helps us train our minds and body and enables us to focus on our goals and to regulate our emotions.

Another aspect of purposeful life is practice what you believe in. Not only does practice allow one to establish a positive action. It helps us train our mind and body and enables us to focus on our goals and to regulate our emotions.

During pandemic things were difficult for most of us. But people with strong mindset and strong willed sailed through it as they knew how to create an opportunity and grab it too but people who felt intimidated are the one’s who took it as a treat and waited for the better days to come. If you are living a purposeless life you will feel weak and vulnerable as you will not know where life is taking you, so the more purposive we are the greater the control we have over ourselves and the greater our self control the clearer our sense of purpose. Therefore self mastery and self awareness reinforce each other and sustain purposiveness in life.

This Post is part of Blogchatter’s #CauseAChatter 

 

 

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Do Not Let Fear Run Your Life # MentalHealth #CauseAChatter

Hi Everyone,

Today I am sharing something which many of us must have come across but not really shared with anyone due to the fear of being judged. Being a life and EQ Coach I always make sure that I do not disclose my clients identity or anything related to them. But today I am sharing something that can’t be explained without giving examples from my encountered with few of my clients.. So lets begin..

I am keeping their name and identity antonymous

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Therefore all of us need to remember that we accomplish great things if we look at problems face on rather than being held back by doubt and fear. I am sharing two examples who fought with their fear and came out as a winner.

Santosh is a 54 year old computer engineer at XYZ company, drives 130 km  to work every day. One fine day while returning from office he met with an accident. As it was a minor accident, after a short rehabilitation he was fine physically but due to the trauma he remained injured mentally. He was terrified of driving but as he had no other option but to go to work, he braved it out as a car pool passenger. Mere thought of that accident used to disturb him.

Aruna is a 40 year old bank employee and mother of two. After 10 years of her blissful marriage she discovered that her husband is having an affair. She was so deeply hurt that she became the patient of paranoid disability disorder (PPD) . Someone who is always suspicious even when their is no reason to be. Despite her husband’s effort of making everything alright , she could not overcome the feeling of being cheated and became paranoid whenever he is out of sight. Due to all this her own life has come to standstill.

Can you tell me what is common in both the cases? Well, they both are trauma victims who are terrified by the fear of reoccurrence and always stayed in the feeling of helplessness.

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘ I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along” – Eleanor Roosevelt.

Traumas effects your life tremendously and shatters your belief and sense of safety. It is not always about trauma but also the fear that whatever happened will happen again. And when your fear takes away the place of trust you feel more vulnerable . And you feel if something like this happens again you will not be able to survive or will face an irreversible damage. Now this kind of anxiety can actually leads to withdrawal. And if it is exceptionally strong it can even lead to phobia, the ultimate form of avoidance.

The fear of reoccurrence can be devastating. In case of Aruna her anticipatory dread was so strong that even when her husband had to take late night calls, she would think he is lying and actually taking to a women. She was so terrified of other women that she stopped her husband from socializing. She even checked his phone to check his call history. If this continuous for long this paranoia of her can become the bigger threat to their marriage than her husband’s affair.

Now lets understand why does this happen? It is absolutely normal to feel bad or get upset if something unexpected and disturbing happens in your life. But the sooner you resume living, the less hurt you will be. But one needs to understand that being paranoid has it’s roots in early childhood. When a child has a trauma , such as falling from the stairs while climbing or hitting a wall while playing, he or she feels unprotected. If the parents make a big deal of something which is very tiny, that becomes a big deal even in child’s mind. They will feel that anything that upset’s mom and dad that much must be truly awful , so I better not to repeat it again. On the other hand if parents treats that trauma too lightly, the child could feel neglected or injured. In either case, the over obsession or feeling neglected is more frightening than the injury itself and can result in avoidance. So, when as an adult, a fresh trauma triggers the feeling, people generally protect themselves my forming a bubble around themselves or become obsessed by the fear of a reoccurrence.

“Nothing in life is to be feared, It is only to be understood “- Marie Curie

Therefore, smart parents comfort their traumatized child and encourage them to try it again before the fear becomes permanent.  When the child climb the stairs without getting hurt, they learn to be resilient and will never fear to face the fear.

This is precisely what adults should also do when they are traumatized. Only by facing the fear, by getting on to the life and taking action, will help them to be more balanced and resilient. It is important that you start somewhere and take positive action before you surrender. In case of Santosh he took baby step, first he started driving on small streets, then to near by area before venturing to his office again.

In case of Aruna, she need to convince herself , first by acting it out as if she trust her husband. She should force herself to wish her husband a good trip when he goes out of town and should start attending gathering without clinging on him. Over a period of time if her husband proves himself trustworthy, she could do all of this for real and can get on with her life.

Suggestions to overcome fear

Understand that feeling vulnerable doesn’t make you weak. Accept the fear and take action to overcome that.

Accept that everything that happens cannot be controlled or prevented. So face it as and when they occur.

Realize apprehensions and avoidance cannot be the solution to any problem.

Resume your life as soon as possible. Take small steps but make sure you take.

Identify those people whom you can trust and those who are positive in life.

Take each action aiming to reduce fear.

Be resilient, give positive affirmation to yourself for example, if you can survive the trauma , then you can face anything in life and will come out as a winner.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” – Bertrand Russel

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this post are personal and for reading purposes only. They’re not medical advice. Each individual’s experience may vary. Please consult a professional if you need help.

This Post is part of Blogchatter’s #CauseAChatter

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Mental Health Found A Place In Budget 2022 #MentalHealth #CauseAChatter

Being a mental health advocate, I was thrilled with the announcement of “Mental Health and R&D been given a top most priority in the budget 2022. Pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health, which is quite obvious when you look at these two prominent facts, one in four people are suffering from depression, while one in five are struggling with anxiety. And as pandemic continues , we might see things getting worse. Many of us are facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming and cause strong emotions. Public health measures that includes social distancing, lockdown, economic insecurity, school and business closure can make us feel isolated and lonely and can lead to severe depression and anxiety. And the worst part, is people are not even aware that they are suffering with some kind of mental health issues as they are unable to think beyond Covid 19.

In such a scenario government coming up with proposals like establishing National Tele Mental Health programme in India is considered as a boon.

What Is National Tele Mental Health programme ?

The National Tele Mental Health programme is launched to improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services which will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities. Government has announced the creation of 23 tele-mental health facilities, with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, serving as the nodal center. Nimhans’ role is to conceptualize the programme, develop the training content, train the counsellors of centers of excellence and monitor the programme. The toll free number finds a mention in the health ministry’s website, the CoWIN portal and the counselling is available in 13 languages. More than 650 doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counsellors and psychiatric nurses working in government hospitals across India are involved in the helpline.

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What is Conduct Disorder And How To Handle It ?#MentalHealth #CauseAChatter

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Parents can be the biggest allies or worst enemies when it comes to dealing with children and adolescent. Their denial of their child’s mental health issues can complicates things and can worsen the situation. There are so many therapies available which kids or anybody who is suffering from mental health conditions can be benefitted from. But I see most of the times parents ignore the seriousness of the situation and write it off as defiant behavior, active imagination or they just hope their child will grow out of things such as torturing animals and setting fires. Denial is one of the defense mechanism and can be extremely unhealthy in the long run.

Conduct problems have become very common among students and adolescents in our society. And the reason could be many, to name a few

  • Nuclear Families
  • Working parents
  • Exposure
  • Social Media
  • Expectations
  • Competition
  • Nanny culture
  • Family history

But first it is important to understand what is Conduct Disorder?

Conduct Disorder is a mental condition. The behaviour goes beyond normal bullying to hurting people to Intensive disregard for societal norms and the rights, feeling, and personal space of other people. Children with conduct disorder are often difficult to diagnosed, as all kids act out sometimes. It is only when extreme behaviour shows up over a long period of time and isn’t caused by the child’s environment. And also if major age appropriate societal norms are violated or if their is a significant impairment in everyday functioning at home or school can be labeled as Conduct Disorder.

When we talk about normal behavior, it depends on the child’s age, character, and physical and emotional development. If their behaviour doesn’t match with family or societal expectations or is disruptive, it may become a problem. And that’s when intervention is needed.

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Need For Mental Health Awareness and Inclusiveness #MentalHealthAwareness #CauseAChatter

Mental Health Awareness is something that can help the millions of people who are impacted by mental health conditions across the globe. It should be considered as any other illness. Month of May is recognized as Mental Health Awareness month ,the sole purpose is to help people with mental illnesses understand that they are not alone in their struggle and that getting treatment can make all the difference. If we apply this approach to mental health every day of the year, more and more people could benefit from knowing about these common illnesses.

The difference in the quality of medical care received by people with mental illness is one of the reasons why they live shorter lives than people without mental illness. Even in the best-resourced countries in the world, this life expectancy gap is as much as 20 years. In the developing countries of the world, this gap is even larger. But of course, mental illnesses can kill in more direct ways as well. The most obvious example is suicide. Suicide is at the top of the list of the leading causes of death in young people in all countries in the world, including the poorest countries of the world. But beyond the impact of a health condition on life expectancy, we are also concerned about the quality of life lived.

We need to use a matrix called DALY , Disability-Adjusted Life Year.

The Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) and the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) are two popular health status indices, used to measure health outcomes based on the duration and quality of life for an individual. The QALY was the first developed health status index, and is mostly used in developed countries. A QALY is defined as a year lived in perfect health. 

Both metrics use a scale of 0-1 to represent the quality of life:

  • QALY: “0” is equivalent to death; “1” represents perfect health. 
  • DALY, “0” represents perfect health; “1” equates to death.

I am sharing this just to understand that by this calculation we can discover which populations are living with the greatest health burden, and prioritize those areas for future health interventions.

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How To Deal With Self-Defeating Behaviors? #CauseAChatter

Get out of your comfort zone, accept the change, be positive, be resilient, perseverance is the key to success are few things that we keep on listening. And why not? People who have growth mindset are the ones who follow all of these and are more successful in life. Most of us are aware about all these qualities but still there is something that holds us back and we fail to understand the real cause.  In my experience, people who fail to learn the lessons that life teaches them fall under the prey of self – defeating behaviour.

Self- defeating behavior works against your own interest. It keeps you away from the goals that you have set for yourself . They are distracting, self-loathing and self- sabotaging. Nothing can drive you crazier than knowing that you have been keeping yourself away from gaining love, success and happiness which you deserve and desire. Self-defeating behavior occurs when impulse wins over awareness. It might give you quick gratification but you will long for lasting satisfaction, it might give you immediate relief but ultimate resolution is what will make you happier. It is like a coping mechanism, which can make you feel better for a while but can be really be nasty in long run. Self defeating behavior is your biggest enemy, the earlier you get rid of it the better it is for you. There are many self defeating behaviours,  to name a few

  • Procastinating
  • Holding a grudge
  • Trying to change others or having expectations from them
  • Waiting until it’s too late
  • Always having to be right
  • Letting fear run your life
  • Becoming obsessive or compulsive
  • Feeling sorry for yourself

As with the most persistent patterns,  this behavior has roots in childhood experience.  Children who are abused or neglected in their childhood, feel unprotected and alone. Then there are children who do not lack affection but are not given adequate guidance, grow up feeling incompetent an incapable.  In both these cases they end up with stubborn self defeating behaviours. This kind of behavior are quite impulsive and people act without regard for long term consequences.

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Are nutrition and exercise inter-connected to strengthen your muscles?

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.” – Hippocrates

Balanced nutrients and healthy routine exercise go hand in hand just like peas and carrots. One without the other just doesn’t work. As an Image Consultant I always talk about “Image inside out”. Now what does this means? It means managing image is all about developing your inner strength and at the same time reflect them on the outside through your appearance. Similarly, if you are looking for prolonged health benefits and want your body to retain muscle strength even when you age, it is imperative to focus on both diet and exercise at the same time. Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is inter-related.

Contrary to popular belief, exercise alone will not help you with weight loss or stimulate your metabolism.  Healthy eating accounts for roughly 70-80% of the work with exercise being the rest. Too many people think that they can eat crap as long as they exercise. But it is just going to do more harm than good.

If you are looking for perfection, I am sorry to disappoint you, but no one is perfect nor should they expect to be. In life and nutrition, it’s about finding a good or right balance. Proper nutrition and right exercise will help you obtain the body you desire, improve your self- confidence and boost your fitness performance.

There is a 80/20 rule. Aim for healthy nutrition at least 80 percent of the time and exercise accounts for approximately 20 percent of the work. Try to set realistic goals, look for progress and not perfection. As far as exercise is concerned, do not force what your body can’t bare. One thing you need to remember, your metabolism decreases as you get older. So, eat mindful, build a life style which can be maintained and gives you longer, happier and healthier life.

As you age your nutritional need also alter. This is because aging leads to varity of changes in your body like, nutrients deficiencies, decreased quality of life and poor health outcome. But luckily there are things you can do to prevent all of these by taking nutrient rich food and taking the appropriate supplements for example Ensure supplements. #EnsureStrongerInsideOut.

6 Ways To Stay Strong And Healthy As You Age

Do you know that people over the age of 40 may lose up to 10 % of their muscle mass per decade? And the rate of decline may double after the age of 70. But can we do something about it? The answer is Yes! Now let’s understand How?

  • Add Movement

Engage in regular exercise, including resistance training, to maintain muscle and strength. Exercise not just keeps you fit physically but also mentally.

  • Add protein rich diet

Eat good amount of protein from lean meats, eggs and beans. Aim for 25-30 grams of protein at every meal. As we know protein is a muscle building nutrient and while aging bodies process protein less efficiently and need more of it to maintain muscle mass and strength, bone health, and other essential physiological functions.

  • Add balanced nutrients in your diet

Choose a balanced diet full of veggies, fruits, whole grains, proteins and healthy fats. It also lowers your risk of developing chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes.

  • Add considerate supplements to you diet

Consider adding a nutrition drink to your diet to ensure you’re getting all the nutrients you need as you age. But one needs to remember, they can also have unwanted side effects. Therefore it’s important to understand the supplements you are taking and why you are taking them. Talk with your doctor if you are considering taking a supplement.

  • Add regular health check up in your lifestyle

Consult your healthcare provider about nutrition, especially if you’re ill, hospitalized or recovering from surgery, to manage illness-related muscle loss. And go for regular health check-ups.

  • Add more positive people in your life

Surround yourself with positive people. When you surround yourself with positive influences, you will feel better about yourself. You’ll feel energized and motivated and in turn have longer and healthier life.

Build a lifestyle, not just a diet and treat your body as a holistic system for long term results. When these two lifestyle factors Diet and Exercise are combined, they provide holistic health.

This Post is part of Blogchatter’s Campaign #EnsureStrongerInsideOut

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