Mental Health

What Is Mental Health?

What is mental health, why is it important, and how can we maintain it? Currently, in many societies and cultures, mental health awareness has become increasingly prevalent in our consciousness through mainstream and social media, and possibly simply through an increase in self-awareness.

Some may say that the modern lifestyle and the demands that arise from it contribute to the challenges of maintaining one's mental health. Whatever the truth is, we know through ancient wisdom based on Vedic philosophy that the mind has, for an exceedingly long time, been a challenging aspect of health. According to this philosophical tradition, previous scholars have enlightened us with statements that the mind is like the wind, impossible to control. Therefore, one can support the health of the mind by managing the many challenges it gives us, rather than seeking a permanent cure for the obstacles it produces.

We know that mental health affects all people, regardless of wealth, social stature or education. Despite research, no amount of abundance in these areas has cured illnesses of the mind. In fact, as is well publicised, many people with wealth and fame fall victim to anxiety, deep depression and suicidality, despite their apparent means of avoiding these scenarios.

Who is perpetually happy? Who has never been sad, disappointed or depressed, or experienced despair, worry or anxiety, just to name a few of the challenges of the mind? The above-mentioned challenges may pale in comparison to some of the more serious mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder, and the multitude of personality vulnerabilities experienced by many people within our societies.

Although many of us may never directly experience some of the more serious mental illnesses, it could be argued that we often encounter them, perhaps not personally, but within our society, often without awareness. We may frequently come across people suffering from these conditions yet never be aware of their suffering.

Mental health is important because it pervades all aspects of health and is directly interrelated with physical, spiritual and emotional health. When our mental health is functioning poorly, this affects our quality of life in many ways, such as reducing the quality of our relationships through a diminished ability to relate to others and therefore have satisfying interactions and exchanges within our social relationships.

We know through longitudinal studies that mental health is interactive and intricately intertwined with our ability to maintain social relationships. Therefore, skills in interpersonal communication, distress tolerance and emotional regulation are incredibly valuable to acquire in order to maintain a better equilibrium.

Many scholars have concluded that, in order to maintain our mental health, we need social stability, which can be equated with a certain amount of wealth to look after our basic bodily requirements of food, shelter and hygiene. Beyond these requirements, human beings are social entities and require relationships that provide validation and meaning to our lives. This often requires a sense of purpose and of being useful and appreciated within our society.

On a more personal, individual level, this relates to how a reduction in a healthy sense of self affects us. In essence, our very own uniqueness is dependent upon this relationship being healthy. Consequently, our individual mental health and wellbeing are directly interconnected with the intimate relationship we have with our own identity.

For many people, this is guided by a deep need to understand our spiritual nature and our relationship with whom many people call God or the Supreme Being, according to their individual religious beliefs.

So how can we maintain mental health? Well, that is the question, with the keyword being 'maintain'. As previously mentioned, physical beings face many challenges in preserving mental health through its constant ebb and flow. This journey is very individual, yet there are universal principles that may assist us in attaining this goal.

Therefore, developing strong and regular practices to help us in this challenging field of human experience could be argued to be an essential step in achieving this goal. What works for many people may not work for others. Although very clichéd, this is also very true because we are individuals, and therefore our hopes and desires need to be considered when answering the question of how to achieve balance in our mental health.

Commitment to attaining skills, and practising maintenance through regularly repeating skills that help us to balance ourselves regardless of how we feel, is important. Essentially, this involves using our intelligence to overcome our fluctuating emotional states of mind encountered in our constantly changing lives.

We also know that engaging in strong social relationships is a key point in protecting this aspect of our health. These relationships are what sustain us when we are unable to fully sustain ourselves. The importance of upholding strong relationships has been shown to be one of, and arguably the most important, ways to improve our mental health.

In addition, it is most beneficial to engage with mental health professionals who help us attain this goal by providing advanced knowledge based on exercise, nutrition, medication, psychology and sociology. These professionals can help us, in addition to our own exploration, and add context to our need for understanding through knowledge and practice of these specific modalities that support mental health.

So, what does this mean in a practical sense? Obviously, with mental health being such an individual area of health, it is important to keep things simple when generalising about how to maintain this particularly changeable aspect of our lives. It has been shown that mental health can be very positively influenced by simply walking for 30 minutes a day, three times a week.

Evidence presented by multiple researchers highlights the benefits of investing energy in healthy relationships. Initiating positive exchanges between human beings, even when we are not feeling positive within ourselves, is a valuable investment in our mental health.

Practising kindness has also been shown to strengthen our ability to build our mental health. In short, it is nice to be nice. Research has also been conducted into the positive effects on mental health of volunteering and serving others, and these are therefore valid ways to explore increasing and encouraging beneficial mental wellbeing in our own lives.

In conclusion, mental health is, and always has been, a complex area of the human experience. For most people, sustaining it requires conscious effort and gratitude for what we have. Researchers have shown that people who practise gratitude are much more likely to achieve their goals in life. Maintaining and enhancing relationships through positive social interaction, and being compassionate and empathetic towards ourselves and others, can be valuable ways of creatively cultivating and nurturing our mental health.