World Mental Health Day!
The World Federation for Mental Health, a pioneering organisation for global mental health advocacy, named 10 October as the World Mental Health Day. The WFMH celebrates its 75th year after it was established.
The theme for this year seems especially topical, considering the major tragic events reported in our country this year – ‘It’s Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace’. On their website, the WFMH invites everyone to join their global campaign to promote raising awareness about keeping mental well-being at the top of your checklist at work.
It has been proved that work is essential for mental well-being: it fills us with purpose, enriches our mind, provides financial security during uncertain times, and helps us become confident in our skills, all things that lead us to being healthier mentally in our adulthood. But for a long time, mental health became divorced from the workplace. But today, both employers and employees have started to experience the ill-effects of long-term stress on work. As a result, there is less tolerance of out-dated norms as well as a more positive work culture being promoted in the workplace.
However, unfortunately, a lot of workers and employers are yet to catch up with this global movement. Long unpaid hours, toxic work environment, lack of work-life balance, unethical politics, blame and criticism-based feedback and intrusive micromanagement still plague the majority of Indian workplaces. Have you encountered any of these problems at your workplace before?
The most basic theory of mental well-being is based on hierarchy of various human needs. This theory essentially says that for a person to reach their optimum potential, they must be mindful to responding to their various needs – basic needs like food, shelter, physical health, and other more complex needs like need for financial security, acceptance, self-reliance, affection, meeting intellectual demands and the need to receive respect. We might see ourselves, succeeding wildly in one or more of these areas, but still feel chronic dissatisfaction and unfulfilment if either of these needs remain unmet for a long time, without any signs that they will resolve in the near future. Do you often ask yourself, “My life seems so perfect in some ways, so why do I still feel stuck?”, but don’t find any answers? It’s probably an unmet need making its presence felt.
With World Mental Health Day, let us pay attention to where we are at present – not because we have an unrealistic expectation of wanting things to be perfect all the time – but because taking care of your own mental health means attending to all the difficult emotions that arise when we go through life, and knowing that we have done our best to advocate for our own needs, despite challenges.
