Speaking of a time just a few decades from now, I�ve heard people say how they believe mental health to be a luxury when thousands of people could be suffering or dying every day from �serious� issues like physical health issues, financial issues hardships. No disrespect to those difficulties, but if the idea of mental health was simply a hoax, I believe we wouldn�t have lost as many as 700000 people per year by suicide. Or, we wouldn�t have 792,000,000 people embrace unhealthy coping strategies, only to make peace a far-fetched concept.

If these numbers made you raise your eyebrows, guess I can make myself comfortable now to speak further about mental health. But before diving in, let�s address the question-�What exactly is mental health?�

First, imagine holding all the major components of your existence in your hand- body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

Your body is what allows you to manifest in physical reality. Your mind takes on the responsibility to drive, process, and enhance your ability to think as an individual. Your emotions allow you to feel- could be the feelings of your own, and the surroundings as well. Lastly comes the spiritual part, which basically functions to make you feel a sense of connectivity, love, respect, and appreciation towards all the fellow living beings of the universe, and blend into a unified sense of existence.�

All these units that you�ve visualized, now think of them to be the four wheels of the vehicle of your existence. If any of these fail to work properly, what will happen to that vehicle, you think? If you take the visualization too graphically, you�ll see an imbalanced transport system trying to make its way to retain the balance, but failing. This is a state we can coin as a �Mental Health Issue�, for our understanding�s sake.

Allow me to explain what might happen when either of those four components of your existence tends to be imbalanced, i.e., you tend to go down the slippery road of mental health issues. In short, it sets your sense of peace and well-being directly into the flames.

Imagine you have complications in your physical health. Then there will be a tendency to let your whole consciousness revolve around that issue, which eventually tunes the other components out of their regular operating states, worsening your health conditions.

Or suppose you�re burdened with heavy thoughts with every other thing in your life and some more. So much so that you stopped taking care of the other components and delved deeper into your thoughts, making you manifest as a chronic overthinker. Or it could be the other way round- a state of hopelessness that makes you believe thinking a way out for a better future is a waste of time. Whatever the case, it�s sure to strain your relationship with the other components and make you feel terribly unmotivated.

Often it�s thought that emotions are the devil�s advocates. I can�t help but chuckle at this thought because, yes, if the balance isn�t retained, the statement won�t be far from the truth. What happens when you feel too much? Well, it makes you look at a situation in an overly magnified view, making its effect appear more painfully unbearable than it originally is. And conversely, when you fail to perceive proper feelings around an issue or even be unable to feel anything, you tend to undermine the significance of the situation.

Lastly comes the spiritual balance. Well, it�s quite similar to that of the emotional one. In this case, it strains your relationship with your fellow creations. While being over-indulgent makes you lose track of your own well-being, neglecting their existence will turn you into someone who doesn�t feel like a safe enough creation to be around.

Anytime the balance among the components is lost, mental health issues seem to come into play, followed by a feeling of being extremely out of place. A mental health issue may begin with an incident. It could be such a big one as trauma, accident, loss of loved ones, any unwanted change, or the daily stress, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes, trauma can even manifest in an individual by perceiving the incidents of others, and it can strike an individual like a thunderbolt at any stage of their life. But however that restlessness manifests, if proper steps are not taken immediately, it might make people go down the territories, from where the way back towards peace and tranquility might seem difficult.

One such extreme manifests as people committing suicide, when an individual feels overwhelmed with all the happenings and feels unable to navigate the proper solution. Most of them are seen to suffer in silence, believing their issues won�t be perceived as significant enough or they might be perceived as weak. Hence death feels easier to them.

Then, there�s the opposite end of the spectrum, which can be termed �Mental Health Disorders�. In this case, people tend to numb, kill or bury parts of themselves, only not to face the discomfort of dealing with those parts. It eventually makes them feel a sense of emptiness within their soul, and they tend to look for external resources to fill that void within. But nothing ever succeeds. Sometimes, their attempts include abuse of substances or unhealthy coping, which might even cause the people around them to lack peace. So they keep burying those parts until they can�t anymore, and one day, suddenly, the hells break loose, and these buried parts seem to rear their head like zombies. Interestingly enough, this attempt is also taken because these individuals feel it�s unsafe to talk about their issues, as it might make them appear weak or vulnerable.

Now that I�ve talked a lot about how `WHY` it�s important to maintain the stability within those components let�s now dive into the `HOW`. And undoubtedly, I will never deny how hard it can be to keep the equilibrium of all the components perfectly. In truth, we don�t live our everyday life holding rulers and meters in our hands to check the deviation of the components from their balanced states now and then. But whenever an imbalance occurs, it manifests as a lack of peace, restlessness, or an unsettled feeling, which keeps whispering to you, �Something isn�t right!�

Anytime you find yourself in this situation, I�d request you to allow yourself some time. Sit with yourself, and talk your heart out to yourself, just like you would do to someone who feels the safest. Then try figuring out the knots of complications, and take steps to untie them with wholehearted love and grace towards yourself. Often, this idea of sitting with self feels very scary because many fear it�ll take you down a rabbit hole that�ll lead you to all the unwanted and ugly territory of your existence. But guess that�s what makes us human, the imperfectly perfect creation. Once we go through those unsettling matters and take steps accordingly to make peace with the issues, it becomes easier to embrace the peace within us again. It�s okay to seek help, talk and connect to support groups, take a break, cry your heart out, take extra measures towards healthy lifestyle choices- anything that empowers you to connect back to yourself.

Guess it�s high time we looked at the issue of mental health without attaching shame or weakness to it. It�s normal to fall off the wagon of perfect balance and harmony, but it�s never too late to get back on the steering wheels and regain control. All these attempts to balance the self from within will help you get in touch with a healthy, happy, resourceful self and allow you to be of better service to your surroundings.

We will appreciate your priceless observations on the mental-health domain. Feel free to share your perspective on mental health by commenting below ?