Mind Matters: Nurture Positive Thoughts, Attitude to Achieve Sound Mental Health

Factors like physical fitness and a stereotyped body image has made youngsters neglect mental health. A healthy body cannot function without a healthy mind.

Everyone desires to be healthy and wants to be careful to prevent illness. The battle against diseases begins early in life with parents making sure their children are vaccinated and provide nutritious food. There is also an increasing awareness about the benefits of physical exercise.

As one grows in years the list of do’s and don’ts also grows longer — do not smoke or drink, do not overeat, do not starve, do not be a couch potato, do lead a regulated life, do eat a healthy diet, do exercise daily, do protect yourself from mosquitoes, do wash hands frequently, do stay away from pollution, and so on and on. And all this with the sole aim to avoid contracting airborne, waterborne, food borne and life style borne diseases and have a healthy body.

The Relevance of WHO's World Health Day 2015 to India
Food safety in India is a huge concern and this year with WHO dedicating World Health Day to Food Safety, it would be wise to take stock of concerns that affect the Indian food safety equation.

But is This Enough? What About Mind Before Diseases?

The World Health Organization (WHO) also recognizes that mental health is an integral and essential component of health: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a positive contribution to the community.

To lead a healthy life, we must be healthy, not only in body, but also in mind and spirit — a fact that we often tend to forget or completely overlook. How many of us as parents and teachers consciously and relentlessly nurture a healthy mind and spirit in our children? We make great efforts (at times even ridiculous and foul ones) to send them to good (read expensive) schools to increase their intelligence quotient with the sole aim of outperforming their peers in their studies, to get a highly paid job. But we care two hoots about their emotional quotient. We goad them ruthlessly to be successful in life, but we fail to tell them how to cope with failure, and to accept a NO gracefully. We rarely strive to teach our girls and boys (and also ourselves) equality, tolerance, compassion and respect for other people’s needs and rights.

World Health Day 2015
This year the World Health Organization has decided to highlight the issue of food safety amidst growing concern over the impact of preventable food borne illnesses on World Health Day.

The results are obvious for everyone to see. We find an ever-growing breed of aggressive and emotionally weak youth who must have at all costs what they set their eyes upon — even if it involves indulging in petty or serious crimes. They are ready to kill and or commit suicide at the slightest pretext.

We indeed are a nation of mentally sick people. Else why are female fetuses aborted; adult daughters and sons killed in the name of protecting family honor; innocent women and girls (as young as 5-6 years old) raped brutally; and human rights of the not so powerful trampled upon everyday?

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Around 1.2 million people across India are expected to take part in 'Yogathon' Saturday performing 'Surya Namaskars' (Salutations to the Sun) to mark World Health Day.

This is more so in case of men, and as social constructs fan the flames of patriarchy, it manifests itself in horrific ways. We have physically healthy, yet perverted, men stalking the streets and lurking in homes, debasing women and girls and committing gruesome violence against them; high ranking officials in government and private enterprises involved in atrocious acts of corruption; religious heads reveling in stoking fires of communal hatred.

The rising crime rate, rampant corruption, increasing incidences of violence against women, communal intolerance and hatred, moral policing, are all signs that our country’s mind is far from healthy. And it is not always poverty or illiteracy that drives one to these aberrations that seem to be becoming more of a norm. A lot of those indulging in nefarious deeds are economically well off, professionally qualified and come from the so- called ‘good homes or families’.

'Invest in Health, Build a Safer Future': World Health Day
There is a need for greater co-operation between governments, corporate sector and citizens to ensure international preparedness and to provide a universal safety net to deal with global health issues

So, on this World Health Day, even as scientists strive harder to combat existing diseases and we make new resolutions to nurture our physical health (the WHO theme for World Health Day 2015 is about food safety with the slogan ‘From farm to plate, make food safe’), let us provide safe and nutritious food for our thoughts too, so that we are able to not only cleanse our body of harmful toxins but also our mind of perverted ideas that prevent us from behaving and acting humanely.

And as Dr. Charles Glassman says, “Remove anger, regret, resentment, guilt, blame and worry from your diet. Then watch your health and life improve.”

Source: Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service (CNS)

Source-Medindia