HAPPINESS

“ I spent my entire life chasing big things. I ran till my lungs gave up and even that didn't make me stop. So i walked at a pace faster than usual because with every step i  took, my goal to be happt seemed awfully close. But little did i know, happiness had existed in the little things all this while. Perhaps those little things that I surpassed way back in my journey.” 

-ZARIYAAA

A combination of 9 letters with 90 different meanings attached to it, Happiness is the ability to feel satisfied and content in your own mind and heart. It is more than just feeling good about yourself. It is a promise you make to yourself to find the underlying meaning to various things around you including life itself. 

For as long as we can remember being happy has always been associated with the act of smiling. It is a practice we all grew up with and gradually got so desensitized to, that our adulthood marked the peak of this practice for we smiled till our cheeks hurt but none of those smiles reached our eyes nor did they make their way to our hearts.

HAPPINESS perhaps is one of the few most ironic words of english language that is for a word that big in size it sure doesn't have its meaning residing in big things. Some days it's in the beats of our favorite song while on other days it's hidden in the good deed someone unknowingly did for us. It's in the simplest of things yet is toughest to find on hard days and maybe that is exactly what makes it worth the chase.

IT IS A PATH YOU CHOOSE TO WALK ON, NOT A DESTINATION YOU REACH.

Happiness is somehow always confused with the idea of a beautiful stagnant destination and that is where we go wrong. Happiness isn't something as stagnant as a place but a journey, a choice that one makes to embrace a moment in hand. It is a choice to nurture hope, invest positive emotions even when nothing about a particular situation is an expected result.

It is a pathway to the goals we set for ourselves, a by product that empowers us to keep going despite the hurdles we might face.

Happiness is not the absence of negative emotions but the ability to nurture positivity and not feel railroaded whenever a negative situation overpowers us. 

It is the most priceless gift you can give to yourself that'll free you from the various eccentricities of life and encourage you to let go of the past, embrace your present and quit postponing positive emotions on the future. Happiness is a choice to add meaning and purpose to your life to keep yourself going and living each moment as it comes to the fullest. 

It is not a checklist but a list of ongoing experiences.

Happiness is something that is as existent within you as much as it is around you. It is not something that should reside in a cage and require a key. Do yourself a favor, break this cage and set yourself free because a key may always have the power to lock you down again but a broken cage never will.

MENTAL HEALTH

“Something that we all know about Death is that it is inevitable. 

But, to be buried alive is something none of us would want to go through and yet unknowingly a part of us goes through it everyday in the form of voices that scream in our heads, for they refuse to be buried. – THE ZARIYA ”

                                                                                      

Mental Health is a commonly misunderstood expression used by most people yet simultaneously not so common in terms of its actual meaning.

Where mental health focuses on feeling good and functioning well, mental health conditions on the other hand represent symptoms that affect people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Mental Health in its complete glory is a state of well-being in which every individual indulges in an exploration of different horizons that eventually help them in discovering their hidden potentials, strengths and coping strategies. The art of mental health focuses on the aspect of moulding ones weaknesses and channelising them in different directions where they can be used as their power to overcome daily stresses of life.

Rather than focusing on “WHATS THE PROBLEM?” mental health is more about “WHAT IS GOING WELL?”

WHY MENTAL HEALTH

My question here is why not?

As humans we tend to ignore things we can’t see, even though the feeling might paralyze us mentally we still refuse to acknowledge its existence. 

Is it worth putting ourselves through the darkness?

Is it worth questioning ourselves everyday?

Is the isolation worth to be fed by being quiet about it?

In Indian, WHO estimates that the burden of mental health problems is of the tune of 2,443 DALYs per 100,000 population, and the age-adjusted suicide rate per 100,000 population is 21.1. It is estimated that, in India, the economic loss, due to mental health conditions, between 2012-2030, is 1.03 trillions of 2010 dollars.

A Disorder is not a Decision and neither are the various stresses that one goes through in their everyday lives is. But, giving yourself the chance to come out of it or to prevent it all together by practising mental health is.

Researches show that high levels of mental health are associated with Increased Learning, 

Creativity and Productivity,

Pro- Social Behaviour

Positive Social Relationships 

And Improved Physical Health and Life Expectancy.

Mental Health is the light to the darkness that resides with in all of us and occasionally surfaces in the form of triggers of breakdowns, maladaptive coping strategies and disorders. It is what provides us the pathway to look beyond the blues probing us to thrive not only in the joys but also the various eccentricities of life. 

Mental Health is a boon to the crime we have committed time and again for so long because to not have your sufferings recognised is the most unbearable form of violence.