Self Sustaining Strategies for Personal Well Being

In this blog I would like to share the gist of the conversation between Ms Rupande Padaki, Trustee India Cares Foundation & Director P&P Group and Ms Pratima Murthy, Professor of Psychiatry & HOD NIMHANS on 27th May 2021. The online session was organized by NHRD Bangalore under its thought Leadership Meet.  

• Well being includes physical, psychological, social, spiritual and societal aspects of the individual. It can also be seen as  a state when you have the ability to adapt to whatever situation life throws up. The ability to have a balance is the key. 
• Money is an  important  aspect of well being but this is only up to a point till you are able to access minimum comforts in life. Beyond that , money alone will not provide well being.
•  "It affects me if people around me are not feeling well."- We are all connected. 
• Wellness or otherwise is contagious. What happens around us affects us and gets spread to others as well.
• Pace of life has increased tremendously but our  ability and self control has not been good enough to keep up with that pace. 
• Many challenges such as adapting to adaptive technology are required to be met these days. 
• When changes occur, it affects life of people. What may appear as 'minor' to some may affect others in a big way. We are all set to a 'personalized thermostat' beyond which we find difficult it to cope. It takes time to readjust to the external challenges. 
• 7-8 years ago a 'well being' study was conducted in Bangalore. It was noticed that there was reasonable wellness among the respondents. It appeared to increase with age meaning older people scored higher in happiness and well being. A certain amount of acceptance of situations happen as one grows older. 
• It was found from the study that minority communities encounter a lot more stress in day to day life. 
• The temperament of the person also impacted well being. Those who were less hedonistic (pursuing pleasure and self gratification) had a higher level of well being. 
• Ability to cope with stress and difficult situations is a part of well being.    

Strategies used by People   

• Sleep out a problem and then look at it afresh.
• Paying adequate attention to sleep and physical health in adverse times.
• Some of the ways of relieving tension are ventilating (expressing one's opinion/emotion), talking to people. 
• Just as catharsis is important, humour is another way to cope with stress. Being able to laugh at ourselves/situation is a big relief. spirituality is another way.
•  Then they are the cognitive strategies - Learn to identify the problems before you, prioritize and put aside those which you cannot deal with immediately. Example: You have identified the problems as worried about retaining job, whether my son's college education will be adversely affected and the need for bringing home required provisions during the pandemic. Achieving  this clarity, will help you decide on which to be attended to first.
• It is most essential to put off important decisions such as quitting a job when you are psychologically and emotionally under pressure.  
• when you think with a calm mind you will realize that not all windows and doors are closed. Step outside of the problem and see what can be done. Chunking the problem into manageable portions helps. This is the principle followed by the Alcoholic Anonymous group. 
• A sense of helplessness can be very distressing. Do not get in to that mindset- Pessimism stretched to a point of feeling that "there are no answers to my problem" can be catastrophic. 
• When people are not able to verbalize their emotional state, the problem gets converted to physical symptoms. Therefore, look at and listen to your body for signs. 
• If anxiety persists over a period of time it needs to be addressed. 

Problems of mental health associated with Covid situation     

• You can see a similarity in the situation faced by both a doctor and a HR person in that they have to meet the expectation and ensure well being of their patients/ employees on the one hand while on the other hand, they have to take care of their own health as well. They also have to handle the associated stress.  
•  The honey moon period of working from home is over, not many are enjoying it anymore. The office working atmosphere of interaction and communication is being missed. Further, with the lines having blurred, work-life balance has gone for a toss.
• The amount of anxiety and fear faced on a day to day basis has gone up considerably, particularly during the second wave. Covid is no longer something happening somewhere far away to someone. It has come too close for comfort.
• As most families are affected in one way or the other, lot of grief and bereavement has to be encountered as also financial burden for treatment.
• Nurses working in hospitals worry about their young children left alone at home to fend for themselves. They are also concerned about passing on the virus as and when they visit home. Similar is the situation of other professionals working in the medical and  health domain.
•  In an activity organized for children, they were asked to do painting of what they thought about the Covid 19 situation. It was interesting to find that younger children painted positive pictures as well. 
• Children miss the opportunity to play outdoor with their friends and the class room atmosphere at school. 
• There is a need for a lot more supervision by adults when it comes to the online classes.
• Verbalizing one's emotions is even more difficult for children. They need to be reassured and their anxieties/fears allayed.
• More programs need to be developed to support children to navigate through the pandemic period. 
• There is additional pressures on families who have senior citizens at home. Senior citizens experience a lot more loneliness as they are not able to meet their friends for a chat at the park. Further, losing some of their friends to Covid is adding to the tension, worry and depression. 
• This is a time when a lot of priority is to be given to self care. Effective coping and having a set routine for each day is very important. One should also not listen to or watch too much of fake or depressing news. 
• One should be prepared in advance as to what needs to be done in case a hospital visit becomes necessary to avert a panic response.
• Shower a lot of kindness on yourself and recognize when you need to seek help.
• At the work place, reach out to whatever services are made available by the employer such as counselling services to keep yourself strong. 
• Just as you take help for physical requirements, make it a point to seek help for mental health issues. We have to remove the stigma so that people come out and speak about their mental health problems.
• While too much stress is detrimental, some amount of stress (Eustress) is good  to ensure that you take the pandemic seriously and observe protocol to beat it. You will then have control over what you are doing and manage the pace of response effectively.
• There are apps available to monitor your sleep, stress levels/depression etc which can be used if you feel it helps you. 
• In the realm of spirituality, reading  the Bhagavat Gita and other such books can be of great help. Buddhist meditation and practices also can be beneficial. 
• Employers while drafting wellness policies should keep in mind the fact that it is the fear of their confidentiality being compromised and fear of the consequences of admitting you have a mental issue, that prevents many employees  to come forward to seek help. The reassurance factor should be built in to the company policies.
• In the  risk assessment of mental health  (where a traffic light colour system has been  introduced) the focus and priority  should be to ensure that  those in the green zones continue to remain green, provide help to those in amber zone ( midway between yellow and orange) to enable them to  recognize their problem and  address the problems aggressively in respect of of those in the red zone. 

To my mind this conversation between two experts in the field was a very rewarding and enlightening exercise. There is a lot we can take and implement from the discussion to enhance our self sustaining and coping strategies for ensuring personal well being.