Why the Mind Needs a Healthy Setting
The mind cannot stay healthy on its own. Being healthy yourself is not enough. The surroundings you live in also have to be healthy. A student who eats well and studies every day can still feel unhappy and afraid inside if there are quarrels at home every evening or if classmates keep bullying them at school.
When something goes wrong with mental health, the harm does not stay inside the mind. It directly affects the physical, social and emotional sides of a person. Suppose worry about an exam keeps you awake all night. The next day your head aches, which is a physical effect. You do not feel like talking to your friends, which is a social effect. You get angry or tearful over small things, which is an emotional effect. This is why mental health is treated as an important part of health.
Mental Health Indicators
A thermometer can measure a fever, but no instrument can measure how healthy a mind is. Instead, we look at a person's habits, behaviour and relationships with others, and from these we can tell how their mental health is. The signs we use in this way are called indicators.
Mental health indicators: the signs that show, or help us measure, whether a person's mental health is good.
The main indicators of mental health are these:
- (a) Happiness and contentment
- (b) Healthy habits
- (c) Not smoking, drinking alcohol or taking drugs
- (d) Love and affection in the family
- (e) Helping one another in the community
- (f) Harmony and reconciliation
Happiness and Contentment
Usually a person feels happy and satisfied when something they wanted comes true. But wants never run out. As soon as one is met, another appears. So someone who is happy only when their wishes are fulfilled stays dissatisfied most of the time. The person who is truly happy is the one who is content with their own work.
If we can be happy with small things and small achievements, without holding on to huge ambitions, we can stay mentally healthy. Scoring five more marks in maths than in the last test, eating a snack your mother made, or getting to help a friend with homework can all make the heart glad. A person with such a mind does not break down at a small failure, because their happiness does not rest on one big success.
Contentment: the feeling of being satisfied with what you have and with the work you have done, without constant complaint.
Being happy and content is an indicator of good mental health.
Healthy Habits
We should always follow healthy habits. The way we live each day also shows the state of our mind. Some examples of healthy habits are:
- eating a balanced diet
- exercising regularly
- eating enough food
- sleeping deeply
- not taking on stress
Habits like these are a sign that mental health is good. A student who gets up on time, runs or plays for a while, eats meals at the right time and sleeps well at night stays lively and calm through the day. On the other hand, using a phone late into the night, skipping meals and always sinking into worry leave the mind tired and irritable. So healthy habits are also an indicator of mental health.
Staying Away from Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs
Smoking, alcohol and drugs are harmful to health. Using them seriously damages mental health as well as physical health. Once a person becomes addicted, their thinking, studies, work and relationships with family all begin to suffer.
Not using tobacco, alcohol or drugs, and advising others not to use them either, helps a person stay mentally healthy. Being able to say a clear 'No, I don't smoke' even when friends put pressure on you is a mark of a healthy mind.
Some people believe that cigarettes, alcohol or drugs take away worry and stress. This is wrong. They solve no problem at all, and they damage both body and mind even further.
Love and Affection in the Family
The family is the mind's first shelter. When family members love one another, there is peace and contentment at home. Living together in harmony, not quarrelling and always keeping the atmosphere at home pleasant make every member of the family mentally stronger.
In a family where everyone sits down together in the evening and talks about their day over a meal, a child does not need to hide fears or problems. Grandparents do not feel neglected either. That is why love and affection must be kept alive in the family.
Mentally healthy family: a family in which there is plenty of love, affection and trust.
Helping One Another in the Community
Human beings are social, so the mind is tied to the community as well as to the family. People in a community should give and receive help from one another. Some examples of this kind of help are:
- one family helping another family in the community when it is in trouble
- living together peacefully in the community
- everyone taking part together in community health work
Things like these improve the mental health of the people in a community. If a flood destroys someone's house and the neighbours arrange shelter, food and clothes, that family feels it is not alone. The people who help feel satisfied too. In a community where there is cooperation, good relationships and peace, people are mentally healthy.
Mutual cooperation: help that people or families give to each other, so that each both gives and receives.
Harmony and Reconciliation
Harmony should be kept at home, in the family, among neighbours, in society and in the community. Getting along with one another, not quarrelling and sharing help are all signs that a person's mental health is good.
Disagreements can happen anywhere. Two friends may argue during football about whether a goal counted. A mentally healthy person does not carry that anger around for days. Once calm, they talk it over, say sorry if they were wrong, and play together again the next day.
Reconciliation: making up after a disagreement or quarrel, letting go of anger and keeping the relationship good.
Two Groups of Indicators
The six indicators are easier to understand in two groups. The first three are about a person's own mind, body and choices. The last three are about relationships with the family, the community and everyone else. This shows that mental health is seen not only inside a person but also in how they relate to others.
| Indicator | What it is about | What a mentally healthy person does |
| Happiness and contentment | One's own mind | Finds joy even in small achievements |
| Healthy habits | One's own body and routine | Eats a balanced diet, exercises, sleeps well |
| Staying away from smoking, alcohol and drugs | One's own choices | Does not use them and advises others not to |
| Love and affection in the family | Relations at home | Lives in harmony and avoids quarrels |
| Helping one another in the community | Relations with the community | Helps people who are in trouble |
| Harmony and reconciliation | Relations with everyone | Makes up after a disagreement |
Ways to Maintain Mental Health
The brain is one of the most important organs of the human body. It is the brain that runs and controls the other organs. Thinking and reflecting are also things we can do only because of the brain. So the brain must always be kept healthy. If we can keep the brain healthy, we stay mentally healthy.
A healthy brain lives in a healthy body.
An indicator shows how mental health is right now. A way tells us what to do to keep it good. The ways to maintain mental health are these:
- (a) Not thinking deeply and repeatedly about unnecessary things
- (b) Playing happily together with friends
- (c) Learning to be happy, content and satisfied in everything, and keeping a positive outlook
- (d) Practising yoga, meditation and breathing exercises to keep the mind calm
- (e) Living in harmony at home without quarrelling, and not feeling anger, spite or jealousy towards others
- (f) Not taking drugs or alcohol
- (g) Eating meals that combine the nutrients the body needs
- (h) Taking enough rest and exercising regularly
- (i) Taking part in social work
- (j) Building the habit of telling your problems to your family and friends
- (k) Getting along with neighbours and developing a helpful attitude
- (l) Ending inequality, exploitation, oppression and discrimination in society
These ways fall into three kinds. Some are for the mind, such as keeping a positive outlook and practising yoga and meditation. Some are for the body, such as nutritious food, rest and exercise. The others are about relationships and society, such as playing with friends, sharing problems, joining social work and ending discrimination. Mental health is fully maintained only when mind, body and society are all healthy.
Do not bottle up a problem. Telling your family or a friend halves the burden and often shows you a way out.
Linking Each Indicator to Its Ways
Each indicator is kept strong by certain ways. The table below shows which ways support which indicator.
| Indicator | Ways that strengthen it |
| Happiness and contentment | Learning to be content, thinking positively, not brooding over unnecessary things |
| Healthy habits | Eating nutritious meals, resting enough, exercising regularly, practising yoga and meditation |
| Staying away from smoking, alcohol and drugs | Not taking drugs or alcohol |
| Love and affection in the family | Not quarrelling at home, sharing problems with the family |
| Helping one another in the community | Joining social work, getting along with neighbours, being helpful |
| Harmony and reconciliation | Playing happily with friends, dropping anger, spite and jealousy, ending inequality and discrimination |
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