Let’s keep the flow going...

Have you ever wondered what encompasses mental health?

Is it just about a state of happiness or is it the balancing act? Is it about recognising one’s emotions and understanding where it is triggering from?

It is one thing to understand the trigger points and the other to understand what to do next. Does it always need advice from experts or can one heal on his/her own? On our podcast at Oman Daily Observer, Let’s Talk Mental Health, this week the topic is grief. In fact we may not often realise this fact — our life is between happiness and grief. Grief is often through incidents we go through life and happiness at times we feel depends on others but it only when we explore deeper we realise that state of happiness is in our hands. As they say, it all depends on how we respond to situations. Why is that we trip when life throws at us something unexpected and at the same time there are others who handle it with finesse.

Dr Hamed al Sinawi, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, explained how grief can be of various types — from losing a loved one, divorce or retirement. No matter what the most important factor is closure. It is closure that allows a person to move forward in life and yet at times the experiences are so strong that families are unable to go further as a unit in life. He gives insight through various case studies through the podcast.

And here are my reflections — life is a journey as they say because life cannot be stagnant. Life cannot be made of roses and is not because as the journey proceeds there are twists and turns too which are not part of the joyride. Some of whom, who have been with us from early days have had to leave and some others change because of their circumstances. What we can do of course is accept and that gives us the mental strength to move on. This is why probably why we need to enhance our mental strength along with physical fitness. Until now the debate continues whether physical fitness should be part of the educational curriculum, maybe now it is time we included mental fitness too.

Of course it is alright to take time to heal, as Dr Hamad says in the podcast, “Don’t let anyone hurry you up.” The point, however is not to stay there for too long and pick yourself up because water does not stop anywhere if it can help. Its ideal destination is the ocean itself, if not back to the atmosphere or underground. If it does stay then life forms from fish to tadpoles appear. Water comes down to earth and flows with a purpose. We too have purpose, no matter who we are and where we are from. The aim is to find the purpose no matter what the objective is as each link no matter how small makes a difference. And if one is not able to realise one’s own purpose in life it is still not a problem it is up to others to give a helping hand. In supporting another, one realises one’s own strength. Just like water we evolve too. We just have to trust the process and not be blocked with doubts.