Finding Wellness In A Well Meaning Way
Disclaimer : These are observations made from counseling sessions and shared to create awareness towards supporting Mental Health.
The cultural shift of understanding ourselves from the lens of the pandemic and post pandemic mental health awareness has brought the road to inner self open up for many and they question living while also the coping with loss. Some in the process have been having internal dialogues taking help from the plethora of information on the net on self-care and prioritizing oneself. That the current awareness in people is also making them feel a sense of loss of self!
Yes! I said it there is a wellness fatigue that is coming in the socio-cultural landscape and more so in our perception. Healing in our own time, is the real tool available for it to be incorporated in our present consciousness is the finding I as a practicing Psychologist have stumbled upon.
People are aligning themselves to awareness and fulfillment but not understanding that they are creating a scenario of loss that is not really helping them identify with growth and healing. The start is positive and beautiful but the consistent practice poses a challenge of consistency and acceptance of duality that with light – darkness does exist. The most famous work on this darkness is by Carl Jung who calls it the shadow and it is everything and beyond if we understand its presence.
The awareness of our emotions and the experience of it, is a healthy sign but acceptance of the experience is the challenge in the understanding of well-being. Our inner self has a phenomenal mechanism combining both physiological and mental mechanisms. The mechanisms of the self, works in reflecting the state of one on the other. With such experience, I must point out that experiencing these is important but if experienced excessively and for longer time periods one must seek professional help. The fatigue that mentioned earlier has come in my practice disguised as the need of attaining quick benefits of following self-care routines. Overburdening the focus on attaining results rather than the experience creeps in stress of feeling that the individual is not good enough. The duality being that they start from building up being enough as they feel a sense of equilibrium in life and adding self-care enhances interaction of self with society.
Emotions are the core of how we interact with the society our thoughts, action and behaviour gets a shape in the shadow, our reservoir of our inner wellness. This shadow self is the store house of our innate wisdom and the universal hard drive of all our collective experiences. Being in awareness or conscious of our emotions helps us regulate them. This consciousness has a dimension beyond that we call the sub – conscious and unconscious mind. Various researchers have shared their findings in world famous self-help books in bring to our awareness that wellness is the view point of being in balance and the path to achieve it is healing through awareness, adaptability and acceptance of ourselves as we are. The belief that we are beautiful and blessed is the inculcation of the behavior of indulging in self-care routines .It makes our communication with ourselves and other connected to being authentic and meaningful. The dedication on the path of self-awareness is a huge determination that modern man takes on in their socio-cultural existence creating a hermit mode while interacting with society that is the functional self that needs our patience and persistence in being kinder to the process and allowing the progress to be unique to ourselves.
To avoid wellness fatigue, as an adaptive counseling practice I encouraged my clients to adapt few practices combined from counselling experience and mindfulness, sharing them here in the hope that we are kinder to our own healing process and our inner self.
- Do one thing at the time
- Do it slowly and deliberately (there is enough time for everything)
- Do it completely
- Do less (but do the task)
- Put Space between things
- Develop Rituals
- Designate time for specific things
- Devote time to sitting in silence (a state of no activity only rest and awareness)
- Smile Often
- Observe yourself and others
- Serve yourself and also serve others (it brings Gratitude)
- Think what is necessary, how it makes you and others feel
- Take responsibility for your actions and honor the consequences
- If people and situations are causing you to feel overwhelmed set boundaries or move away from interacting with them
- Be communicative, listen, hear and respond by honoring the other person’s healing journey unique to them. Connect with yourself and them with care.
- Live Simply
The time since we began in Mental health space in 2016 it has been immensely gratifying and motivating to create this space of healing together to evolve as conscientious individuals in life. Our challenges have been many and we now are open to hiring and expanding our team
- Young Psychologist across domains
- Volunteers in Mental Health Advocacy
We look forward to providing our services to the community and expand this healing space connecting with individuals for whom the self is a new find!
Learn more and check out Boundaries of Communication in Social Settings
Aarti Ahuja
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