Let’s talk mental health!

Prioritizing our mental health 

This place needs some revival to be honest! 

No, that was a bad intro, let me take that again....Hey guys, I’ve been away for a while ,I’ve been caught up lately, not really caught up I’ve just been trying to survive amidst all the chaos around the world and in our society most especially. It’s been so surreal and these things can take a very big toll on our mental health. I hope all of you are taking good care of yourselves and that you’re talking to people about things going on because it helps. Okay enough of that long intro, although it somehow leads us into our little discussion today. Emotional and mental well being. With everything going on in our homes and societies these days, and even things we see on social media added to our personal struggles can be really overwhelming but we overlook these things and we tend to focus more on our physical well being. I mean, it’s very important to take care of your physical state but that can’t be achieved without a good mental state and I know this is some sort of taboo topic in our society. As Africans, we’re very conservative for lack of a better word when it comes to these issues because we’ve been taught from childhood to be resilient and not share our struggles and pain with people. This is what most of us grew up with and it tends to affect us in ways we can’t even imagine. But fortunately in recent years, the younger generation have been sparking conversations on prioritizing our mental health and it’s importance on our lives and this has awakened a lot of us and has started discussions surrounding mental and emotional health. This has had good effects because we’ve come to realise that we are all only human and most of the times we go through similar struggles. Things like family conflicts, relationship issues, personal and health issues and work stress etc are things we all experience on the daily. Although our issues are different in nature and magnitude and the way we react to or deal with things can be different but no issue is too little or too big to be handled, It all just comes down to discussion, communication, speaking up or whatever you choose to call it, talking about the issue to the right person is a great step towards solving them. Right person here depends on what the issue is, if you have a misunderstanding with someone, you need to communicate with the person and that’s going to help both of you to go about it the right way. On the other hand, if the issues are personal to you and you’re comfortable talking about it to someone you confide in go ahead and do it. These days we tend to consume a lot of info on social media on news about other places and people and this can be too much to take in, during times like these it’s okay to just disconnect from the outside world. Take some time off social media to detox and figure things out. Although not all of us are super outspoken about our feelings, and that’s totally okay but honestly, speaking to someone you trust about your issues feels like a weight being lifted upon your shoulders. And if it’s necessary please get professional help because  bottling things up can be harmful to our minds and in the long run it affects us in ways we don’t even imagine. I wish all of you well and I hope you come out of whatever you’re going through stronger and better. Let’s break the culture of silence everyone! Remember your Mental wellbeing comes first always!