Two years since the covid-19 pandemic, multiple crises are unfolding, the most significant of these being that of mental health. Dr. Kandeepan gives us four simple ways to keep your mind healthy so your body keeps kicking.
Change is here, and let’s face it: it’s easier to say ‘let’s face it’ than actually face it.
The prolonged work-from-home, the burgeoning of online schooling and the resulting lack of physical contact with friends, family, colleagues or support groups; loss of loved ones, and unprecedented job losses have all combined to have an insidious effect that’s hard to quantify, and had a lasting and damaging impact on mental health.
As a result, we are witnessing a highly disturbing increase in suicide rates among school children and teens, and this is an epidemic we do not need after a pandemic.
If we want the ultimate outcome of a crisis to be recovery and not another crisis, we need to act, by keeping ourselves mentally and physically strong.
There is a veritable flood of advice floating everywhere on the upkeep of your mental and physical fitness, which can get confusing and overwhelming, so today, I want to share with you what I follow in my own personal life to keep myself mentally and physically healthy and strong.
But before I begin, I must clarify that these tips are in addition to the basics, which consist of leading a healthy professional and social life.
A healthy professional life means a situation – let’s say a job, business or service – that gives you joy and satisfaction by letting you do work that aligns with your purpose, by engaging your unique skills and interests.
A healthy social life involves spending quality time with friends and family, and having a support system to fall back on during times of stress, uncertainty and difficulty.
So apart from these, what you need to do to remain mentally healthy is exceedingly simple – so simple, in fact, that you may well find it hard to believe that it’s enough.
And the four things are eat rationally, exercise optimally, read regularly, and sleep adequately.
Simple enough? Good. Let’s now understand what I mean exactly by each of those.
1. Eat rationally.
Interesting fact: Among the religions, only Zoroastrianism prohibits fasting, because of its belief that such a form of asceticism will hamper the faithful in their struggle against evil.
Let me tell you something up front: I don’t believe in fasting – not because I need to fight evil, but because I think no kind of extreme is helpful to the human body. Which is why, all the same, I don’t suffer from orthorexia nervosa – a condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating.
What I recommend instead, from my own experience, is what I call rational eating.
Rational eating is simply a balanced and limited intake; in other words, eat when and what is required to keep you healthy.
Does it mean I don’t eat junk food at all? No; let me assure you that my life isn’t that dull! While I don’t drink everything, I can eat almost anything, but (and this is the key) limited to the minimal quantity that my body needs, and with full knowledge and consciousness of what I am eating.
2. Exercise optimally.
Now that you’re consuming healthily, it’s equally important to exert yourself healthily as well. The simplest way to do this is to exercise optimally.
If you’re intimidated and confused by the multitude of ways to exercise, wondering what’s the kind you must do, worry not: just run.
Running is the simplest sport: it requires nothing more than your willingness. Virtually every other sport requires some equipment and infrastructure. The only infra running needs are your legs.
It is well established that regular running strengthens bones, muscles, lungs and the heart to improve our physical health. But one oft-overlooked benefit is the impact of exercise on our mental health.
A number of neurotransmitters are released when we exercise, keeping our brain active by releasing endorphins, endocannabinoids and dopamine.
Of course, exercise also increases oxygen supply to our brain, and a key to sound mental health is a healthy and oxygen-rich brain. Exercise can relieve stress, improve mood, enhance confidence, promote sharper memory and critical thinking, and above all, exercise can promote better sleep.
So, for the health of your body and mind, just get off your couch and move.
(Dr. Kandeepan has completed over 20 half and full marathons, with a best full-marathon timing of 04:19:00, in Dubai. Some highlights of his runs over the years:)
3. Read regularly.
This may surprise you, but a 2009 study at the University of Sussex found that reading can reduce stress by up to 68%!
Reading is tantamount to taking your brain to the gym. Keeping your brain active by reading strengthens mental health and helps you remain rational and analytical, become more empathetic, and engages your imagination and thought in a way no other activity can. Really, there is no alternative to reading.
Don’t ask me what I read, because just as I eat nearly everything, so do I read almost anything. I am an old-school reader who reads from print, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I live to read.
Simply pick books that interest and captivate you, and read regularly. This could be fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classical…anything will do, so long as you involve yourself in the activity of reading.
4. Sleep adequately.
Sleep may seem like a waste of time, since you’d rather be awake and doing something productive or pleasurable. Except that you can’t do without good sleep, because many of the body’s vital functions take place while you’re snoozing. Think of sleep as a time of rebuilding and revitalisation for the body, and you’ll understand why it’s so important.
That is why it’s disturbing that sleeping disorders are becoming increasingly common post-COVID, and there are many factors contributing to it.
Little to no physical activity, extended screen time and poor eating patterns are some of the contributors in this post-pandemic era which trigger sleep disorders.
It’s vital that you take this seriously, and develop what I call a sleep discipline.
This is particularly important for us at Healthwatch, as many of us work in night shifts. Remember that if you take care of your sleep, it will take care of your mental health to a large extent.
Fortunately, I am blessed with the ability to sleep – almost anywhere. This is partly because I maintain mental hygiene by keeping my brain free of clutter. If I can do this despite all the demands of running a large company, why can’t you?
Don’t mistake that statement – I’m not saying that your cares and worries are lighter because you’re not the CEO of a company. You may have genuinely harrowing challenges, but remember that you’re not alone in that: everybody is facing some or the other situation in their personal or professional lives, and more realistically, multiple situations and challenges, pretty much all the time. But as you may have read in our wonderful senior mentor Prof. V.G.T’s Quote Hanger, we cannot control the situations in our lives, but we certainly can and should control the way we react and respond to those situations.
If you’re feeling stressed, and are therefore unable to sleep, use a meditation technique that suits you to calm your mind. These days there are many apps available for this purpose, too. But by and large, try to have your dinner early, and avoid using digital devices a couple of hours before your sleep time. Having a hot bath before sleep also helps. Bedtime reading works wonders for some.
Figure out what it is that helps you sleep well. Fix your mattress if necessary; move to a quiet locality, stop overthinking, and then sleep well. Because daydreaming is overrated; it’s much better to sleep well and do, rather than dream, the next day!
To conclude, mental ill-health can be overcome. There is no magic wand to do so, but with just some small tweaks to our lifestyle, we can make our lives and those of the people around us, beautiful.
And it’s worth it, because remember that at the end of the day, nothing is permanent, our problems included. Life and death are no different, as we have no control over our beginning or our end. What we do have control over is the middle, which is the precious time we have on this planet. Let us live to make it count, make it meaningful and joyous, for ourselves and consequently others who for a time are our cohabitants of this beautiful universe.
