MENTAL HEALTH
What’s at the Top of the Mountain? Let me paint the picture. You’re feeling down, eyes beginning to close after watching heaven knows how many Tiktoks/Netflix episodes, and you suddenly become very aware of what you’ve been doing for the past three hours. You’ve sat on your bed, wasting time and casually ignoring the SMHW notifications taunting you from your desk. But, despite every alarm bell, you just don’t care. It’s lockdown, you’ve lost all motivation, all stamina and all sense of purpose.
bothered to go again. You’ll maybe last a few days sugar-free, until someone offers a treat that you just can’t resist. You’ll delete all social media only to realise that you no longer have any connection to the outside world and need to find out who’s been messaging you. All this lands you right back where you started: in bed, even more down on yourself than before.
Name your baby steps
So, what do you do? Google your problems, hoping to Sound familiar? If so, I have two words for you: baby find some great tip that will turn everything around. steps. You don’t need to run a marathon, or go on some strict diet cleanse, or cram in all the work that Been there. Done that. you’re behind on in the space of one day. Just aim for the small things. Tiny changes in your day-to-day life The thing is, all of these mental-health sites, in attempt (tiny!) can have a greater impact than you may realise. to provide the best, most accurate advice, end up As CEO coach Sabina Nawaz noted in a Harvard Busisounding pretty damn similar. Eat healthily, exercise ness Review, “the way to achieve big is to start small – daily, get enough sleep — we’ve heard it all before. through micro habits.” Now, I don’t know anyone who would deny that any of these things help. However, I do know many people First, find a starting point. This can be as small as dewho would rather ignore this advice than follow it ciding to get better. Next, name your baby steps. Getthrough (and understandably so!) ting out of your pyjamas in the morning, drinking more water throughout the day, or leaving your house for a short walk, are all things that can better your mental state. Slowly, you are able to build up stamina and, before you know it, the mountain that looked so What many of these websites fail to understand, is that hard to climb at first doesn’t look so scary anymore. most people going through a mental rough patch are So, what’s at the top of the mountain? well aware of the logical way to get out of it. The problem, therefore, is not what to do, but how to do it. I was once told something that completely altered my If you’ve been down for several weeks, frequent exer- outlook on mental health. We should not aim for, or cise, a healthy diet and a regular sleep schedule are all expect, a constant state of happiness. Happiness begoals that may seem a million miles away. You’re just longs to those special moments where your emotions not bothered. This is because the first thing that comes have exceeded normal levels of contentment. It is one end of a spectrum, with sadness being on the opposing to mind when we think about these aims are the exend, not a norm. What we are trying to reach (and tremes: run 10k every day, cut out sugar completely and delete all social media in order to regain focus on maintain) is a state of contentment, of peace and satisfaction. All you should aim to feel is that you are that growing pile of work. It’s not realistic. enough.
You’ve casually ignored the SMHW notifications taunting you from your desk
You’ll go on one run and decide it was nice but not be
Sasha Rozanov, Year 12, Nugent House
