No more hiding

After living alone for a few years, I myself, have been a victim of anxiety, and a fair share of emotional turmoils. I’ve spent many sleepless nights, unable to believe in myself, lost, unable to see any light in the future. From personal experience, I know that when we are at our lowest, it’s hardest to seek help.

While it’s taken me some time to recover, find joy, light, growth, and be able to love myself. I share this today with an unsurmountable amount of courage because I want to demolish the belief system that mental health is a separate part of our life, one that we feel ashamed to share or deal with.

As an advocate of mental health And the Co-founder of a Wellness Venture at Engineers Without Borders, UBC. I’ve realized it’s time for each individual to speak up and make discussing mental health as “normal” and as easy as admitting that you have a headache or a stomach ache.

After a long and ongoing journey of growth, I can say with confidence that each one of us has an immense amount of power, and CHOICE, to think differently, to abandon our faulty belief systems, and adapt to new ones.

While we do an excellent job of conquering the professional world, fighting for what’s outside, each one of us carries emotional baggage that we rarely confront. We rarely have the courage to show vulnerability, to cry in front of another, to not cover our emotions, to expose our true self selves, sometimes even to ourself.

Little do we realize the magnitude of impact that a small act of service or support can do. The power of a small compliment from the heart, the power of telling people how much they mean to you. But before we do that, How often do you compliment yourself as well? Or ask how yourself how you feel?

The extent of globalization has allowed us to travel in fast planes, call our loved ones any moment, snap 100 photos in minutes, but at the same time, the amount of people struggling with depression is higher than ever. The family we would meet once every month or every week, now meets once in a year, or once in two. The friends who’d spent every day with each other, now only meet once a month. Today, we spend more time with our phones than we do with another person. We find the urgency to respond to a text to a person sitting miles away than we do to a person sitting right in front of us on the dinner table. These micro changes have impacted us in a big way.

As we adapt to this dynamic environemnt, we must develop an inner sense of awareness, now more than ever; I hope that each one of us takes some time to reconnect with ourself, our inner being, I hope that we begin to have the courage to open up to one another, seek therapy if needed. Perhaps it’s time we begin to describe success as not an indicator of your rank or the zeros at the end of your pay check, but also as an indicator of inner fulfillment, joy, compassion, and empathy.

Like we brush our teeth every morning, manage a balanced diet and exercise to stay fit, It’s time for us to realize that we must maintain a healthy emotional diet as well. Starting from the morning, one day at a time, to develop a sense of awareness within you, stopping amid a busy day for a minute just to notice your actions, your breath, your emotions, identifying what you’re going through. Before you jump in and say “I’m here to help” to someone else, say it to yourself first.

Like we count what we eat each day, i challenge each one of you to also find a way to take care of your emotional health every day, to have purity In thoughts, intentions, and actions, to love ourself, to be loving toward one another, and to realize that to share your problems with one another isn’t a sign of weakness, but strength.