World Mental Health Day Reflection
The first 3 years are the most crucial determinants of the mental health of our children. The interactions with caregivers at this time are critical to setting the brain stage for dealing with stress, fear, abandonment and trust. These are basic relationship foundations that affect us for the rest of our lives. Later in life we may wonder why we have strong reactions to what our friends say, spouse does or children do. These have their roots in our early childhood interactions, before we can even speak. There are many experiments that have been done that can predict from 2 years of age if there will be mental health difficulties later in life.
At school children show behaviors that may look like stress, need for attention and love or sadness and withdrawal. When children are stressed it is hard to think, to focus on school work and to feel good or confident about themselves. That is why good schools make sure to employ counselors and make mental health and wellness a priority. Children are taught explicitly how to focus their brains, use self-talk, be assertive, identify emotions in others, handle strong emotions and solve conflicts. We want our students ready for the workplace, experience happy relationships and healthy families.
October 10 was World Mental Health day. What do you think of when we say ‘mental health’? Many think of a crazy person as someone who is talking to themselves or screaming. These are extremes. There are an estimated 10% of people who have some mental health difficulty. They may be more sad, angry or worried than most people. They may be quietly suffering in your family, find life miserable, complain all the time and get angry too much. They may feel deep despair, hopelessness and full of sorrow for months on end. They may be worried and fearful, and feel anxious often and in multiple situations.
Nowadays we have so many books, TV shows, youtubes, apps and therapists showing us ways to find balanced lives and good mental health. If our leaders, grandparents or parents were hurt and stressed and this has affected us, there are ways we can heal. Loving approval for who you are, not what others want you to be, feels wonderful. Repeated self-affirmations such as, ‘ I love and approve of myself’, smiles, noticing the good in others instead of what is wrong is helpful. Doing something kind for others each day, exercise, restorative sleep, even a small amount of time to reflect, stop and remember or visualise something nice that happened to you can make a difference. Other things we can do is notice flowers, birds and plants. A small time to meditate just focusing on the feeling of your breath passing the nostrils in and out will calm the brain.
At International School Dhaka the whole school wore purple to support World Mental Health Day. In Primary we told the children about mental health and how some people do not feel good. They may be more sad, angry and worried than most people. A good way to help them is to always smile, be kind and help our school be a comfortable place to learn and grow. One of our school missions is to embrace positive values, encourage empathy and reflection. ISD also hosted a live FaceBook discussion with Farin Daulah from One Circle entitled, Let’s Talk About Mental Health.
Imagine World Mental Health growing to heal the towns, villages, cities, countries, streets, houses and r of all people. Do your part. Take care of each other. ISD did their part. Enjoy real peace, real harmony and real joy in life.
Vivian Huizenga
Primary Counselor
