By: MAHI NIGAM
The journey within is not an easy one, rather it has its joys and struggles. It is a challenge for it requires us to explore our vulnerabilities.
However, today it is a daring task to sit and relax for a few minutes and look deep into ourselves. The rat race of the ‘modern’ society has caught hold of us in such a way that we do not feel the need for self-inspection. The significant thing to do is to solve and solve and solve problems and…just keep solving problems. And if you are not able to produce the correct answer to a question, just get demotivated and question your ability to get into your dream college. Who cares to sit for a while and think “What may I be doing wrong?” This is an unfortunate truth about society that mental health sits at the bottom of the list of priorities for a maximum of teenagers.
This may be because their parents also do not pay much heed to their mental health. This has been the norm for a long time. The attitude towards mental health is slowly changing in India, but the change is too slow. A typical Indian parent still does not feel the need to consult a psychiatrist if their child feels depressed or so. This negligence often leads to either the child losing focus on his career path or even his lifeline.
The growth in competition has helped in discovering some brilliant minds from across the country, but it has also led to many students cutting themselves off from their environment. No one seems to get the time to ponder over this thought. Their lives are so hectic that they do not even pause for a while, look around and appreciate the beauty of Mother Nature. Also, the advent of cheap internet has provided the availability of a parallel world for teenagers. If not indulged in preparing for competition, teenagers today are committed to a very strong relationship with their smartphones, laptops, or other devices. No one comes in between them. They do not even feel like having someone to talk to or share their feelings, or their mental state with someone, even their parents. They just assume that everything is fine and move on. This leads to nowhere except a point in life where they look back and regret that they have wasted a good part of their lives. There is indeed a need to look within ourselves, self-inspect, think about our purpose, and try to reconnect with our environment.
The tendency to turn into problem-solving machines will surely help us in a way but at the cost of our health and social quotient. It should be remembered that a successful person maintains balance among all aspects of life. The world is full of fear, anxiety, worry, insecurity and all the rest of it. We usually find two easy options – either escape from this material life or get lost in the crowd trying to mimic others. But there is also a third option, a difficult one; one which demands us to look deeply into ourselves, find a purpose and then conquer life. We must remember that life can never be understood without much patient self-inspection. We must understand it too, before it’s too late.
A great reflecting message.