Covid-19 has led to millions getting sick and hundreds of thousands dying worldwide. The pandemic has led to significant increases in stress and anxiety, especially in the context of fear of being infected and in the face of an uncertain and unpredictable future. Social isolation, economic downturn, unemployment and poverty have taken a heavy toll on people’s wellbeing. A painful consequence of all this is an increase in mental illness.
Although mental illness is more visible and disconcerting during this distressing time, it is important to focus on mental health and wellbeing. Understanding it and looking at measures that foster it, can help us to avoid mental illness and help us cope with it better if we suffer from it.
Mental health is not just absence of mental illness. It is a state of holistic wellbeing, in which the mind, body and spirit function harmoniously and enables a person to live joyfully and productively, finding meaning and purpose in life. It is a state that enables us to thrive, to flourish, to live life to the full.
Graceful and Happy
This life to the full is especially characterized by healthy interpersonal relationships, playfulness and joy, a sense of contentment, capacity to adapt to change, and character virtues like love, hope, altruism, compassion, sensitivity, capacity to endure adversity, loss and suffering without being unduly distressed or disturbed, and resilience, that is, the capacity to bounce back from setbacks.
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FR JOSE PARAPPULLY SDB
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