By
Mr Shuja Malik
In today’s fast-paced digital era, mental health problems are rising at an
alarming rate, yet they remain largely ignored or misunderstood. According to
the World Health Organizations (WHO) data 2025, over 1 billion people across
the world (1 in 8) suffer from mental health issues like depression, stress,
anxiety etc. Despite technological advancements and improved living
standards, people today feel more isolated, emotionally exhausted, and
mentally overwhelmed than ever before. The report says that over 120k
people committed suicide globally and teenagers aged 10-19 suffer from some
kind of mental disorder. There are many factors for this silent pandemic. Of
course poor sleep pattern, lack of physical activity, childhood trauma, work
overload are some effects which are responsible for the problem. In the digital
era there is the never ending trap of social media where people just scroll
endlessly watching nonsense stuff. The “constant comparison” which actually
is the happiness-buster eventually makes you feel worthless and left-behind.
People rarely talk about the importance of developing a positive mindset
until they begin to use it in their daily life. The human brain is naturally wired
toward negativity a built-in “negative bias” that makes us focus on unpleasant
moments even when we experience many positive or neutral ones. It’s
because of our brain’s survival mechanism where it keeps a watch on the
potential threat. For example you still remember the insults from your boss or
colleague years ago than you remember how they praised you or took you for
a lunch or a great cherished moment between you and them, dealing with the
uncouth people at the school/college where sometimes they were nice too.
This all negativity which is constantly fed in your brain, by the people,
the news which is full of politics and sanguinary leaves you stressed,
exasperated and in depression. Having a negative bias is no wrong because it is
natural and a product of human evolution but to continuously dwell on
negative unnecessary things i.e. “rumination” or worrying about them won’t
change anything at all. It will only affect you badly by wasting your time,
making you nervous and leaving you in extreme trepidation and obviously
depression. With the well-developed positive mindset a person does have
confidence in himself, has a good healthy self-esteem and is ready to take
further challenges. He isn’t guaranteed of success but in comparison to the
negative-dweller he’s far ahead. The optimistic person is more likely to bounce
back from the obstacles and fix them than the pessimist one who after
suffering from one minor failure will curse his entire destiny.
If I talk about some benefits of being positive they are: living longer, a
happy satisfied life, increased self-confidence, reduced stress and anxiety. So
to cultivate a positive mindset you have to start being grateful for anything,
whatever you have in your life. Be grateful for the clothes you’re wearing, for
the home-cooked food, for the device on which you’re reading this article, for
being healthy and also for possessing anything. This practice makes you shift
your focus from what is lacking to what is present and does make you happy.
Another skill to develop is to start questioning the problem, to break it down
and break the pattern. Question what you’re going through and how it’s
affecting you and whether it is in your control or not. Once you do it the
answers automatically crawl towards you.
The next
skill is to practice mindfulness or deep breathing, you can start doing
meditation by simply being in a comfortable position, closing your eyes and
just focusing on your breath or you can simply just observe your thoughts
don’t judge them whether they are bad or good don’t focus on that just
acknowledge that you have this particular thought and let it slide away. It will
literally recharge your foggy troubled mind and will make you refreshed
exactly how you feel at early morning right after waking up ready to solve
complex issues of your life. You also need to “expect less” from literally
everyone because reality doesn’t come with idealized outcomes, expecting less
leads to less disappointments, less frustration and more happiness.
The next and last thing here that I want to share is to have faith in God.
Have faith in his ability to solve all your worries, to grant you a life full of
happiness and peace. Becoming a healthy religious person makes you believe
in a supreme supernatural force that is all forgiving and all loving, which will
help you fight your inner demons and it will give you a sense of belief that you
have a massive support from god in whatever you do and wherever you’re
stuck in. Developing a positive mindset is not a one day transformation it’s a
lifelong practice, It can take you weeks or even months to fully develop your
mental health and build that resilience against stress, anxiety and trauma.
Feedback@: shujamalik000@gmail.com
