Maintaining Mental Health in Times of Crisis through Gratitude
Melinda B. De Lazo
How do you face challenges in life? Do you feel depress and stress? How do you react in the present situation that we are in?
Since the lockdown started, many people became anxious and stress because of the fact that they need to stay at home and cannot go anywhere. And having a positive perspective will be a great help in keeping your mind healthy. Maintaining a healthy mind and positive attitude are important especially in this season of quarantine. To improve our mental health, we have to be grateful of what we have and what we are. This attitude of being thankful and appreciative is what we called gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation and a state of wanting to return kindness to someone according to psychologist Dr. Peggy DeLong. A great philosopher also stated that gratitude is not just a virtue but the parents of all virtues. This means that a person who preserved a grateful disposition in life turns out to be generous, humble, compassionate, wise, joyful, trustworthy and honest. Meanwhile, the ancient time gratitude has been given great importance. Although gratitude is a natural inner feeling, it is not merely an emotional response but rather more of the choice that a person makes. Since all human being are given freedom to choose whether to be grateful or not.
Gratitude drives away negative emotions and applying it helps the individual shift from having negative and toxic emotions to a more positive and uplifting energy. Being grateful to someone and for your life will make you less resentful about your negative experiences. Therefore, gratitude has a big impact in our emotions, attitude, mental and physical health which makes an individual to be joyful and more contented in life.
In the end being grateful at all times and having a thankful heart has a great role in maintaining our mental condition healthy even in the times of crisis. And if we are mentally stable and healthy, we can face whatever challenges in life. Just like what we are facing in this unprecedented time.
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The author is Teacher II Dela Paz Norte Elementary School