We promised you that we’d share our experiences at the Mental Health Awareness Weekend 2013 (MHAW) with you. We’re a little late; ’cause we were catching up on some rest after the hectic preparation.
So here goes…
This is a peek at the tents, just as we had set up our stalls
When there were few people in the tent, we got talking with the others who had set up stalls…and it was indeed nice to meet and interact with other professionals from the mental health field 🙂
A closer look at our stall…
And of us in the stall 🙂
Due to the weather perhaps, mornings and afternoons didn’t see many people coming in. Evenings saw more activity. We had people inquiring about different trends in mental health issues; and what we as psychologists felt about stresses in today’s time. We also had people asking us how really counseling and psychotherapy help. They also stopped by to watch the skits and open air talks held by various mental health professionals and centres.
These children brightened up our day with their colourful drawings and infectious enthusiasm!
Sadia had a talk on ‘Coping with Anxiety: From Chaos to Calm’.
In her talk, she spoke extensively of how anxiety affects not only the mind, but also the body. She also spoke of mindfulness and meditation and how simple mindfulness techniques help the mind and body cope with day to day stresses.
A snapshot of guests at the talk meditating…
Where there is anxiety, there has to be an outlet for it. Where there is a worry, it needs to be shared. All of us have worries. But many of us go through our worries feeling alone and lonely. We don’t share our worries with others, when in reality our worries are more similar than we estimate them to be!
Keeping this thought in mind, we decided to ask people to ‘leave their worries behind’.
We asked them to pen down one thing they worry about and put it up. By the end, we discovered that the worries were indeed quite similar!
Overall, the MHAW was a really pleasant experience. It was an initiative with a heart and we were glad to be part of it 😀
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About the Author: Malini Krishnan and Anusha Manjani are part of the team of psychologists at Inner Space – A center for counseling and psychological assessment. Sadia Raval is the Founder & Chief Psychologist.
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