Sadhguru on World Mental Health Day!

Physical activity is a very important part in maintaining a chemical balance in the system

World mental health Day is Marked on October 10. World Health Organization (WHO) data show that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a 25 percent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. An estimated 12 billion working days are lost each year to depression and anxiety, which the WHO estimates costs the global economy nearly $1 trillion.

On the mark of this day, Times Magazine India had an interaction with Sadhguru, founder of Isha Foundation. During an interaction it was asked; 

3 best tips for those who are struggling with their mental health?

Sadhguru: One of the simplest ways of establishing mental and emotional balance is lots of physical activity in a natural environment – ideally from an early age. Physical activity is a very important part of maintaining the chemical balance in the system. Over the last few generations, our physical activity has decreased substantially. Therefore, maintaining the chemical balance in the system becomes difficult.

Another aspect is being consciously in touch with the five elements of nature – earth, water, air, sunlight or fire, and space. In earlier times, human beings had to be consciously in touch with the elements. Suppose you are farming or walking in the jungle, you have to know what is happening with the different elements of nature and how they affect you at any given moment. Today, our contact with the elements has decreased drastically, which affects the balance in our system. Another factor is the type of food you eat – over-processed food should be avoided. If we take care of these aspects, we can considerably reduce the prevalence of depression and other mental disorders.

How can we manage mental health? What do you think is the root cause? How do you think one can stop themselves from taking wrong steps while in depression/ declining mental health?

Sadhguru: Suffering is happening essentially because most human beings have lost perspective as to what this life is about. Their psychological process has become far larger than the existential process. This morning, the sun came up wonderfully well, the flowers bloomed, and no stars fell down. The whole cosmos is happening wonderfully well today, but just a worm of a thought in your head makes you believe it is a bad day today.

When we talk about a spiritual process, we are talking about shifting from psychological to existential. Life is about the creation that is here, knowing it absolutely and experiencing it the way it is; not distorting it the way you want. If you want to move into existential reality, to put it very simply, you just have to see that what you think is not important, what you feel is not important. What you think has nothing to do with reality. It has no great relevance to life. It is just chattering away with nonsense that you have gathered from somewhere else. If you think it is important, you will never look beyond that. Suffering is not showered upon us, it is manufactured. And the manufacturing unit is in your mind. It is time to shut down the manufacturing unit.

There are many ways to look at how one can come out of present patterns of creating suffering. Suppose for example, you are not feeling peaceful today. The first thing you might do is maybe quarrel with your spouse. The next thing you will do is yell at your neighbor. Then you will realize it is time to go to the doctor. If you go to the doctor, he will give you a pill. This pill is made up of chemicals. If you put these chemicals into your body, your body and mind become peaceful.

So one way of understanding this is, what you call as peace has a certain kind of chemical background to it. Similarly, what you call misery, suffering, fear, anxiety, everything has a certain chemical basis. As there is a science for external wellbeing, there is a whole science as to how to create your inner chemistry. Yoga has many methods through which you can create the right kind of chemistry where being peaceful and joyous comes naturally to you.

How important is self-love for good mental health? And what's the fine line between self-love and arrogance?

Sadhguru: For love, you need a subject and an object. It is like if I want to talk, I need somebody to talk to. ‘I love myself’ is a bad idea. Someone else should like you! When I went to California recently, I happened to attend a lecture at Stanford University where the speaker held the view, “You must be compassionate to yourself.” I said, “To like, love and be compassionate, you need two entities. If you create two entities within yourself, you are either schizophrenic or possessed. Either you need a psychiatrist or an exorcist”, because an individual means “not further divisible.”

Do not try to like yourself. What is there to like about you? “Then should I dislike myself?” Why are you thinking on those terms? Where is the question of liking or disliking yourself? When you look at yourself as just a piece of life, there is neither a need to like nor dislike this most fundamental life within you. If you see, “This is only me and me alone,” you will keep this well. If there are two, doing makeup for both is difficult.

A message from Sadhguru ji on World Mental Health Day

Sadhguru: We need to understand that our physical and mental health are both fundamentally our responsibility. People think doctors have to fix our lives. If we get the virus, we will go to the doctor because it is an external invasion and we need help. But so many people are making themselves miserable with their own thoughts and emotions. This is called self-help. Resentment, anger, hatred, these are poisons that you drink and expect someone else to die. Life does not work like that. If you drink poison, only you die.

This is happening because we have not taken charge of our own body, mind, emotion and energy. One dimension of what I call “Inner Engineering” is that it is a technology for inner wellbeing – for creating a chemical basis for a blissful existence. If you are aware, you can activate your system in such a way that simply breathing is an enormous pleasure. All it takes is a willingness to pay a little attention to the inner mechanism.

This is the fundamental shift in understanding that has to happen. Do not look for a way out of misery. Do not look for a way out of suffering. There is only one way – and that is in.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. He is also the founder of the world’s largest people’s movement, Conscious Planet – Save Soil, which has touched over 3.9 billion people.

Times Magazine India thanks Sadhguru for sharing his blissful thoughts and experiences.