In the wake of World Mental Health Day, Sudhanshu Pandey speaks up about how people always are busy thinking about physical well-being that they are not giving importance to their mental health.
One thing that the difficult times of Covid have taught us is to take care of both our mental well-being along with physical health. Recently, on October 10, World Mental Health Day was celebrated across the globe. The occasion raised awareness around different issues of the mind and also extended support towards the efforts made towards the betterment of mental health. ‘Anupamaa’ actor Sudhanshu Pandey talks about the importance of mental well-being and how he looks at the whole issue.
“To me, mental health means everything… to be able to live a normal life or a good life. Mental health matters more than anything else,” says the actor-singer.
Sudhanshu Pandey adds that people should not just stop at taking care of their physical health, but also look after their mental well-being. “People are too busy to take care of their physical health and are trying to build their body, muscles and totally ignoring how important it is to first take care of their mind, thoughts. Your mental health is and should always be your first priority if you want to keep everything else okay,” he urges.
What he thinks is important for mental health is that we should keep our mind at peace when the competition is around us professionally, to begin with, and be around people who love us so that we feel loved all the time.
“Also, whenever you can take out time you should meditate, do pranayam, and pray to whichever God you believe in because that really brings a lot of stability,” he adds.
Many opine that people from the entertainment industry are generally targeted when it comes to depression and anxiety. However, Sudhanshu has a different opinion.
“I would say every industry has its stress, peer pressure, and high stakes. But definitely, being from the film industry I guess because it's a show business, there's a lot of other pressure also which could bring about anxiety and lead to depression. You've got to be really stable mentally to be in this Industry and survive in a smart way and succeed too,” he says.
But do people associated with the entertainment industry go through more stress than any other profession? And, Sudhanshu explains, “Well people associated with the industry will go through more stress because there’s so much competition all the time and you’re always competing against someone or the other, and people are always under pressure to look good, feel good, have a good body, great hair, great skin, young looking face all through their lives. So many other pressures and so much stress they go through. People forget to love their lives and that we are humans and you should just accept everything gracefully and do our bit. We should work hard and give out our best all the time and be happy with everyone else's success, happiness and be in the state of happiness always. Be content and there's nothing wrong in being hopeful. You should always be hopeful and try to fulfil your dreams, you should be ambitious. But that ambition should not take over your peace of mind. It's very important to keep your mental state in control. And if your mind is in control, you can keep everything else under control.”
The actor does not normally feel low unless he is very exhausted. “So, if I do feel low the best thing to do is probably sit down and watch some good movie or web series. Basically, rejuvenate your mind and disconnect from everything else and then entertain yourselves and maybe sit with your family and watch something nice,” he ends.