If you're reading this, you certainly don't need a crash-course on how gruelling the year has been so far. The steady incline of stress levels across the human population, was already setting off several alarm bells. And this was before we had the term "Coronavirus" in our dictionaries. Now in the face of a pandemic, the list of challenges we all have to grapple with continues to expand. Some of us lost our jobs, our steady source of income. Some others, relationships that meant the world to us. A lot of us were introduced to how work from home feels like, when you have to do it every single day, indefinitely. And with social distancing as the world-wide mandate, most of us were deprived of access to social support, quality time with our friends, significant other and even family.
In a nutshell, none of it is easy. And the toll that it's taking on our physical and mental health, very understandable. It comes as no surprise, that this year we witnessed skyrocketing levels of reported psychological disturbances. But you know what troubles me? My social media feeds are flooded with body transformation posts, fitness routines, and body goal photos. And while the focus on physical fitness is wonderful, mental health still continues to be largely ignored as background noise.
Image Courtesy - Pexels
The phrase "a healthy mind in a healthy body", might be a total cliche, but it's a cliche for a reason. Because it's true. In addition to cutting out junk, eating healthy and working out regularly, to achieve holistic wellness you also need to focus, train and stabilise your mind. Physical and mental health are heavily intertwined, and when one is missing, the other is highly likely to collapse eventually.
However, we do acknowledge that taking care of the latter can be a tad vague sometimes. While looking after your body can be defined by how many runs you went for in a week, or how many times and for how long you worked out, working your mind is a grey-er territory. What if we said, it no longer has to be? What if, a simple application on your phone could enlist the steps you need to take to enhance your mental health?
The tool we're talking about is Mindhouse. This one-of-a-kind meditation application is designed to aid you in achieving a healthier, more stable state of mind. Guided meditation, tips, techniques and teachings to manage your mental health, live classes with like-minded individuals (pun intended) and recommendations by field experts - these are some of the things you can get access to with this remarkable tool. And if in-person is a solid preference of yours, you can always visit a Mindhouse studio, to avail all these benefits and more.
All the reasons you might have for putting off actively practising mental health care, will be addressed by Mindhouse. Barely get any time? How about just 20 minutes a day? Zero understanding of what meditation entails? They have classes structured specifically for complete beginners.
Image Courtesy - Mindhouse
Don't worry, we used the app before making this recommendation, and here's an honest review. Loved every bit of it. It's immensely user-friendly, the sessions are highly informative, and the trainers extremely proficient at what they do. As a chronic procrastinator, I also loved that I could meditate whenever I wanted, either by way of live sessions with others during the day, or by accessing anytime meditations at odd hours of the night. If I had to pick a favourite feature though, the choice of a specific goal to focus on would definitely be the winner. Whether it's improving sleep quality, sharpening your ability to focus or building your level of patience, Mindhouse lets you decide what your reason for practising mediation is. And then, it helps you achieve the goal!
They also have a bunch of tools, in addition to the meditation sessions. This includes music to boost productivity, breathwork practice, calming sounds you can put on in the background as you work or relax, and quick exercises to relieve stress.
Did we mention it's also very reasonably priced, in case you want to subscribe? The quarterly plan is just INR 400, and in return, you get unlimited access to their live meditation AND yoga classes, along with the expansive library of audio and video tools! Sounds like a sweet deal? Probably because it is!
So, when do YOU plan on finally getting your mind to a mental gym?
Image Courtesy - Mindhouse