Attitudes and mental health

 

We are passing through one of the hardest periods in recent human history because of a pandemic. We have been thrown off our feet by a tiny virus. Our self-confidence is shaken, our medical science stands questioned, and our potential for hope is substantially eroded. We need to buttress our souls now more than ever. While medical science can help us deal with viruses and our physical ailments, we need something more than that to deal with our mental health in times like this.

One of the most beautiful prayers is the Serenity Prayer written by Reinhold Niebuhr which has been adapted variously by many individuals and groups. The most common version reads thus:

            God, grant me the serenity 

            to accept the things I cannot change,

            courage to change the things I can,

            and wisdom to know the difference.

If you don’t believe in God and supernatural entities like me, you can leave out that salutation and internalise the spirit of the prayers which is nothing more than an attitude toward external reality.

The reality out there has seldom been good to anyone. The world has never been kind to most creatures. From the innocent pigeons and lambs whose throats were slit before manifold gods’ altars for centuries to the millions of human beings who were sacrificed to appease the deities of various isms, too many ossified souls cry out from mass graves for a more benign world. No, not for revenge. That history is a blood-hungry monster is one of the umpteen falsehoods foisted on us by vested interests. It is not revenge that history thirsts for. It is compassion. It is benignity that history moans for.

The need to change what can be changed is what history longs for. We need to start with our attitudes.

What prompts a government to allow 3.5 million people to gather for a religious ritual when the country had already become the second worst hit victim of the deadly virus? What prompts the medical industry to hike the prices of vaccines and services converting a pandemic into a business opportunity? What motivated black-marketeers to hoard oxygen cylinders when people were gasping for life-breath in nearby hospitals?

Our sick attitudes perhaps killed more people than the pandemic itself. We need to change those attitudes. We can. We can create a healthier world by choosing right attitudes.

PS. This post is part of Blogchatter's CauseAChatter