Staying above the madness

Aug 07, 2022 News

The Creators’ Coven

By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – A lot is happening around us, not only here in Guyana but around the world. The global pandemic has hit hard and now this dreaded monkey pox is lurking, only to reach closer to home sooner or later. The global crisis with high cost of living is not making matters any easier, but is surely demanding resilience on the part of many. At home, Guyanese are also grappling with having to hear the huge profits that oil companies are making as a result of hike in prices of commodities, but still have measly sums in their pockets.

At the end of it, our job is to survive and stay above the madness. That simply means that it is our responsibility to secure our sanity and peace of mind. If you’re a regular reader of my fairly new column, you may say that I have been speaking very often about mental stability. That is true, and it is because I have come to realise how important it is to ensure that we rise above any situation that is not serving us. Let’s look at it this way, we may want many things in life and this may include wealth, success, love and mental peace, among many more desires. But what I, and many like me, have come to realise is that the manifestation of good can only come from within; based on the will and determination of that person and of course, their belief that a higher force is having a direct say in their existence. It simply means that the mind must be right for the manifestation of one’s advancement, more or less like a properly tilled soil, prepared for cultivation. I often remind myself that if my mind is not focused on a particular thing, then that thing is irrelevant and even none existent to me unless I engage and give it the power required for it to come alive. An easy example is to say that a person may be getting pinched but is so engrossed in a conversation that they do not feel the pain unless their attention is drawn to the area. Remembering this unintended disconnect allows me to remember, yes as cliché as it sounds, that I am more than a human being or that I am a spirit having a human experience and not the other way around. It serves me in ways that say I need to focus on the now; what is and what will serve my best interest.

Outside of this, ensuring mental stability works hand in hand with personal advancement because a calm and easy mind will have the ability to handle various loads that can have influences on our emotions. Yes, that means too that mental stability contributes heavily to emotional control and management; and we all know that when things are not going well it is our emotions that rage and force us to act in ways that we wouldn’t normally. Our emotions end up being the driving force behind our actions and many times we find ourselves questioning particular behaviours that we know we would not normally exhibit.

With that said, it is generally not the event, but how we perceive and what we draw from it that influences our behaviour. I am aware of people who cut their wrists, who hit themselves against things and use other methods to harm themselves. When I ask why they are doing it, they simply point to how they feel and it usually relates to how they feel about themselves or a particular situation; but mainly how they feel about themselves. And it is usually stemmed from a bad situation which I will humbly say they failed to protect themselves against. And let me make it clear that protecting one’s mental health is definitely not as easy as I might be making it out to be. It takes a lot of time and practice and even then one is and could never be insulated against the terrors and challenges of life, but we can very well be prepared.

I have done a lot of work on myself. I have mentioned before that I had no easy childhood although it is one that I treasure. I was motherless by the age of two, lived with mean, unloving stepmothers, cursed with an uncaring, lackadaisical father, all of whom contributed immensely to somewhat of a hellish upbringing that certainly wasn’t in my best interest. Understand that as a child when no one cares for you and no one stands up for you, you are left to the mercy of the “advantage takers”, those who ill-treat and berate you because they know there is no repercussion. Issues like these take a toll on a child and it greatly influences how they see themselves, the world and how they react to situations.

Luckily for me, I recognised the importance of mental stability. Even in my youth I recognised that I would need mental health to reshape ill-conceived believes and ideas formulated from my unfortunate experiences. Several years ago, I recognised that I needed the assistance sooner than later as I was making decisions that were serving people more than serving me. I recognised I was letting people into my space that didn’t deserve to hear my voice let alone be around me. I was giving more than was deserved and in the end, I noticed I was being used because as I was making myself likable because I wanted people to accept me and not treat me the way others did when I was younger. But all of these things have their place. I believe things happen for a reason and it is only when you decipher your situation properly and respond correctly that you see your successes and advancement. It all comes right back to maintaining your mental stability or in my case, finding it. I am still a work in progress and none of us will ever be perfect because I very much doubt that that is the intension here, but I verily believe that it is our duty to ensure we position ourselves for the best experience we can give ourselves.