Mojatu Berkshire Magazine Issue B011

12
Community
mojatu.com
Knowing You – Knowing Me for Our Well-being: Be Involved
By K. A. Singo
On the 20 th May this year, I attended a very interesting
mid day event in the week of mental health awareness
sponsored by Utulivu women’s group. It was one
of an eye-opening event I have attended recently.
That evening I couldn’t help wondering how in a
wealthy society, where there are lots of social services
institutions established to help residents of various
communities fail to reach all those who need help.
From the different speakers I found that there are
lots of people suffering in silence in our communities.
These suffering individuals had one thing in common;
mental health related issues.
Mental health is simply how individuals think, act and
cope with life challenges and stressors that form our
daily experiences when we interact with other people
or have contact with different things. The state of our
mental health in many ways influence the way we look
into ourselves, into our lives, people around us, and the
way we react to them.
Mental health strongly influence ones potential for
achieving their desired goals and potentials and thus
becoming an important tool for us to obtain and
maintain a feeling of well being. One of the strongest
elements that help us to have a good mental health is
our ability to form interpersonal relationships. Failure
to do so pushes us to self made comfort corners,
which act as self-made naughty corners of loneliness.
As these corners grow bigger and bigger, we tend to
push even the people we live with away. As a result,
our minds cannot cope and they end up blowing up
through stress and depression.
Many adults have experienced such times when they
feel abandoned and left alone to solve problems they
cannot solve. Being an immigrant myself, I can tell you
that one of the hardest thing in life is to move away
from the place you have called home, moving away
from people you have called family, relatives and
friends, discontinuing from the place you have called
work place, and uprooting and planting yourself in a
new soil, new home, new street and trying to grow new
relationships. This will always affect ones mental health
What I discovered in the last twenty years of being
an immigrant is that there is plenty of help around
me than I have ever imagined. The barriers between
my needs and the solutions to my needs as I have
discovered is, knowing the right person and the right
place to seek assistance. Seeking help in difficult times
and even in good times is one of the things most
immigrants do not do. There is a fear and sometimes a
shame of approaching the people we find in our new
lands. Our neighbors, our colleagues at work or college
or school and even the institutions that save us like
police, council, hospitals, and surgeries and even in our
religious canters.
Most immigrants come short when it comes
to communicating about our feelings. Most
underdeveloped societies thrive in togetherness, while
most societies and people in developed world thrive
in individualistic views. They operate on what I want,
what pleases me and what my heart wants to follow. So
coming from an environment of togetherness to one
of oneness, pushes most immigrants to a brink, as we
don’t know where to turn to until things become very
desperate. We suffer alone until we collapse
If you happen to read this, I would like to suggest to
you that there are lots and lots of resources out there
in our communities and there is no need for you to
suffer alone. Our mental health thrives when we share
our feelings through different ways including music,
dance, religious events, and community events. I urge
you to involve yourself with your neighbors, in your
community centre, and in street events. There are lots
of clubs in the community doing different activities
and indeed you can find your passion in one of them.
Where you cant find what interests you, find out from
your local vicar, councilor, MP, or your local church, or
mosque how you could start a club or organization
of your passion. One of the characteristics of human
beings is to have goals and desires. Regardless of ones
age or work, we all cherish a feeling of well being, a
feeling of satisfaction upon reaching our goals and
a yearning to be congratulated. All of these things
happen in our brains, minds and thoughts. Before we
are involved in actions our minds have already been
taxed with the duty of thinking. Anything you can
imagine you can manifest and therefore put yourself
out there and answer a call to build your community.
Remember what Zig Zigler said. “They climb high
those who help others to climb.” He also said, “you
can get what you want when you help others get
what they want. Be involved and give vitality to your
mental health.