The Giving Back Foundation is an organization deeply involved in mental wellness and considers the subject to be one of its primary 3 mandates. One death by suicide occurs every 40 seconds globally, according to the World Health Organisation.
Giving Back Foundation is supported by HRH Prince Edward, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Tony & Cherie Blair, Sadhguru, Rahul Gandhi, PM Narendra Modi, Rekha, Hema Malini, Kerry Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, to mention a few.
The Foundation’s Founder and CEO, Meera Gandhi, weighs in with her thoughts on World Suicide Prevention Day. We must take a moment to understand “why” feelings of suicide occur in the human psyche.
The Giving Back Foundation has been working with experts on issues of mental health globally over the last decade, and we have come to deeply understand and care about those affected by this subject.
We have worked with, and turned many young and helpless lives around to a path of wellness and success. Once we understand the “problem” or the “reason” why people consider suicide as an option, the solutions and answers flow logically.
Life is the ultimate and most precious thing anyone has. When a human being feels that she or he is unable to live, breathe, or function well emotionally, the thought of ending life occurs. This is simply a result of linear thinking. When we think there is only “one solution” to a problem.
Modern society encourages linear thinking in terms of education, career goals, and countless other ways, and we have come to accept this as a style of thinking without any alternative.
However, the reality is that there are limitless solutions, and if we approach an issue calmly and not with an agitated mind, the solutions start to be clear, much like water settling in a disturbed pond.
Our modern lifestyle choices like poor food, poor sleep, stress, and over-stimulation from drugs, alcohol or excessive consumption and communication distract our minds derail logical thinking, and cloud its ability to find solutions that are truly in front of us.
Therefore, the first step is to breathe, in and out, and slow our breath down. This is us setting our own pace in life. This naturally calms the mind from racing and slows down the agitated mind.
Next, it’s very important to start meditating. There are a number of online programs that work well and are available to all!
Finally, please consider chanting a mantra. Unlike the past, when people thought “mantras” were strictly religious or a voodoo practice, it is now understood that a “mantra” is simply words that help neutralize the mind and body back into balance and harmony. The world we live in throws it out of balance, and mantra helps to deprogram and regulate hormones secreted by the vibration of these calming sounds!
These techniques, along with seeking out friends and family members who can support us and take us from these suicidal thoughts, along with retreating to nature, eating raw foods, and meditating, will very immediately bring a person back to their natural state of being, which is to be “ever joyful”.
The anti-anxiety medicines can be very harmful with side effects in the long run as they shut down the body’s actual ability to secrete the necessary chemicals to heal and, in time, actually cause acute depression and suicidal thoughts in mind.
Lastly, reach out to help others regardless of your situation, and soon healing will start in as a natural byproduct of helping another. There is no joy like the joy of giving, especially when you are giving of yourself.
In every moment, we can recreate our lives!
Please consider all these things, as life is the ultimate, most beautiful gift we have been given. Let us enjoy the gift of your life for as long as we naturally can. We treasure you, and we await the fascinating and wonderful things you have arrived in this world to create and share. You are loved! Meera Gandhi shared in her acceptance speech, “If others knock you down, it’s on them. If you don’t get up, it’s on you.”
It’s as simple as changing your thoughts.
More on: The Giving Back Foundation.