Wellbeing & Resilience

Is overall well-being a myth?

I am a student who has to constantly struggle to maintain a balance between curricular and extra-curricular activities. While juggling between managing all these activities, one thing that gets neglected is myself. Am I taking care of myself? Is my overall well-being in a great state? Am I resilient enough to tackle what life throws at me? These are some of the questions that I have found myself thinking about.

A quote that I love a lot is by Maya Angelou, ‘’I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.’’The quote gives such a remarkable understanding of what resilience is. You can also check out one of the best videos on YouTube talking about resilience: https://youtu.be/dgk7nmI_nXI?si=npi7wlfsAFIMAixm

A day in my life generally goes as this. I wake up, go to attend my classes, try to hang out with my friends, and then come back to work on my assignments and develop other beneficial skills. However, at the end of the day, I have often found myself questioning what I have done the whole day.

The crushing burden of where my life is headed and how my peers are far ahead of me, stresses me out. It’s not even about being jealous of friends, I am just worried about myself. The situation took a drastic turn when one of my close friends moved to another country. This made me all gloomy and sad. I felt like I would not be able to get out of this state. My well-being suffered to the point where I thought is overall well-being a myth? Can I even achieve it?

It was then my sister who helped me realize that I am being too negative and must see the positive sides of situations. While her nagging irritated me a lot, in my alone time, I realized that she was not wrong. I was constantly entertaining such thoughts that were only harming me. I started to count my blessings and made this into a habit to list at least 3 best things that happened to me that day before going to bed.

I am now also trying to be grateful for and take pride in what I have accomplished in a week by self-reflecting at the end of it. This also means embracing my vulnerabilities and being open about my concerns. These are just the initial steps towards building resilience and achieving well-being. While I am working on my well-being, my question for you is “Is overall well-being really a myth?”

Picture- Being overwhelmed and still moving ahead is what makes us resilient!