On the occasion of world mental health day, SWAMAN group organized a 2 hour workshop to promote mental health advocacy and raise mental health awareness for the people located near Kotdwara, Garhwal, India.
Here is the event summary.
25 years of mental health journey: The Panthari family (Mr. Yogesh and Mrs Vimala Panthari along with Sushil, Arun, Prafull, Nidhi and Vishwesh) shared their mental health journey. Prafull was diagnosed with mental illness 25 years ago and it has impacted the family in a profound way. Their main message was that not to lose hope when you have a dear one impacted through mental illness. The recovery is possible if you face this illness boldly and provide a loving care to your dear ones.
Using Art for healing: Mr Jageshwar Joshi is an accomplished cartoonist and satirist who talked about how art can help heal and improve our lives. He shared several cartoons and sketches from everyday lives.
Energy healing and mental health: Mr Ganesh Kala is an expert in energy healing and mind techniques that would help improve your life. He himself had several mental health related issues in the past and now he has overcome using those techniques. He would love to teach and share with you.
Psychoanalysis for better mental health: Dr Rashmi Bahukhandi who is a professor at Kotdwara degree college delivered her talk on psychoanalysis (based on Sigmund Freud) for your better mental health. She deals with young people everyday and this subject has become a critical part of academics now specially after the pandemic. She provided detail reviews of three levels of mind- Conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious)
Impact of social media on mental health: Mr Prashant Kukreti, member Green Pulse Society delivered an interesting talk on impact of social media on mental health. He emphasized how social media is both a boon or curse at the same time. He shared some effective strategies so that you can control and balance your mental health rather than it controlled by social media.
Deep breathing bring calm to your daily life: Mr Kamal Bahadur, Program Manager, TCG welfare society, led a short activity of breathing and holding hands for the entire audience that was very refreshing.
Music and your mental health: Music therapy is well known way that would improve your quality of life and help relieve stress. Nidhi Bahukhandi melodiously sang a beautiful ghazal by Nida Fazli “नई नई आँखें हों तो हर मंज़र अच्छा लगता है. कुछ दिन शहर में घूमे लेकिन अब घर अच्छा लगता है”. It made the atmosphere very entertaining.
This workshop event was not possible without the careful planning and event organization by Mr Pramod Bansal (Industrialist and owner Divine Earth Herbal industries) and Mr Ajay Khantwal (Journalist). A big thanks to them.
Mr Sandeep Bisht (Journalist) covered the event on Facebook live. Here is one of his stories https://www.facebook.com/share/v/DSfYuUjwiRVXg9jn/?mibextid=qi2Omg.
SWAMAN group sincerely thanks the following for their kind support during the event.
Sashi Negi, Kamal Bisht, Subhas Nautiyal, Devender Naithani, Abhishek Dabral, Sohan Maindola, Prashant Kukreti (dir. Gyanvriksh), Vachaspati Bahukhandi, Vinayak Joshi, Bikram Joshi, Meena Joshi, Abhitosh Joshi, Anil Rawat, Ridhi Bhatt, Mukesh Kulashri and Ashok Khantwal.
The Swaman Organization 