Entrepreneur and actor Nikhil Nanda, who is all set to make his acting debut on OTT with Criminal Minds, says that meditation and yoga are the easiest ways of taking care of your mental health. He says that feeling a sense of calm is a sign of great mental health.
“Mental health is all about feeling calm, composed and at peace with yourself. This is one of the most important aspects. In this world of rat race, all of us are looking and consuming so much information that we always feel left out,” he says, adding, “Meditation, which is part of Yoga, is one of the best ways to improve your mental health. There are people who haven’t really exercised all their life, but when they start, they start with breathing exercises which are easy. There’s just a particular way to do it. And after that, meditate for 15 minutes. If you include these two things in your daily routine, it will have a positive impact on up to 90% of the people.”
Talking about the significance of sound mental health, Nikhil says, “One of the most famous sayings which we have been hearing from our elders, Healthy minds reside in a healthy body. As long as you’re physically fit, there is a great possibility that physiological health and psychological health will remain good too. When you exercise, when you take care of yourself, it diverts your attention, it releases certain hormones which are called feel good hormones. If you see in India, people are not taking enough care of their health. Since the last few years there’s been awareness about it but we still have a long way to go for a country of 1.3 Billion people.”
The entertainment industry is more prone to mental health problems due to the public gaze, says Nikhil, adding, “Entertainment, like all the other professions, is more dominated by the rat race because it’s all in your mind. You always have a feeling that you’re being judged because you’re in a public life unlike other professions, there are going to 10 more people to judge you, your colleagues who work with you. But when you’re in the Entertainment industry, your life becomes public, Where thousands of people who are going to watch you, judge you and comment on you. This can definitely affect someone’s mental health. So, like I said before, meditation is a very good way of making yourself mentally strong. When you’re mentally strong you’re able to take all these comments, negative or positive, in the right manner. Negative, you don’t let them affect you, positive you don’t let them take you to the new high where everything starts looking very small to you. So, it has to be balanced both ways.”
Ask him about how he keeps his spirits high, and he says, “My only mantra when I feel low, I read Sunderkand. And when I read that at the end there’s only one thing that is in my mind that this shall too pass. Time is never the same, it’s going to be good or bad. You just have to prepare yourself to fight and overcome that situation. So there’s always a larger picture in the struggles that you go through in your life. They make you stronger to face even bigger challenges. All you need to do is keep faith and fight it out.”
