I have been very disturbed ever since the news of Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide came yesterday. He supposedly had everything going for him, a career of his choice, a loving family, several love interests, good health and also good looks, yet he chose to cut short his life. Was it because his career trajectory was not to his expectation or did he not earn as much as he wanted to or did someone special leave him or was it the dreaded “depression” (mental well being) ?
Many of his friends and well wishers are shocked that he took such a drastic step. Am sure over the next several days and months they will offer their perspectives on why he did what he did. Soon though all of us except his father, siblings and his closest friends will move on and not think about this tragic incident.
Several years earlier another young lady Jiah Khan decided to cut short her life, and before her Nafisa Joseph did the same. Why are these young, apparently successful men and women just giving up on life ? Depression is a killer and we are seeing more people succumbing to it than before. It could be because there is more awareness of mental health issues but it could also be because the incidences have increased.
Social Media and its impact on mental well being –
Social media is a new animal that makes us behave in very different ways. The millennial generation lives online where nothing is real. The photographs people post on FB are not how they live or look everyday. And the human mind is a monkey that immediately wants what another person has !! We are all chasing different things in order to find success and happiness, but we rarely stop and ask ourselves if those things do indeed make us happy. We are busy climbing the ladder of what we think as success, only to find out that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.
Is that what happened to Sushant ? Did he discover that his ladder was leaning against the wrong wall and couldn’t deal with it ?
Yale University’s most downloaded program –
Krishnan and I are doing this program on Coursera called “The Science of Well Being”. It’s truly life changing. It’s a very well researched program and does not lean on one individual’s view of happiness. It also helps you with tools and techniques to train your mind to stop comparing and going after things that don’t make you happy. It helps you to learn what’s important for you to stay happy. We have been sharing about this program with several friends and family. Would urge the reader to also find time to take the course.
One of the first things that the program tells you is about the harmful impact of social media. We really need to wean ourselves away from it and use it as a tool to stay in touch with friends and to get news breaks but nothing more. Social media prompts us to compare our lives against seemingly better lives being led by others and comparison is a slippery slope leading straight to mental hell !
Here is the link to the program – The Science of Well Being.
Take care and stay safe, stay happy.
Farewell Sushant Singh Rajput. May your troubled soul find answers in the afterlife and may your next life be happier. Om Shanti. 🙏
Suggested reading – Book Review #10/50 – Grit by Angela Duckworth; Dhyan, Zen and the current craze of Meditation
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