Social media is changing our perception of and participation in society. Sam De Silva poses that social media is a vehicle of personal and social reform.
–––
“Awake, arise or be forever fallen” John Milton – Paradise Lost
Monday marked the start of Mental Health Awareness Week.
A social media campaign, led by the UK charity Mental Health Foundation, to raise awareness for mental health with a special focus this year on the benefits of mindfulness. Hashtags such as #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and #MHAW15 have been lighting up trending charts.
Having been brought up in a Theravada Buddhist family, mindfulness has been something that I was taught from a young age and has always been a part of my life. Although I was born and grew up in London, I have also been fortunate enough to have called Kyoto, Colombo, and Chiang Mai home, all of which are cities in predominantly Buddhist countries. My experience of living in Japan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand is that mindfulness is not talked about in the western sense, but rather just assimilated into everyday life and is reflected in their culture and traditions and in some respects how society interacts.
As a former secondary school Maths teacher, mindfulness was also something that I’d always keep reinforcing during lessons and was integrated into my teaching for the benefit of the students’ cognitive development.
Additionally, aspects of mindfulness were key to my Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with Dr Jennifer Wild. Especially at the early stages of the PTSD treatment to stay calm and centred before revisiting the trauma of the Asian Tsunami, and what happened in the years that followed.
So, you could say I have been exposed to the benefits of mindfulness through a variety of life experiences, from my upbringing, my travels, my work as a teacher, as well as during my PTSD treatment. As a result, I genuinely feel confident in recommending anyone to invest in some time in themselves by learning and taking up the practice of living mindfully.
- The ability to raise awareness for mindfulness in such a campaign as well as make a stand for civil rights, by initiating dialogue challenging the social stigma of mental health, is truly one of the beauties of social media & the digital age.
- Individual’s and organisations’ ability to connect across the globe, directly with like-minded advocates in real-time, is triggering change.
- Having the means to instantaneously share, articles, personal stories, images, and videos has made education and open dialogue accessible to basically anyone that has the access and can figure out how google works.
- The issues which fail to receive enough or any publicity from traditional media outlets have been given an incredibly powerfully tool to help create a change for good.
From helping spark regime change during the Arab Spring to possibly safeguarding the civil rights of unarmed black men being shot by armed US police, to Edward Snowden’s thoughtful and selfless deeds of carefully leaking NSA files to Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian, which in all likelihood will go down in history as act of American patriotism on par with the actions of Mr Daniel Ellsberg , who first exposed the myriad of misinformation that clouded the American public’s perception of the Vietnam War.
The rise and use of social media and technology are not just changing the face of politics and civil rights movements, it’s much bigger than that. Technology has changed not just how we access knowledge, but also what we do with that newly acquired knowledge. People are voting with clicks on follow, like, and share buttons from all corners of the world, giving a voice to those who are often never heard. It’s all quite incredible to witness and to be part of.
From international organisations campaigning for Human Rights such as the United Nations and Amnesty International to local and national charities and advocacy groups, such as UK national mental health charity Mental Health Foundation. The key weapon in fighting stigma and prejudice is education.
Social media’s role in delivering that message has been phenomenal.
However, at the heart of this revolution isn’t just the delivery of the message, it is the power shift to the everyday people. Who are at the other end of smartphones, tablets, and computers, who receive those messages and can influence what goes viral and what doesn’t, by being able to engage and respond within seconds of the post. All of which adds value to the initiated dialogue.
Like most people I basically just use my smart phone to “rise up” when I can. I’m not affiliated with any organised body or movement but when I do use social media, it’s not only to chat and keep up to date with mates. I also use it to gain knowledge, to help empower myself and in turn my community – the planet earth and it’s inhabitants – by reinforcing & expressing my core beliefs in education, social justice and human rights.
When my life fell apart, I unintentionally ended up hurting and driving away the people who cared for me, and as a result I suffered in isolation for years before receiving PTSD treatment. For almost a year and a half, I lived within about 200m radius from my house. I tried to put on a front, but it wasn’t easy, I didn’t want or couldn’t use public transport. I barely left my house. Despite having some incredibly patients mates, I felt disconnected from everything and couldn’t see a way out. I didn’t really use social media and was unaware of the benefits in terms of the active support communities online. Which include countless government bodies, charities, advocacy groups, trained professionals as well as others who suffer similarly.
Personally, technology has played a significant role in my recovery.
Not only since sharing my story on social media, but also during the actual treatment process. The support and feedback I’ve had over social media since sharing my journey has honestly been incredible. I’m so grateful to the countless number of people who have personally reached out to me by typing a few sentences and hitting the send button.
Social media has an epic role in helping end the mental health stigma. More often than not those who suffer, suffer in complete and utter silence, in isolation without the understanding of family or friends and tragically often without the treatment and correct diagnosis from mental health specialist. Initiatives such as #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek are vital in raising public awareness and honestly deserve your close attention. After all, mental health care is a genuine international human rights issue.
For our world to live mindfully, human rights issues needs the world’s attention for a reason. Added to that, there equally important global crisis that need open dialogue based upon empirical evidence, backed up by science such as global warming and protecting the world’s precious habitats and the animals within it – especially the incalculable number of endangered species. Thanks to the digital age and social media, all these worthy causes are just a few clicks away from understanding and sharing this knowledge.
Additionally, there are incredible communities online spreading powerful messages of hope and good will. Taking a little extra time to read, like, share or comment on issues that may not directly affect you may only be a small gesture, but it’s repercussions can trigger open dialogue, education and hopefully in time real change for those that need it most.
Because…
- You don’t need to be in Nepal to understand the pain and suffering that was caused by the earthquakes…
- You don’t need to black to be outraged and actively support and make a stand for #BlackLivesMatter…
- You don’t need to be diagnosed with a mental health condition to understand the silent suffering and the need to fight stigma for #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek…
…you just need empathy
Personally, I think the only way we better this world is living mindfully by reducing inequality, by protecting the rights of the vulnerable. Which will in turn over time reduce overall suffering and produce a fairer future for all generations to come, not just the privileged few.
I genuinely hope you’ll join me in rising up with mindfulness for Mental Health Awareness Week and making a stand for the countless that suffer with their mental health in silence.
There’s such an abundance of good people, love and hope in this world. We need to work collectively to channel this to empower genuine change by educating our communities to help break down the walls of stigma and prejudice towards mental health. Incorporating mindfulness into our lifestyle is an excellent path to achieving this goal.
Times are changing, it’s not small steps anymore, it’s giant leaps in terms of what we can do to rise up and stand for what we believe in. It’s time we start mindfully fighting for what unites us not divides us.
….Otherwise the fallen will never be heard.
This post is dedicated to my grandfather Mr Susiripala De Silva, who lived a mindful life as a devout Buddhist, and sadly passed away last Friday – “Seeya, I’m so grateful to you for everything you taught me. You’ll always be in my heart. Love always. Sam x”
Photos courtesy of the author