With the increase in pressure on students these days, children and young adults go through a lot of stress - be it exam stress, relationships, or peer pressure. Teenage is a time when they undergo a number of changes, both physically and mentally.

This coming of age brings along new experiences for these young adults, through which they are slowly introduced to an independent way of life and develop new skill sets to confront various life stressors that are better dealt with by being mindful about their feelings and accessing support systems that exist around them.

But talking about their emotions can be difficult and even more taxing if they don’t feel understood. There is a wide array of stressors that are experienced during this life stage, and one of the ways to deal with them is to become aware about the intricacies that revolve around these life situations.

We understand how sharing one’s fears and fantasies may not be a very easy thing to do for teens. How do we then let them know that they are not alone?

This made us approach various colleges of Delhi University and we realised that having the institutions as mediators may help provide a platform for students to access psychological help and to generate a network of support system between the college, peers and mental health professionals.

In this fast paced world, we come across various life experiences. We feel a range of emotions but are often unable to recognise them and in take appropriate actions. Decisions are often influenced by emotions and if negative emotions are left unattended, they can intensify over time. Thus it becomes necessary to maintain an emotional balance. The first step involves identifying these issues and being mindful about one’s own emotions.

Janki Devi Memorial College (JDMC) and Deen Dayal Upadhyay College (DDU), are two colleges that have recognised this pressing need often ignored in our society. They validate the importance of generating a pro-mental health environment for their students and staff members.

Both JDMC and DDU have chosen to take the progressive step of pausing and generating awareness about various psychosocial issues that might be affecting their students and professors and proceeded to address these issues instead of ignoring them.

Dr. Swati Pal, principal of JDMC and Dr. S. K. Garg, principal of DDU, both acknowledge the need of the hour and encourage students (and staff, for that matter) to spend time in attending to their mental health and emotional wellbeing. It is due to their support that we have conducted workshops covering a wide variety of topics like Emotional Abuse in Relationships, Mindfulness and Relationships, Exam Stress, Communication and Assertiveness, Social Media and its impacts, etc. JDMC has also developed a one of a kind mentoring and counseling committee that keeps in touch with us and helps us organise such workshops.

It is also heartening to see that more colleges are joining our initiative to spread awareness of mental health and work towards keeping ourselves mentally and emotionally balanced.

Over the next few months, we are collaborating with Acharya Narendra Dev College as well as Bhagat Singh College to conduct sessions for the college freshers, to provide them support and guidance as they step into a new phase of life.We aim to help the students in overcoming fears and uncertainties of this new journey, and to let them know that they have a support system they can fall back on, if and when the need arises.

Authored by Arindam Sen, founder Zyego - a health-tech startup working in the area of emotional wellness.