On February 28, a lunch lecture by Thijs Launspach with the title 'How to be mentally well in a messed up world' took place. The goal of this lunch lecture was to inspire participants on how to place students' mental health in the broader context of society.
Key Messages
Some key messages that resonated with the participants are:
- Thijs placed the concept of mental health in the concept of ‘Positive Health / Psychology’. “[Mental health is] the ability to adapt to and to lead yourself through the social, physical and emotional challenges of life.”
- “We live in a VUCA World: VUCA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. A lot of variables in our lives constantly change, are uncertain, complex and vague.” And this influences mental health.
- “High life standards lead to high and unrealistic life expectations. Being unhappy seems not acceptable in our society. The message society sends is ‘you are not enough’.”
- We as a university can support students and send students the message ‘you are already enough’. We can do so by normalizing challenges that are part of life, stop problematizing normal unhappiness, and finally leading by example.
