Depression. Social anxiety. Ocd, ed.

These are just a few of the more and more

encountered mental health issues within the population. Ladies and gentleman, I am not
here to talk about the existing problems which we all know, nor to remind you that 1 in 8
people in the world have a mental health condition, but to give you a wake up call about
the things we neglect that have a paramount impact on our state of mind and our body.

In our everyday life, we get so consumed by the adversities happening around us

that we forget to be grateful for what we have. We can walk, we can talk, we can listen to
other people and that is one of the most important things that we have: freedom. We are
fortunate to have the power to speak, to express ourselves here without restraint, and not
being trapped in military conflicts and wars happening as we speak. We have the power
to act for the victims in the armed conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and
Palestine. My heart is breaking to see all of the horror, hate, violence and terror that is
going on in the world. People being tortured, killed or any act of hate towards any one
group is horrific. The Afghans being deported from Pakistan. I wish my words could
change the world, but they will not. Instead, we can all make it a better place. We can
spread information, donate, or simply make a post on social media showing our support.

These are things that can affect us in a negative way, or we can affect them in a
positive way. Since the 2020 pandemic, poor mental health has been on the rise. And a
lot of people start to feel like they life does not matter

when

Since we were little children we were taught if an action is either good or bad. For
instance a lot of parents are overprotecting their kids not allowing them to ride the bike or
play football being afraid of falling or being hurt. Personally, I think is just a difference
of perspective there. It can be a harmless mistake that I can learn a lot from and that is
something good or it can be a fall that can affect me on a long term. Let’s be realistic: Is
anyone that did not fall as a kid? We need to let the young experience the consequences
of their actions can be they good or bad. We must let them engaged their critical thinking.

What is meant by critical thinking? It means the analytics of available facts,

evidences and arguments to form a judgement by the application of rational skeptical
analyses and evaluation. Richards W. Paul said that the mind of a critical thinker engages
the person intellectual abilities and personality traits. Critical thinking involves step in
back from a situation to enable you to see all the angles before making a judgement or
making decisions.
 It means identifying key points and weighting up different types of evidences, just
as a judge and jury would do in a court of law, putting all together in your own
independent mind, through a point of view. Evaluating evidences to decide for yourself
what is accurate, what is relevant and therefore it it’s a good or a bad thing. It is not only
about learning, but evaluating arguments to see how they stand up, filtering for yourself
what resonates as right or wrong.

There are a lot of thing that we need to take in consideration when we talk about
humans thinking: the human mind is beyond complex and it does not only affect our state
of well being, as well as our body and health. During the research for this year’s public
speaking competition I encountered Michel Tomsello research at the Max Planck institute
for evolutionary anthropology. His work deal with how human thinking goes beyond that
of other primates, how we think in ways that are not available to the great apes. We have
the ability to distinguish the good from the bad and we are the only ones capable to have
their individual opinion using rational judgements.

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so"

This quote is used to suggest that one’s perspective changes something from
“good” to “bad” or vice versa.

Everyone thinks different. Let s take a step back and go on a journey through
history: For millennia, philosophers have repeated this same wisdom in different words,
with the hopes of empowering us with wisdom that can help us to live more peaceful,
happier, and fulfilled lives. In poetry, music (examples: Avicii in the song entitled “the
nights” – ‘they say one day we’ll leave this world behind, so live a life you will
remember’)

Psychologists define optimism as an attitude which overestimates the chances of

good things happening to you, while underestimating the chances of bad things occurring.
Being a pessimist is the exact opposite. Some people may prefer calling themselves
realist instead of pessimist. In either cases, the positive thinking is the key to success
Positive thinking is a technique for staying strong during difficult times. It’s a way of
distancing ourselves from negative self-talk.