Radha Gangaram Panday was interviewed for the monthly theme of mental health. Radha has been a teacher at the teacher training college for many years. For the past three years, she has been teaching minor world religions, spirituality, and philosophy. In addition to being a lecturer at the HU, she is also a member of the Diversity & Inclusion network. Radha engages in all kinds of meditation at work and in her spare time.

Connecting with the spiritual and divine intelligence is characteristic of Radha’s life. She is always looking for that connection, inside and outside of her. Radha believes that we all have an inner wisdom or inner energy within us that connects us. That’s how Radha feels.

In the minor, Radha teaches activities that claim our awareness. These activities can be physical activities moments of silence and moments of experience. Activities to touch the consciousness of that spiritual intelligence and that people feel the connection with it. For Radha, it is a spiritual and divine intelligence but everyone can have their word for this. It’s about connecting to your core. Turn inward and see that everything is within you and not outside of you. “Being able to do that at HU has always been a big wish of mine,” says Radha Gangaram Panday.

“We get stuck in thought patterns that affect our emotions and affect our body. So what I call mentally fit is when you create calm in your mental noise,” said Radha. Before we can process and transform all emotions and thought patterns, we have to create silence. For her, mental health means creating moments of rest and silence, so that what is stuck in you can flow.

In many meditation moments, meditation is not that you have to sit on a chair in a certain position and stop your thoughts. Meditation for me means being attentive to what I am doing. One day I will see what fits and what I need. These can be breathing exercises, yoga, body exercises, dancing, or guided meditation. Radha regularly does sun salutations anyway.

You can already start with low-threshold meditation by sitting or standing still for 1 minute and breathing. When you’re on the bus, don’t put in your earphones for once, but close your eyes and breathe a little deeper. During some daily activities, take your time and pay attention to your breathing. Are you behind your laptop again? Pay attention to your posture: 90 degrees knees, 90 degrees elbows, and 90 thighs-buttocks take 2 deep breaths in and out, and then go to work. Spiritual development requires repetition and practice. Do you want to have a stable base of rest? Then that requires regular practice. Expresses Radha as an expert by experience.

A tip that Radha would like to pass on to students and colleagues: start looking in your agenda to see what you can delete. What is not necessary? Start deleting and make room for yourself. All social activities are fun but also exhausting. “Create space for yourself daily. Learn to be with yourself without having anything to fulfill you. Because the fulfillment is already within you,” says Radha.

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Esmée Ibrahim