Such an essential yet often overlooked question was the basis of the recent program held by the INSIGHT Center of Counselling and Psychological Wellbeing, the Happiness Bootcamp - a three-day mental wellbeing journey bringing together students and faculty in the quest to discover mental health outside of the usual setting of the academic environment.

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."
                                                                                                                    - Aristotle

This ancient wisdom is never more applicable than this very hour. Over the past few years, the discussion related to mental health in the institutional setting has been moved progressively into the centre of the discussion. Academic pressure, peer pressure, and career pressures may also be an overwhelming burden to both students and faculty. 

According to statistics, 1 out of every 5 college students (20%) reported severe psychological distress in the year 2024, alongside 35% and 25% of the students reported having anxiety and depression, respectively. The report further stated that about 44% of the students displayed some symptoms of depression, 37% showed some signs of anxiety, and 15% of the students contemplated suicide, which is the highest rate in the entire 15-year history of the survey.

These figures are not just statistics, but also the realities of young adults growing up in a world full of academic, social, and personal changes, as they step into the earliest days of their adulthood.

The INSIGHT Centre for Counselling and Psychological Wellness is one of the many efforts, a place at the university supervised by professionals and graduate students that provides services outside of textbooks and classrooms. Instead of acting as a crisis-mode service that students resort to in extreme situations, INSIGHT is intended as a regular institution that forms a sort of psychological safety net that is part and parcel of everyday campus life.

The centre is managed by certified psychologists and other full-time counsellors. These approaches are evidence-based, such as:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

• Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)

• Client-Centred Therapy (CCT)

It is all part of a significant push toward ensuring that every student gets their level of experience with the tools, techniques, and support systems best suited to their needs.

INSIGHT also provides crisis intervention services that imply the delivery of emergency care in high-paced situations, so that it is highly confidential, which makes it truly a safe place. In addition, students can access counselling services at their fingertips at YourDOST, the online mental wellness partner, which provides an opportunity to achieve high reach and accessibility beyond the physical campus.

What’s the Happiness Bootcamp?

INSIGHT is not only a one-on-one process. It also displays interactive and preventive activities, the latest being Happiness Bootcamp, held between 9th July to 11th. 

This three-day gathering was not a feel-good project, but rather it was designed on reflection, involvement, and psychology. Personality testing, self-help stations such as the Happiness Corner to pause and think of a question rarely asked: Are you happy?

Both students and staff were walking into sessions that consisted of a mixture of psychology and playfulness, striking that balance. The goal of this initiative: to make mental health interesting, without it being performative.

Workshops covered everything from:

• Knowing your personality and thinking style

• Understanding emotional wellness

• Practical tools to recharge the mindset and nurture happiness

Such initiatives are crucial for both short-term and long-term well-being and personal and professional growth. Mentally healthy individuals have a much higher chance of succeeding both academically, developing a meaningful connection, and making it through their career life in the future resiliently.

The problem with the approach adopted in Parul University lies in the fact that it does not consider wellness as an extravagance, but as the basis. The university also plays the key role of integrating mental health into the college lives of their students due to their designed support networks and university-wide initiatives, and thus, aiding the advancement of emotional quotient and psychological development.

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