Work Life Balance Seminar At Kolkata Delivers Powerful Message 

Professor Anindita Mukherjee highlighted need for a healthy balance between professional and personal lives; and to keep them separate from one another to the best of our abilities.

Work Life Balance Seminar At Kolkata Delivers Powerful Message 

Work Life Balance, a seminar organised by North Kolkata Chaturangan Academy in collaboration with West Bengal State University at the prestigious N. R. Sen auditorium, Rajabazar Science College, Rajabazar Kolkata, on the evening of March 29, 2023.

It was indeed a great evening that included a series of erudite lectures along with  passionate and engaging discussions on multiple aspects of mental health issues.

The event was highly successful, with excellent interactions between the speakers and the audience. The Work Life Balance seminar was attended by over 50 participants in spite of traffic related issues in the city that evening.

The programme was initiated by Dr. Amit Krishna De, the Secretary of the North Kolkata Choturangan Academy, and chaired by the eminent psychiatrist of the city, Dr. Amarnath Mallick.

The two eminent speakers who shared the spotlight of the Work Life Balance seminar included Professor Anindita Mukherjee, Department of Psychology at Sister Nivedita University; and Dr. Moumita Das, Department of Applied Nutrition and Dietics, Sister Nivedita University. Both speakers were introduced by Dr. A. K. De, followed by a short welcome speech by Dr. Mallick.

Professor Anindita Mukherjee highlighted the need for a healthy balance between our professional and personal lives and to keep them separate from one another to the best of our abilities.

She emphasised building positive relationships with our immediate supervisors, colleagues, and friends and maintaining healthy distance from difficult individuals in our professional and personal lives to avoid unwanted and unnecessary confrontations and minimise our mental stress levels.

She stressed the fact that our mental well-being is as important as our physical wellness and that both are closely associated with one another.

A healthy lifestyle intermixed with regular work, breaks, intimate family ties, and the positive bondage of friendships are important factors that keep us going in our life’s journey.

On the other hand, Dr. Das provided an interesting lecture on the importance of quality diets for our mental well-being. She stressed the do’s and dont’s of a healthy diet choice and encouraged the audience to focus more on home made food over junk food and carbonated beverages for maintaining better health.

She warned about the excess use of salt, sugar, oil, and butter in our cooking process and discouraged addictions to tobacco based products and excess consumption of hot beverages like tea and coffee. Rather, her suggestion has been to include more high quality plant proteins, fresh green vegetables, fruits, and nuts in our diet with a reduction in carbohydrate consumption.

She suggested taking timely meals and avoiding skipping meals on a regular basis, and she suggested people follow intermittent starvation for better digestion and absorption of food into our bodies. Both speakers emphasised including a regular exercise programme or simply walking to stay physically and mentally fit.

Next, Dr. Mallick highlighted our social behaviour related to our present day lifestyle patterns, addictions, and weaknesses.

He nicely illustrated how our thinking process, cognitive behaviours,  negative attitude, lack of communication, addictive nature, and too much dependence on gadgets are limiting our lives and preventing us from better exploring and understanding our own psychological and emotional needs.

The fast pace of our lives, together with our lack of empathy for others and our selfish needs and greed, invite a host of metabolic diseases that impact the quality of our lives.

Dr. Gauri De, the President of the North Kolkata Choturangan Academy, shared her views on how to improve our mental health by changing our attitudes and accepting the truths of life. De. A.K. De finally delivered the vote of thanks at the valedictory session by thanking both speakers and the audience for their positive interactions and kind participation in the seminar.