IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) Kerala Chapter in association with Mind Empowered organized a session ‘Recharge Without Charge ’ on Saturday, 30th April 2022 from 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM IST. The session had two segments. The first part was an interactive session on Stress Management by Ms. Anu Suraj who is a Mental Health Worker and is the Vice-president of the Kerala Mental Health Council. The second part was an insightful session namely ‘Ask me Anything’ which was to voice out the worries anonymously with Dr. Femi Abdulla who is a Psychiatrist at Futureace Hospital, Kochi. The specific objective of the event was to provide a proper introduction to help the attendees master the art of managing stress. 

To commence the event, Ms. Veena R from the Student Team of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter cordially invited Ms. Sreela Menon, Cofounder of Mind Empowered to address everyone with a welcome note. Ms. Sreela Menon accepted the invitation and on the behalf of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter welcomed and invited the respected resource person for the first session. In response to the invitation, Ms.Anu Suraj came forward for the session. Following the session, the platform was opened for Q&A. Mr.Anu addressed all the queries with detailed explanations. A virtual photograph was also taken as a souvenir of the great session. Following the session, Ms. Sreela Menon played a small introduction video on Mind Empowered. After that she welcomed  Dr. Femi Abdulla for the next session, namely, Ask me Anything where she answered the questions asked through an anonymous platform. Finally, thanking both the speakers for the wonderful sessions, a virtual memento was presented to them as a token of gratitude on behalf of the IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter. With the event reaching its conclusion, Ms. Veena invited Ms. Maya Menon, Design and  Publicity lead of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter for a thanking note. In response to that, Ms. Maya came forward and expressed gratitude to the resource person and all the attendees on behalf of the IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter. With that thanking note, the event was concluded.

The beneficiaries of the event were primarily the student and professional members of the IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter. The session was open to all regardless of their domain so that it could be beneficial for students from various other fields. Around 50+ attendees actively participated in the session. With her years of experience working as a mental health worker, Ms.Anu Suraj has great expertise in mentoring youngsters and children for good mental health practices. Through the session, she gave an overview of the presence of stress in daily life, and how to identify and cope with it. To give more insight into the topic, she also gave a brief idea on the various warning signs of stress and explained a few methods to manage stress including mindfulness, managing time and being assertive, positive distractions, journaling, etc. Through the platform to ask anonymous questions several questions were raised of which all the questions were answered by Dr. Femi Abdulla who is a Psychiatrist at Futureace Hospital, Kochi. This session helped to clear many doubts from the minds of the participants. It was advised to seek professional help for any sort of mental health issues rather than bottling up.

In short, the interactive session hosted by IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter was very relevant and successful in helping the participants identify the stressors and manage them. And also they got an opportunity to interact and clear the doubts regarding mental health and well-being for a better life and the betterment of humanity.