‘Drops in the ocean’ because it is important to remember that even though each human being is an autonomous entity, we are all in the end very much interconnected and interdependent. In a world in which one’s happiness is expected to be defined based on where they are at the career ladder or on what their income looks like, our participants proposed returning back to the basics: kindness, access to our social rights (healthcare, financial security, quality housing), community belonging, inclusive societies, a work-life balance, the contact with nature and acknowledging and addressing generational and collective trauma.

The final session was centred at large around three main pillars –education, community and active participation– and their ability to achieve change. The participants agreed that the dominant educational systems are not fit for purpose, as they are structured in a way that serves the needs of the market rather than those of the people receiving it. Education should be able to cultivate empathy and critical thinking, to prioritise learning and the well-being of students and to create inclusive societies.

Young people also have the need to belong, to be heard and understood, to connect and to co-create, but they are lacking the necessary spaces to do so. They propose that community-organised youth centres including common areas such as community kitchens and gardens be created.

It comes as no surprise that our Congress’s participants believe in the power of active participation in achieving mentally healthier societies. Participants proposed starting small by setting concrete, short-term, easier to achieve goals and moving slowly towards more ambitious ones in order to gain confidence and experience in advocacy and community organising on the way. An easy thing one could do on an individual level starting already tomorrow is to be more conscious about who they vote for.

Last but not least, a relatively small change one can make which could however have a tremendous impact on our mental health is to stop only questioning the dominant economic-political-social system and start working towards uprooting it instead. The delegates discussed how investing in cooperatives could structurally change the notion of ownership and the way of co-existing, of living and working together, in societies of solidarity instead of competition.

A beautiful moment of the workshop was the game where the participants threw three packages of knitting wool to each other, creating a ball of red, green and blue tangled threads. These threads represented the personal, the political and the practical – three spheres that coexist inextricably in a constant exchange and affect to a greater or lesser extent the mental health of all of us.