Hello

A lot of people have asked me this question in the last few months, about why did I start a venture in the mental health space. So I decided to share my story around it here.

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Three years ago, I could sense my stress levels at an all time high, I could feel palpitations, heartburn, I couldn’t sleep well, I would snap at my family, felt like I was on the edge all the time. My anxiety levels were through the roof and I was completely burnt out. I started having breakdowns where I would cry for a few hours at a time.

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This was the time when I felt I was losing control over my life and as if my own mental health was slipping. I finally decided to take a break from everything that was putting me in that dark place. I quit my job and I took a mental break for a month from everything. I caught up on sleep, read a little, caught up on some shows that could uplift me, spent time with my family. I had nightmares about things that used to stress me out even a month after this. But gradually things got better.

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It was this experience coupled with the fact that some of my very closest friends have battled mental health issues for years now. Back then, when we were in school or college, we never understood the concept of ‘mental health’ and neither did my friends nor did I ever know what to do about it. I always felt helpless around them, I wanted to help but could never understand what exactly I could do to make them feel better. I have seen friends having panic attacks and go into spirals of crippling anxiety. I wanted to create something that they and everyone else could use before things get so bad.

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In our country, therapy is not necessarily something everyone resorts to and there is still a stigma around ‘mental health’. Keeping that in mind, I wanted to create a space which could offer wellness as a daily routine as a preventive measure to everyone and hence Healing Together was born.

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The idea was to look at wellness as a whole, not just focus on the body but also take care of the mind. I consulted several practitioners, therapists and experts and also did my research about the benefits of alternate therapies in managing stress and anxiety. Finally I zeroed in one 4 alternate therapies which involves yoga, mindfulness, meditation and expressive arts therapy.

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Where we spend so much time stressing about our body, our weight, doing a detox, watching our diet, its insane that we don’t think about the mind in the same way. That we don’t take mind breaks, we don’t watch our thoughts, we allow ourselves to slip into negative patterns and thoughts and don’t do enough to handle the stress and anxiety in our lives.

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I wanted to create something simple and interactive that one could easily incorporate into their daily life that would become a wellness routine. Also, the most important thing I wanted to do was to create something that works as a preventive measure for mental health issues. When I say mental health issues, I don’t necessarily mean mental illnesses like Schizophrenia or Bipolar etc that require medical attention and intervention but rather the stress, anxiety, borderline depression that we end up facing on an ongoing basis. I wanted to create something that helps us deal with our stressors better, with our emotions better, especially the negative emotions of fear, anger, sadness etc. Yes! It is possible to get better at managing our emotions through these practices.

The most difficult part of a wellness routine remains consistency and so the program was designed in a way to incorporate consistency into it.

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I undertook courses myself, to experience and train myself in the areas of mindfulness and meditation.

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To sum it all up, I have had a transformational journey. I am much more calm now, more resilient, not as emotionally volatile now. I have been able to dial down the chatter in my head, take restful breaks and have created plenty of spaces for introspection and reflection. I feel more connected with myself than ever before. Its not that I don’t face stressful situations at times but the difference now is that I am able to handle it better, it doesn’t overwhelm me anymore and the most important thing is that it remains fleeting. It doesn’t have a hold on me anymore.

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I really hope that everyone incorporates some or the other wellness routine / self-care routine in their daily life, at times you might think you don’t need it or that you can’t make the time for it, at those times, think of it as an emergency fund you build on the good day, for a rainy day. You don’t wait for a crisis, to start saving, rather you save when you are doing well and can put aside some money. Wellness is also similar, you don’t start when you hit rock bottom, coz trust me, at that time it would be a lot more difficult to find the motivation to even get out of bed. Start now, even if you think you are doing well and stay consistent and I can assure you, it will hold you in good stead in the tough times.