Pratima Shah

   Life is full of challenges; and we are unprepared most of the times in tough challenging situations. We never know when we may lose a loved one, lose our home / our job / or anything that is dear to us. We take care of our loved ones when they are ill for few days. But what if the illness lasts longer? Can we be cheerful and caring towards them then? No...the stress of the situation threatens our peace of mind and takes away our patience in this challenging situation. It is beyond our capacity to control an illness, prevent earthquakes/ volcanoes/ storms / any natural calamity. But what lies in our capacity is to stay away from despair and fear.    When in doubt we are opening the door to fear. If it is self doubt it is due to the fear of taking a wrong decision or committing a mistake. We fear that we may fail in an exam or in a competition because we doubt our abilities. When we have a fear of accidents / unexpected / unwanted situations, it proves that we ...

   How long can a person survive by being a people pleaser? You don't need to keep on living for others by pleasing them. Whenever one is into this vicious cycle of pleasing the other, the energy level of that person starts depleting. In pleasing others and making them happy you are inviting mental illnesses, frustration, anxiety and depression towards you. The reason is because you cannot say a "NO' when you want to say no. You cannot avoid helping because you feel its your duty to do so. This is detrimental to your peace, your growth and your life. You are not at peace because in doing things for others you put away your commitments / your wishes / your 'me time' and what not. How long are you going to allow others to count on you? It is good to help others and be their for your friends, family or relatives but this habit of pleasing others and being there for them builds an extremely unhealthy pattern in your psyche.    Trying to be there always for yo...

   All that the eye sees is never the truth and all that glitters is not gold. But still we keep on believing the opposite. In the process we always hurt our near and dear ones. It has been an observation that whatever is happening around us is never the reality or the truth. Humans as we are; cruelly judgmental about others and not at all empathetic. We speak of so much but we barely prefer to listen. Most of the times we just hear; we never listen. When we talk of empathy we always keep on putting ourselves at the front to gain empathy. But we don't care a damn to show empathy towards those around us.     This is also a reason why people suffer from mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, OCDs and stress related issues. We are all surrounded by people yet we struggle to open ourselves before someone. This is due to the lack of empathy in our self for others and due to the fear of being exposed before someone. We keep on hiding ourselves from others....

Many youngsters have anxiety issues and this is devastating to the person who is suffering from anxiety and also to those around that person. Anxiety never allows us to enjoy the joys of life - one cannot enjoy nature, cannot enjoy the embrace of a dear one nor can enjoy any moment which a normal happy person can. Anxiety is capable enough to take away your sleep. It can keep you glued to itself and you would lose your concentration in your day to day tasks. Once anxiety takes over you, you are not there in what is happening now in the present. Just because you are not present in that moment you can never relish the flavors of those moments. Anxiety is powerful or say you make it powerful because you never allow yourself to go near or experience the fear that is underlying. You run away from it by dumping yourself body and soul into something - say for example - in eating, in movies, in social media etc. There are many places where you can divert yourself and go. Thus the person t...

In the vulnerable moments of life one makes a mistake of venting out frustration, relationship issues, secrets or any thing related to personal / professional life before a friend. The person never ever realizes that a blunder has been committed in venting things out to someone. For you the conversation has ended but the other party has already started sharing your secrets and spilling out the beans before others. It could be their friend / family/ strangers / colleagues or people from your inner circle. You vented it out thinking that this person would keep it as a secret and the damage is done. You have no clue how to manage the issues that follow after this. You are in a shock as to how could this person go and blab out your secrets to somebody else. In the life of every person there is one such person - a so called stupid friend  who keeps on spilling out the beans and blurts out your secrets and makes you feel embarrassed and awkward. These moments are unfortunate an...

   Many of us have a natural tendency of  getting angry whenever we do not get what we desire. Sometimes it could be due to some person who is blocking our way or it could be due to the obstacles that God has put in our path. Most of us get frustrated in this situation and our frustrated energy gets transferred into anger. Anger against the situation / person / obstacles turn ourselves into angry birds. Anger is a by product that cannot be prevented but one can try things that will help to keep anger away. Never desire anything intensely in life; the more the desires / expectations the more the anger. That doesn't mean that one should not wish or have desires. But even if you desire / wish; do it with a high spirit. If it comes to you then good; if it doesn't then may be its is not the right time or there is something better coming your way. Do not be disappointed at that time and prepare yourself for the upcoming bundle that God has decided to put into your arms. ...

   We as humans are so helpless when anything unwanted by us happens in our lives. We try all means to undo what has been done. Sometimes it is done by us or sometimes God the Almighty does it in our life. Why can't we accept things as they are? We lack this quality of acceptance and do great harm to ourselves. Say for instance, we do not like a particular person who is with us at the workplace. What do we then? We always have conflict and a cold war like situation with that person. This gives stress to us and also to the person. The person is very good at work but just because he/she doesn't match with our thoughts or we have a different perspective related to something so we do not like the person. In such situations how right are we when we harbor resentment against the person? Is it not our fault that we are just judging a person as his/her's  perspectives or opinions do not match with ours.    Why do we expect that everyone should accept everything wha...