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 doubt God who is th

   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. Despite of having f

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