“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it.” —Nicholas Sparks
We have all had our chances with expressing our feelings. Some of us learn to do it early while for the rest of us, it feels like a never-ending treasure hunt. We are all trying to understand how to contemplate the world we live in.
Rahul is a 21-year-old from Maharashtra and is a final-year student. He is currently living in Panipat, Delhi. He is a wanderer and is always after meanings.
“I had a normal childhood, mostly because of my family as they have been a pillar of support.”
Rahul comes from a humble family of four. He has an elder brother who has completed his MBA, his father has been in the service and his mom is a homemaker.
Hobbies help us follow patterns and keep up a habit. It is a vital aspect of our cognitive development and moulds our personalities by engaging us in challenges and conversations.
Rahul’s array of hobbies includes designing and physical sketches. He also wishes to make a career out of it and has participated in multiple competitions and has represented his talents.
While he invested his time in upskilling a lot of his childhood issues slowly started taking shape in his present life. This left Rahul feeling anxious most of the time.
“I was searching for my summer internship and I always had issues with public communication and professional etiquette.”
He articulates that he was not a great public speaker growing up, as he would often do things by himself and was in his creative zone. Rahul also mentions experiencing aspects of disappointment, shivering in his body, hopelessness, and anxiety attacks.
“I am an introvert and did things by myself. There was never really an opportunity for me to speak up, and when had to I would experience these issues and decided to speak to somebody.”
Sometimes the things we are on the hunt for is usually right in front of us and it takes time for us to realise them. It almost feels like a void, with no place to start or end.
Rahul describes that his college had sent him an email regarding free counseling services with YourDOST as his college had a free counseling subscription.
“I decided to take up counseling sessions for personal growth and decided to come forward and seek professional help.”
Making decisions about therapy does not come easy and it surely requires courage, especially for somebody like Rahul who was figuring himself out and his emotions.
He decided to book his first session with his counselor Ms. Rinita who embraced him and created a non-judgemental space and listened to his feelings.
Rahul came to terms with his issues and decided to take a step towards working on them with the help of his counselor and the techniques she suggested.
“I was constantly stuck with the thought that if I keep doing this mistake I will be lagging and everybody else would be moving forward.”
Rahul explains that the techniques Ms. Rinita suggested include Mirror Techniques, and writing down thoughts, on what makes him nervous before an interview.
While changes are something that happens over time, Rahul was able to witness a lot of it around him.
“I was able to understand my inner thoughts better and that boosted my confidence levels. It helped me become an expressive person and I am very happy that I spoke to my counselor.”
He also mentions that his progress did have a lot of downfalls and things would often go south. He used to often feel stuck throughout and would get into overthinking patterns.
“I am a changed person now and it is just a step closer towards my overall development.”
Rahul’s words of gratitude to his counselor:
“I was able to become aware of my thoughts and 80% of my problems felt solved already after communicating.”
The brave new future always starts with small steps, and this is quite relevant to Rahul’s story. He looked at things from a different perspective and explored his inner self
When we asked Rahul to rate himself on a scale of 1 to 5, he rated himself with a 3 on a scale of 5 in terms of feeling better.
Rahul’s Warrior Tips:
1.”You can only learn from your failures and the more you invest time into working on them, the better are your results.”
2.”Try to be more understanding than brushing your problems off.”
3.”Do not be shy to take therapy, because it is a safe zone and your information will be kept confidential, you will not be judged.”
