“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” – Aristotle
The first step towards understanding your surroundings is understanding yourself. The more you go deeper into your being, the more you know your naked soul and who you are. Meet our warrior Gahna, who began the quest of discovering herself through the power of therapy, and succeeded in her goal!
The 21-year-old hails from Bareilly, UP and currently resides in Chennai for her studies. Gahna is a student at the prestigious Vellore Institute of Technology, doing her Btech.
She has a decent relationship with her family which has its own share of ups and downs.
“I love travelling and meeting new people, talk to them and learn their experiences. I am also a foodie and love to get my precious sleep whenever possible!”
Gahna, just like all of us was after her dreams and started adulting slowly and it was around this time that she wanted to get to know herself better and decided to seek professional help.
“I wanted to learn more about my thoughts and feelings and the root of their onsets. I had some vulnerable points which I wanted to know more about, so I approached therapy. I looked forward to getting a third-person perspective and improving myself from within.”
Gahna wanted to improve her thinking processes and the way she analyses situations for her betterment. She was going through an anxious phase in life where a lot of things were going around her. She faced some relationship issues with people that generally happened in the early 20s era and wanted to know about her early triggers and the onset of her negative thoughts.
“I discovered the YourDOST platform through my institution, which collaborates with the organisation as their official mental health partner. I met my therapist, Ms Aditi Kothari on the platform and couldn’t have taken a better step.”
Gahna connected with Ms Aditi a lot better than she expected. She described her therapist as an active listener and adamant about asking questions to understand her thinking patterns better.
“I was curious about the therapeutic process and wanted to learn more about its benefits.”
Ms Aditi helped her get acquainted with therapy and helped her take a stand in situations where she was struggling. Gahna learned about drawing out boundaries and learnt to say no wherever needed.
“I learned about the importance of understanding the initial triggers of my anxious thoughts and analysing them. I gradually learned how to vent and express my feelings in the open and process them in a better way, rather than keeping them bottled up in me.”
Gahna began having a deep understanding of her thoughts and feelings from a 360-degree perspective. She realised that not everything in the world is exactly black and white as there can be grey areas too. She figured out her emotions in a better way and started seeing things from a broader perspective.
“Before meeting Ms Aditi, I had talked to a few other therapists, but I found to be the one who had the most effect on me. She questioned my questions about my emotions and helped me find techniques to analyse myself. I’m grateful to have found and picked her to be my therapist. She is the most empathetic and active listener I’ve ever come across.”
Gahna is in a really happy place now and rates herself a solid 4 out of 5 in terms of feeling better. She envisions improvement as moving forward in life no matter what. We, at YourDOST, are proud of her growth and wish her all the best for future endeavours!
Gahna’s Warrior Tips:
1.“ Talk it out, be it to a human being, animal, plant, or environment. Let it all out in the open instead of suffering in silence.”
2.“Remember everything passes by, like day and night, so as a bad night gives way to a good day, be patient and this too shall pass.”
