“Once you find someone to share your ups and downs with, all your downs will be as good as ups.”- Robert Brault.
Sharing thoughts, letting out your emotions and being the authentic you, are absolutely necessary to live a life to the fullest. Finding someone to share your feelings without being judged is one of the greatest treasures of life, be it a friend, family member, mentor or guide.
Meet Vishnupriya (name changed), an 18-year-old Fashion Technology student at the prestigious IIAD. Born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Vishnupriya has lived in Maharashtra for the past 14 to 15 years. She is currently in the first year of her college and lives in Delhi for her studies.
“I come from a nuclear family of 4 consisting of my parents and brother. I am the closest to my brother and we share a deep and loving bond.”
Vishnupriya’s hobbies include singing and creating mandala art, proving she’s a born artist who has an active artistic side.
Vishnupriya learned about the YourDOST platform through her college which has collaborated with the organisation as their official mental health partner. She explored the platform thoroughly and decided to book a session.
“I met Ms Ahana Dutta on the YourDOST platform and chose her as my therapist. I connected with her well from the first few sessions itself.”
She describes herself as a socially anxious person who dreads speaking to new people for the first time. Gradually, she lowered her guard and became comfortable with her therapist to start opening up about her issues.
“I opted for therapy to share my feelings and emotions in a healthy way to a professional and learn to open up better. I was extremely sceptical when it came to being open about my thoughts and getting opinions from others. People may have misunderstood my demeanour as being a withdrawn person but it was just me being frantic about the idea of speaking to them.”
Ms Ahana created a safe space for Vishnupriya which became her haven to vent out things and express her feelings better. She was over the fear of being judged or a breach of confidentiality gradually by spending more time with her therapist and navigating her way out of her fears and doubts.
Once a person starts sharing about themselves with a person they trust, the listener becomes a confidant or even a mentor to the speaker as they discuss more and more about their issues and ways to tackle them together. Sharing concerns with a professional will yield much better results and solutions to follow in life.
“Ahana helped me bring changes into my personality with the help of some techniques that pushed me towards being a better version of myself. I was advised to practice the breathing exercises to tackle my racing thoughts and anxiousness, and help me calm down before expressing myself.”
Vishnupriya became a master of analysing and writing down her thoughts with the help of the journaling technique administered by her therapist. This technique helped her learn about her emotions better and collect her thoughts in a structured manner before she acted on them.
“All these techniques helped me calm down and deal with things that bothered me without escaping or dodging them in life.”
Vishnupriya gradually experienced positive changes in her demeanour that helped her grow as a person. She became more compassionate about herself and her surroundings, all the while understanding different perspectives on things and relating with them better. She learned to navigate through her emotions and positively channel them.
“Apart from my friends she was my safe space with zero judgements and a lot of compassion and I am grateful for it. Ms Ahana is my mentor and confidant in the same person and I could not be more thankful for YourDOST to have given me a chance to get insights from such a person.”
Vishnupriya has come a long way in terms of feeling better about herself and rates her 4 out of 5 in the realm. She envisions improvement as self-corrections and improvement as every change begins from within before reflecting on the outside.
We at YourDOST are honoured to be a part of Vishnupriya’s journey and wish her the best for the future.
Vishnupriya’s Warrior Tips:
1.“Always seek therapy when you feel being a completely alien version of yourself and understand yourself better.”
2.“Be hopeful and patient about the results as all good things take time and this is no different.”
