{"id":16191,"date":"2021-02-10T01:08:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T19:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=16191"},"modified":"2021-04-29T12:50:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T07:20:25","slug":"somya-lockdown-warrior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/somya-lockdown-warrior.html","title":{"rendered":"One Act of Kindness Helped Somya Start a Positive Change Reaction of Change in Her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16195\" src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/warriorstory-blog-SomyaGoel-cover.jpg\" alt=\"warriorstory-blog-SomyaGoel-cover\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Confident, practical, kind, students\u2019 body vice president and a law student at Bennett University, Somya Goel, 21, had everything in life near perfection. But when the 2020 lockdown happened, she found a side of hers that didn\u2019t fit well with the situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI&#8217;m a person who loves exploring, so sitting in one place for a very long time wasn\u2019t my thing.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Right from her undergrad days at Delhi University, Somya as the president of her department had been a part of many mental health based events and there was one thing that always got her wondering &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I was a part of NSS (National Service Scheme) at DU, there were times when I\u2019d come across people\u2019s concerns and think, hey, this happens with me too. Why is it that I\u2019ve never thought of seeking counselling whereas they have?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>And when she was introduced to YourDOST at Bennett University, listening to the orientation behind her screen, she knew that she was going to need therapy as lockdown impacts had started to creep into her routine.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During lockdown when I was confined to my room, I tried to do a lot of things. I tried to paint, cook, engage with all the VP commitments. Yet somehow, I couldn&#8217;t divert my mind. I used to cry a lot.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>At this time, Somya noticed a change that she had no answer to and absolutely disliked the phase her feelings were putting her into.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEven if I\u2019d get a chance to go out, I&#8217;d prefer to sit in my room and feel upset about not going out. Basic family issues and study pressure which never affected me so much before started putting me on edge.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Under the roof of confinement, Somya also found herself in a loop where she would distract herself for some time and her problems would crawl back to her after a few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Somya also tried contacting her close friends but her thoughts restrained her from sharing concerns with them. Having known them for a long period of time, she felt that she knew the kind of response she\u2019d get from them and that wouldn\u2019t be of much use.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt&#8217;s like when you&#8217;ve been with someone for a very long time, you know that particular person is going to say this particular thing on this particular issue. My friends are too connected to me and will see things from my eyes. They won&#8217;t see things from a different perspective.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when Somya realised that she\u2019d prefer talking to someone who\u2019d have a better knowledge about how she can deal with certain situations. Her counselling sessions slowly started helping her untie the knots.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was overthinking a lot. I would have a lot on my mind, but while sharing I couldn&#8217;t utter a word. So when I got an option to talk over voice call\/messages\/video call &#8211; I preferred talking over messages and I\u2019m so glad that it helped me kick-start.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16193 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/warriorstory-blog-SomyaGoel-2.jpg\" alt=\"warriorstory-blog-SomyaGoel-2\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1250\/654;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Together with her counsellor, Somya began to unwind her mind. The expert helped her realise that it was her negative approach towards things that had her over-analyzing everything and that she needs to start embracing positivity.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;My expert was very friendly, made me feel comfortable in just a few messages and the questions she asked were very open-ended, that gave me a lot of scope to talk. I got only a few messages from her and there were 50 messages of mine but those few of hers were very open-ended and more like you tell, I&#8217;m listening.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Now that Somya was on her way to self-reflection, she began with talking to herself about her problems and all the good things around her. This helped her accept her fears and speak out more openly.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAs suggested by my expert, I actually penned down my problems. I thought if not to someone else, then I should convey my problems at least to myself, to begin with. I felt much composed and positive.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>While Somya was on her path to a better self, not only did she work on her problems but also encouraged two of her friends to seek counselling as they were going through similar issues.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAnd those two, in turn, suggested two more of their relatives to consider seeking support. It was like we had started a chain reaction of change. \u201c<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>One amazing technique that Somya adopted after her counselling sessions was to remind herself of all the good days she had in order to feel better whenever she felt blue.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16194 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/warriorstory-blog-SomyaGoel-3.jpg\" alt=\"warriorstory-blog-SomyaGoel-3\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1250\/654;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI started putting a calendar next to my bed where I created 3 emojis for days- Green (Very Good), Orange (Good) and Yellow (Bad). Whenever my day went extremely good, it\u2019d mark it on my calendar as Green. So whenever I was upset, I&#8217;d look at my calendar and think of all the Green and Orange days and that\u2019d give me a positive boost.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Somya\u2019s dedication to move towards positivity has truly helped her shine brighter. She loves encouraging others and has one crucial advice for those who aren\u2019t sure of reaching out to counsellors despite their concerns &#8211;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can\u2019t blame people. We all grew up in Indian society with the fear of judgement but here\u2019s what matters &#8211; when it has become so convenient that you can sit in your room and talk to a counsellor online about your well-being, why not? No one will know that you&#8217;ve consulted a counsellor and that&#8217;s the beauty of anonymity.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She believes that the major fear is not about opening up, the fear is about &#8216;log kya kahenge&#8217; (what will people think) and when people can talk to a counsellor from the comfort of their home, no one will get to know and hence, who\u2019s to judge?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYourDOST is the best thing that happened to me in 2020. I\u2019m glad.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>Are you someone who has gone through a difficult phase and emerged stronger and better, with some professional help? Share your story with us to encourage thousands of others who might be struggling.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/YouAreAWarrior\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/mailtrack.io\/trace\/link\/065ec597a859167bbbc9a84e0ddf866ad1a161de?url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fbit.ly%252FYDWarriorSubmit%26userId%3D1852375%26signature%3D2b9d706410e0cb4d&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1602227678527000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEo1c5sL-Kp_Dlc-izda4Wn5QuDeg\" data-mt-detrack-inspected=\"true\" data-mt-detrack-attachment-inspected=\"true\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"click-here-link\">click here<\/a><\/a>\u00a0to submit your story.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"background-color: #91908f; width: 100%; padding: 25px; border-color: #white; border-width: 1px;\"><strong>Somya\u2019s Warrior Tips:<br \/>\n1.\u00a0Counselling is not a very big step. It&#8217;s just a different step in terms of what you actually think<br \/>\n2.\u00a0Take a minute, take a pause and think about yourself for 5 min and then think do you need it?<br \/>\n3. ounsellors are not ghosts. The way you&#8217;d talk to your people, talk to them in a similar way. Only here you&#8217;ll get a different perspective, a long-term benefit.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Confident, practical, kind, students\u2019 body vice president and a law student at Bennett University, Somya Goel, 21, had everything in life near perfection. But when the 2020 lockdown happened, she found a side of hers that didn\u2019t fit well with the situation.\u00a0 \u201cI&#8217;m a person who loves exploring, so sitting in one place for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-growth","category-time-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}