Psych Junction

One day a young married HIV infected person shared with me that she was depressed and wanted to end her life as people around her thought that she was unfaithful to her spouse. The real reason we found out later was that she had undergone multiple surgical procedures in the last 4 years to conceive a baby. Her  Depression was real. The same evening, I met a young working adult who also shared being depressed and wanted to end his life. The reason being his team lead did not like him and spoke sternly to him as he had missed meeting his target consistently for the last 3 days. His Depression was also real.           A little paradoxical as it may sound the reasons may be diverse however the manifestation is real. Being Sad, Unhappy or Depressed especially in young working adults is very a common complaint with phraseology “I am depressed because……… Sometimes the reasons are manageable and sometimes they are not. As a mental health expert,...

I felt  kind of strange when I overheard this phrase at an airport where a fellow passenger was giving this advice to someone on the phone that it was better to move on to another job as they were offering a better pay and other benefits like good work life balance. It set me thinking, why we crave for a better condition, better pay, better life style, less stress and more free time to spend with our significant people. Do we really want that or are we doing this because there are herds of people speaking the same, wishing the same, complaining the same, not doing enough to change their present.   Grass (here it refers to work) is of the same color everywhere on this planet (Corporate World), everywhere we would have targets to meet, perform better then the last time , cost less , save more , bring in efficiency. A  Cow in the Indian context is a life saver, because it gives milk and sustains a family. A working   individual to certain extent behaves in a simila...

A n elephant chained in its growing years continues to remain in check throughout its adult life for it thinks the chain is unbreakable. Remarkable as it may seem the strength of chain is no match for the mighty elephant yet the huge beast remains contained always.  No questions asked.     This is common for us humans as well. We remain confined, limited without questioning the validity of the chain which contains us. In the name of rules, rituals, practices, traditions, dogmas. We remain held, captive for our entire life or generations which follow through us. This proverbial chain is an unique collection of our past experiences both good and bad, individual and collective across the humankind almost ingrained or imprinted on our DNA. It keeps us safe and away from risk, neatly cocooned in our comfort zone. It also keeps the huge mammoth of potential dreams, unlimited creative possibilities and life changing decisions blissfully...

A n ancient sage slept and dreamt he was a fish, when he woke up he was enlightened, free from the worldly bondage… Now he doesn’t know if he is a human who dreamt being a fish, or a fish dreaming a human existence…  Sleep those magical hours of our daily lives where we have no control over our actions or consciousness to understand all that happens to us. It is that part of our alive experience which is on an automatic mode. Fascinating as it is, in those hours of our time we don’t argue, fight, cry, crib, complain, worry, resent, grab, rape, kill, bribe or plot devious strategies. We simply sleep…    Every day we experience a period of 6 to 8 hours, restful, rejuvenating sleep. It is a miraculous phase of our daily existence where the body recharges itself. Millions of cells in the body repair, reorganize, and restore themselves to take on the challenges of the daily living. It the most honest phase of self development. The only time of the day whe...

I n order to supply fresh fish caught far into the oceans, a long distance of many days from the coastlines; fishermen in Japan have water tanks built in their ships to store the catch alive. In addition they put a few sharks into the pool which keeps the fish alive, agile and tasting fresh. Connecting this to our daily lives what are those things which keeps us alive agile and kicking? Years ago a very close family friend of mine in a casual conversation about settling down in our respective professional and personal lives said to me ‘Deepak Only Mud Settles’. Her statement has stayed with me since then. Only Mud Settles! This is my mantra to kick start myself when faced with complacency. Life has a very uncanny way of throwing challenges at us, we finish school , get into college, complete graduation, go into post graduation , get a job , start climbing the career ladder, get married, have kids and cycle starts all over again for our kids. Somewhere along the line r...

   A spiritual teacher was preaching under a tree to a mass gathering quoting various stories parables and texts from the holy books. Amongst the crowd was a young man seeking directions to life. The teacher uttered his favorite quote “Ask and you shall receive, Seek and you shall find…….” The young lad was deeply moved and devoted his life for seeking the truth. Many years later the boy returned to the same place as an Enlightened One and inquired with an old man sitting there about the teacher who preached years ago sharing how his teachings had put him on the path for seeking truth. The old man looked at the Enlightened One and said “Please bless me and take me in your fold, I am the same man who for years has kept on repeating the same stories to over thousands of people, it didn’t change me or them, but it made a difference to you.”   Each of us speak to share, to direct, to motivate, to seek counsel, to give counsel, to reprimand, to communicate,...

A monkey on a tree hurled a coconut at the head of a Sage. The Sage picked it up, drank the milk, ate the flesh, made a bowl from the shell and continued on his onward journey…… Many a times in work life we get a continuous feed of ‘Criticism’ from people around us which is critical information about us, our working styles, gaps in process and ways to improve them. The astonishing part is that this information comes as personalized attacks or statements ridiculing the way things were handled by us and the distress or perceived loss it caused. The immediate reaction is to defend ourselves and our team and push the blame on someone else, in the bargain the information, its essence, its intelligence, its richness is completely lost to us. Criticism is Critical information about us, our work in a clumsy wrapping. What we do about it is entirely up to us. We may choose to accept and improvise our gaps, or simply keep it aside. In either case we need to have the gra...