The meaning of progress Therapy is a journey of continually expanding self-awareness – in relation to one’s own psyche, and also in relation to who one is with other persons. By practising being with emotions and sensations that emerge in us in the therapy session, we nourish our capacity to stay with uncomfortable emotions and sensations generally in life, both in our solitude and in…
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Images of awareness
On a walk today morning, some images offered by various psychologists, spiritual teachers and artists came to mind. Coming to awareness is like taking a walk in the forest, where two friends walk together and talk of what matters the most in their lives. The aliveness and fullness of the forest offers them a space of infinite possibility – anything new can peek out from…
The body in therapy
Hello, how do you feel today? Let us do an experiment. Take a pause. And slowly feel how it is to be in your body. Feel your chest rise up and down with your breath. Feel your abdomen. See how your consciousness pours out from your eyes to these words on the screen. How the internet makes us so excessively visual. See how your mind…
“Do I have a mental illness?”
It’s the beginning of winter again. It is that time of the year when pollution levels in North India cross anything that is humanly acceptable. We breathe in up to ten times as much smoke as we should. We are all chain smokers, unless we have the financial resources to be cooped up in our rooms with air purifiers. Imagine you sit out on the…
A walk in the forest
The client and therapist are like two friends going for a walk in the forest, and in the peace of the forest, talking about what matters most to their lives on this earth. Surely, the client talks of his life, and the therapist listens. The therapist does not reveal a lot about his own life. Yet, the therapist is as present in this walk as…
The meditative life
Hello. Welcome to this page. How do you read this word? This one. And this one? Are you fully here, or are you thinking of the next click, the next glance, what you are going to do in the moment just about to occur? Are you thinking of what you want rather than what you have in front of you. Let us quieten down together….
On death and suicide
Facebook post on 15 June, 2020. A rising star dies. He has decided to end his life. My Facebook timeline fills up with shock and grief. With messages about that term ‘mental health’ which seems to be everywhere these days. In a month and a half, we have seen many beloveds from the cinema die. Irrfan, Rishi Kapoor, Yogesh, Basu Chatterjee. Now Sushant, who took…
Animals and the inner life
Inexhaustibly deep eyes stare at me in curiosity, wonder, and perhaps some moral judgement – “Hooman, are you going to get off your busy bum and give me something nice to eat?” At other times, the eyes are half open, half closed, as my friend sits with her limbs folded in, in silent contemplation. A soft purr comes from her if you put your ear…
The face of death
I first met Arpita three months ago. She is 50 years old, a surgeon by profession. She lost her younger sister to death in January, just a few days before we met. Outwardly, Arpita is strong, organized and in charge of life, and takes care of what her loved ones need. She takes care of the needs of her elderly parents and relatives, and her…
Therapy in times of quarantine
A young woman sits on the other side of the screen, a bare wall behind her. Her voice is interrupted because of a slow connection. I cannot always hear what she says. She often asks me to repeat what I say. Yet, there is a palpable presence that she has. The eagerness to open her heart out to another human being. The fear of being…