“I believe every child comes into this world to help us parents grow and evolve into better human beings. My own journey battling depression helped me unlearn the ways of parenting that I had subconsciously been carrying from my parents.

I think it started when my son became old enough to go to school. I became so lonely and eventually slipped into a depression. But back then, with no awareness I was so scared of letting my son see me cry. I would drive a long distance in my car and find an isolated place to allow myself to cry.

It took an emotional toll and this is when I decided to seek help. I started exploring workshops on parenting. The journey started when I was carrying him but it took a serious turn when I knew I had to do something about my mental health.

The journey that set me on was explorative and immensely educational. I understood that I was carrying so many misconceptions about parenting and they all flew away with each and every workshop that I attended. Parenting is in fact, nothing to do with the child and has everything to do with us as parents.

I understood that I could talk and communicate about my depression with my son in a way that would help him understand better. By hiding important and crucial life events from our children, we are not protecting them; infact, we are very making them dependent on us and rendering them helpless and clueless most of the time.

Parents need to talk to their children about everything. My son and I share a beautiful bond thanks to all the unlearning I did through my explorative journey. Today at 13 years of age, he is quite independent and has developed a sense of empathy and sensitivity to life’s events and people.

And there are different schools of education from Montessori to Waldorf. Each school has its foundation in developing children to develop meaningful relationships with themselves. When I began this journey, I did it with a motive to help myself but now, empowered with the knowledge of all the different people I learnt from, I wanted to spread awareness on this and enable so many other parents on the way.

I started my coaching business about a decade ago and I am still continuing that practice. I currently call myself a holistic parenting life coach and I help parents and individuals to understand themselves better and discover their true authentic selves.

There are many more miles for me to travel but I am so glad to have the ability to play a role in the lives of people. I still consider myself a work in progress because there is just so much I can still improve on and work for. Sky is indeed the limit to far we can go with respect to our individual journeys but I am here for it.”

#Depression #Mentalhealth #awareness #journey #hope #motivation #chennai #HumansofMadras