I spent 6 months as a mental health volunteer in an Indian prison. — In 2017, I was given the opportunity to go to an Indian prison and work as a mental health volunteer for the female inmates. The main aim of the weekly visits was to provide the women with an emphatic, listening ear while taking their complaints to the legal consultant of…

The 3 step process that would help you polish your writing piece — I have been a proponent of the Socratic questioning since I discovered the concept while studying CBT or Cognitive Behavior Therapy in my psychology classes. The Socratic questions are considered to be the pillars of the CBT technique. As the name suggests, it involves creating a dialogue with the client…

Please STOP reading these articles. — The Part Where I Met My Friend Back in high school, I did not have a lot of friends. I struggled with intimacy. While I talked to a lot of people and mingled with a variety of groups, I could never open up to anyone about my personal struggles. All my friendships stayed at a superficial level. …

It is not just about wearing pajamas. — I got my first job in 2021, right after graduating from college. Thanks to the pandemic, it is entirely remote. Since then I have been enjoying Work from Home where I wake up at 8 am for a 9 am meeting, never wear anything other than pajamas, take relaxing afternoon…

My 3 step guide to starting and building consistency. — I took a very long break from Medium last year. I published my last story in March 2021 and then I could not maintain the consistency of publishing 10 articles a month. …

Fear is a normal response to this situation. — Before I went for my first ever therapy session, I was petrified. The years of stigma and misinformation about mental health in my country made it difficult to share my experience with others. To be honest, I had very little information about mental illnesses and psychotherapy. My 15 years of…

And how I still continued to earn money. — I published my last story on Medium in March 2021. It was a story very close to my heart where I shared my personal experience of getting into writing in Middle school. I poured my heart and soul into those words. However, after that, I just could not write anything…

Her little attention and appreciation still fuel my writing. — I started creative writing when I was very young and could hardly distinguish between ‘their’ and ‘there’. My first story consisted of fairies and magical lands and was a rip-off of cartoon shows such as Winx club and Barbie Mariposa. I wrote it on the backside of my old, almost-torn…

As a result, I am never out of stories to write. — I have been writing on Medium for almost 7 months now. In this duration, I have written about 80+ stories, with 125 half-written articles.