Our days are filled with real problems. These are the problems that need our attention. A child who needs help with their studies. A budget that does not quite balance. A misunderstanding with a loved one that waits to be mended. A body that needs exercise and care. These problems are here. They are present. They ask for our time and our effort. But our mind has a different agenda. Our mind often wanders away from these real problems. It becomes obsessed with problems of its

Pay attention to the stories you tell yourself when you are idle. Listen to the daydreams that play like a private movie in your mind. These are not just random distractions. These fantasies are a secret language. They are the unspoken hunger of your psyche. If you find yourself constantly fantasising about rescuing people from a disaster, you may be hungry to be a hero. You may be longing for a sense of profound purpose and public recognition. You may feel that your daily ac

When a child acts out, our first instinct is often to correct. We lecture. We moralize. We berate. We operate from a curative mindset, one that sees the behaviour as a problem to be fixed, a wrong to be righted. And so often, it doesn’t work. We are left frustrated, they are left resentful, and the root of the behaviour remains untouched. What if we swapped that instinct? What if, before we corrected, we got curious? A curious mindset does not see a problem to be solved. It s

We repeat the phrase like a mantra: "𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛." We say it, we hear it, and we nod. We accept it as the whole truth. But it is only a partial truth. A more complete truth is that life is a blend of the certain and the uncertain. We simply forget to look at the certain half. Our past is certain. It is a finished story, for better or worse. The home we return to each evening is certain. The ground beneath our feet, the geography of our city, the rising of

· In the middle of a crisis, the mind plays a cruel trick. It whispers that this difficulty is all there is, and all there ever will be. A conflict at work feels like a career in ruins. A fight with a loved one feels like the end of the relationship. A financial setback feels like a lifelong sentence to scarcity. In our pain, we lose a vital perspective. We forget to ask a simple, grounding question: 𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐧

Two similar incidents happened recently showing me how to avoid forgetting some jobs. On day 1, my nephew called me up after leaving home to say that he had forgotten his reading glasses and could I get it for him as I was following him to the office an hour later. I assured him, I would get it and halfway through my shaving, I went to his room picked up his glasses and put it into my bag and then continued my shaving. Mission accomplished. On another day of the same week, he

Often we have to give money to our dependents such as spouse, children, parents, siblings, friends etc. How should we give it? Whether we acknowledge it or not, money is associated with a lot of emotions. Money coveys power, authority, dependency, ownership, subordination depending on which side of the giving-taking you are. Giving and taking the money can be a minefield in a relationship even if the exchange is legitimate. Giving and taking goods/things do not carry the same

A child does not learn what is right. A child learns what is normal. And for a child, normal is a simple thing. It is what happens at home. It is the background rhythm of their days, the unspoken rules that govern the people they trust most. They are silent, constant observers, and every action they see is a lesson in what the world is and how one should behave in it. When a parent interrupts another person while they are talking, the child learns that this is normal. They le

There is a misery that has a clear address. It lives in the body that is failing, in the bank account that is empty, in the home that is unsafe. This misery is made of real circumstances, of tangible hardship and undeniable pain. It is the misery of a difficult reality, a situation that causes genuine suffering. This kind of misery demands a real-world solution. It requires a doctor, a new source of income, a courageous escape, and a practical change. To heal this misery, we

Recently concluded a workshop on Guilt, where we talked about how to shield yourselves when people try to make you feel guilty. Conversation can sometimes feel like a walk through a hidden thicket. You are moving along, sharing words, and suddenly you feel the sharp sting of a barb. It is a comment designed not to communicate, but to wound. It is meant to make you feel guilty, to make you feel small, to make you feel lousy. "𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 �

We’ve all been there. Someone drops a seemingly innocent comment that instantly makes your blood boil. Maybe it’s a backhanded compliment, a guilt trip, or outright sarcasm—whatever the form, their words are designed to get a reaction out of you. The truth? They’re baiting you. And the moment you take it, you’ve handed them control over your emotions. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺) 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐩 "If you’re too la

These days, words like narcissist, toxic, gaslighting, and depression are thrown around casually in everyday conversations. While mental health awareness is a positive shift, the overuse and misuse of these clinical terms can do more harm than good. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 **If someone lies or acts selfishly, they’re instantly branded a narcissist—but true Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a complex, diagnosed condition, not just bad behaviour.

We’ve all heard it a million times: "Just think positive!" But here’s the truth—positive thinking alone won’t transform your life. Optimistic thoughts are just the starting point; optimistic actions are what create real change. 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝘃𝘀. 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀 Imagine two people stuck in Bengaluru traffic: Person A thinks, "Ugh, this is ruining my day!" and hopes (with optimism that the traffic will somehow disappear), but does nothing to

We love closure. We crave it. We’re wired to seek resolution, to tie up loose ends, to make sense of the mess, to hear the villain apologise or the lost love explain why they left. But life isn’t a movie. Most of our stories don’t end with a neatly wrapped bow. Someone drifts away without explanation. A job disappears without warning. A hurt goes unacknowledged, a betrayal unanswered. And we’re left standing there, holding a question mark, waiting for an ending that never com

We are taught, from the very beginning, to sort our feelings into neat, orderly boxes. This is joy. That is sorrow. This is love. That is anger. We are given an emotional map that insists a single road can only lead to one destination. But the heart is not a cartographer; it is a wild and untamed landscape where weather systems collide. To love someone who hurt you is not a paradox. It is a testament to the profound complexity of your own spirit. You can miss the home you fle

We are sold a story of perfect connections. The soulmate who anticipates our every need. The parent whose love is an unwavering sun. The friend whose loyalty never buckles. We are told to hold out for this, to settle for nothing less than the sublime. It is a beautiful story. And for most of us, it is a fiction that leaves us lonely. The truth is, the architecture of most human connections is built with cracks. Cracks are a feature, not a bug and like the Cohen song says, '𝑻

When someone we love is in pain, it’s natural to feel it ourselves. A child comes home upset because a friend was unkind, and our first thought is, “𝑰’𝒍𝒍 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅, 𝒐𝒓 𝑰’𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓.” When an adult we care for is struggling, we want to step in, take charge, and fix it. That instinct comes from love. But sometimes, without realising it, love crosses into enmeshment. Their problems start to feel like our own.

When we talk about valuing relationships, most people imagine grand gestures, gifts, sacrifices, and big promises. But in reality, relationships survive or break down over the small things. Harmony in relationships is very fragile, and like all things fragile, we have to handle it with care. Think of time. How many arguments in families or friendships begin with, “You’re late”, “You don’t know the value of time”? The waiting feels like disrespect, and the irritation spills ov

· We are all travellers of imaginary worlds, going on elaborate trips of lives we never lived. At every fork in the road, we made a choice. We chose the only path we could see, the one illuminated by the light we held at that moment, a light made of who we were, what we knew, and all we had already lived. We walked it. That path became our reality. You chose a particular academic stream, a specific job, and the one partner you married. But the mind is a restless time travelle

We live in a world of now. A question appears in our mind, and Google provides an answer now. A hunger pang strikes, and Swiggy delivers...