Investing in my mind

My first therapy session was when I was six years old. My recently married Indian-immigrant parents knew that most blended families end in divorce and vowed to make it work. Even if it meant dragging along a six and nine-year-old and going against rigid cultural norms as Indian-American immigrants.

And it worked!

They’ve now been married for 32 years and I’ve been a cheerleader for therapy since. Yet I took a 28 year break from therapy because I thought it was either a reaction to life events (like my parents) or was clinically prescribed.

That view evolved when Nilam and I had kids. Nilam’s postpartum depression ran deep and endured well beyond both Lana and Lake’s births. Our relationship, previously a constant, took an unfamiliar form. We needed therapy and it became our relationship’s safe space.

My individual sessions remain my refuge, a place where I can grasp the root cause of my feelings of anxiety. How to sit with it, adapt and grow. I emerge refreshed with an arsenal of tools to address today and prepare for the future.

Therapy is not just counselling in dark times; it is a coach for your mind. And putting the same effort in my mind as I do in my fitness/appearance has yielded disproportionate benefit.