At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from India and around the World. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur – Aaushi Shah for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Mental Health Coach, Counselling Psychologies and Founder of ListenWorks. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Aaushi:
We are aware of your contribution to the community, talk us through your background and your journey, please;
I did my Graduation from Jaihind College and post-graduation in Clinical Psychology from Maniben Nanavati Women’s College, Mumbai.
I was always passionate about exploring the journey of others and these explorations have taught me amazing lessons in all walks of my life.”
To polish my skills in the field I trained myself in REBT and Gestalt therapy, and keep on expanding my knowledge with short-term courses.
During my Graduation and Post-Graduation, I conducted research which got published in National and International Psychology journals. This was one of the few biggest achievements of my life.”
During my college days, I participated in various activities and events like I was part of NSS (National Service Scheme), participated in various awareness rallies, headed projects in the college campus for raising awareness about AIDS, sexual harassment and other concerns.
What made you passionate about ‘Psychology’?
In my school, I was never told anything about mental health, in fact before starting my college, I had no idea what psychology includes, like others even I had a misconception about the subject like it is like astrology or mind-reading stuff.
When I started studying psychology, it just gave me more clarity and the science behind human behaviour. Those experiments and research were additional perks to increase my passion for the subject every day.”
When I studied psychology, it brought some pleasant changes in my life and gave me insights about myself, which made me think about it. If people in society are more aware about their mental well-being, their issues and patterns, this society will be a totally different place to live in. That needs to educate people about mental health for their personal development, coping with their unpleasant thoughts/emotions, unpleasant habits, self-sabotaging behaviours etc has inspired me.
If people are educated on these concerns and have equipped themselves with those skills to cope with it, everyone will have better resilience to cope with natural traumas. Helping these people makes me more passionate about this field.
What is ‘ListenWorks’ all about and what kind of services do you provide?
ListenWorks is a mental health initiative started with a team of passionate psychologists and friends.
Our vision is to normalize the conversation about mental health and build an inclusive society. We aim to provide accessible mental health services to alleviate distress in an individual. We strongly believe in “together we can do better”, where “we” stands for “society” together.”
We conduct workshops and webinars to raise awareness about various mental health challenges and how to cope with those challenges. We do have a platform for young children, who are restricted with playground play in a pandemic, we have a “virtual activity club” for them to interact with their peers.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I think during these many years of my training and experience in the field, I have built my own resilience to cope with all the challenges I face. When I see any problem or am told “this seems difficult, or impossible” I take it as a challenge to at least try doing something to get at least 50% of the results.
My mother has always inspired me by saying “Impossible word should not exist in your dictionary, if you genuinely give a try, something is definitely possible”.
We all are obsessed with 100% result, but sometimes a few things are not in our control or anyone’s control, rather than giving up totally just give your best shot.
Whatever you do in life, there are always challenges in the form of humans (beliefs, thoughts or attitudes), situation, community or something else, which you cannot control, but taking each challenge personally for personal development always helps me. This is my go-to mantra.”
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My biggest source of motivation is my family and close friends. They know me and my habits, therefore they make sure to push me for my best. In a pandemic, like others even I struggle with motivation, keep going with work and do best when you see a lot of uncertainties around you, but my family and friend’s faith in me and support has always helped me to push myself, in fact sometimes I had lost faith in myself, but these people have always shown me some hope to keep trying.
What are some of the strategies that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
1) Being patient
2) Be consistent throughout your journey, and take small steps at a time, like do not rush in.
3) Making clear personal goals
4) Constructive feedback from seniors and mentors
What has motivated you during all challenges and what keeps you going?
My motivation always helped me to stay focused. I truly believe in creating work boundaries which I struggle with sometimes, sticking to my schedule like having a consistent routine and sparing some time for self-care which includes workout, making my to-do list and listening to music or watching sitcoms and reading books and articles to update myself. I like to read motivational articles or blogs which helps me stay focused.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
I honestly don’t think there is any particular way to succeed. But what has helped me is taking responsibility and ownership for my work, so I can learn from each task and take responsibility for each task.
Hunger to learn, at every stage of our life whether we’re 12, 20, 40, 50 or 60, always learn and keep on learning that will prepare us for worst-case situations.
Kindness towards yourself and everyone around me, kindness is a personal skill which is a natural skill in every person but only a few successful people use that skill.
Optimistic outlook to all challenges, to stay focused in solving problems and overcome challenges.
How difficult/challenging is it to create an awareness about mental health especially in Indian societies?
It is still difficult and challenging to create awareness about mental illness in our society, people have started talking about it but still many people don’t have insights about illness.
For instance, if you say someone is depressed, do you think how can someone be sad? Why is he depressed, he has everything? It is because of the xyzzy reason he feels depressed.
So, people use the term very loosely, in fact, sometimes the media portrays it negatively that people think It is bad to be depressed, whereas those things are not good/bad, you can’t do that. Since my college days, I have encountered many myths revolving around mental health.
I educated myself and as soon as I started working, I started taking up projects and participated in awareness programs to educate people.”
Yes, today a lot of people do talk about it openly and have motivated a lot of people to seek professional help or at least prioritize their mental well-being, but we still have a long path ahead.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Learn all basic skills require for you to have personal development for example if you wish to become a psychotherapist, you need to train yourself with basic marketing and technology skills, which will help you to run your startup, successful career does not mean sticking to only one aspect, holistically, running entire thing will require more skills.
Also, some people are happy working in a company, they also need to update their skills for their own development. Always be open to suggestions, have healthy discussions with your team, seniors or mentors for the better upliftment of your career. Be creative in whichever career path you choose.”
Yes, we are having a lot of competition, and it will increase over time, key is to be creative and unique, so gather as many skills as you can, do research.
Have a vision in life to make your career goals by exploring and taking minimal risks to know your passion. Our vision can evolve over time, that is a sign that we have evolved for good.”
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
