At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Shalini Chuganee for an exclusive interview with us. Shalini is a Life and Relationship Coach, Leader, Entrepreneur, Business Consultant, Certified CBT Practitioner, Mentor, Change Enabler and Influencer. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background and advice for our growing community.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Shalini:
Could you please talk us through your background and your journey, please;
With a Masters from George Washington University and multiple courses from Harvard University in clinical Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, I have a keen interest and inclination towards enhancing the quality of life for those I have and continue to mentor.
As a certified CBT Practitioner and Life Coach who believes strongly that the quality of thought determines the quality of life, I decided that as a Brand Consultant, I was modifying people’s lifestyles, and realized that the time had come to modify people’s lives instead.
With more than 5 years of experience in emotional intelligence mentoring and confidence development, and over 1500 hours of professional and academic development and 500 hours of CBT experience and life coaching, I find myself dedicated to this journey of mental health awareness.
How did you discover your passion as a ‘Coach’?
I realized that for many individuals, growth and evolution were hindered upon by harmful core beliefs, insecurities and fears, and overall negative thoughts.
I feel my purpose in life is to encourage me-volution, which is the evolution of the self (me) by helping individuals embrace their pain, fears and insecurities, identify the triggers and modify their thoughts and core beliefs to enhance mindfulness and emotional well-being.”
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I was and am committed to providing guidance and solutions to individuals for their academic, professional and personal development through forms of talk therapy and sessions focused on working with harmful cognitive and behavioural patterns.
Therefore, I make time for it, time to ensure that I am providing assistance and support to my clients, as well as continuing to fulfil the other responsibilities that I have in life.
There are two paths in life, the calling and the purpose, and when we are able to amalgamate both of these paths we can truly say that we are giving as much to life as life gives to us. This is my driving factor.”
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
To me, the biggest source of motivation has been love. Not one person but love for myself and for all those around me. For so many years many of us believe that loving ourselves is a selfish trait, wherein actually, self-love is one of the kindest things that you can do for yourself and for those around you.
As they say, when an aeroplane is crashing, they tell you to put the oxygen mask on yourself first, and then on your loved ones. This is due to the fact that if you do not take care of yourself, you would not be able to take care of anyone else.
In my daily life, there are a few things that I ensure I fulfil as part of my evolution, and they consist of kindness, compassion, empathy, and most importantly, gratitude, towards those around me as well as towards myself.”
Therefore I cannot list an individual as my biggest source of inspiration, but rather acts of love, support and encouragement.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
Evolution or as I said earlier, Me-volution, is not based on a strategy, but rather a life plan that you chart out for yourself. This plan would include elements that help you grow into a better human being as well as tasks that assist you in this journey.
The elements that I speak of include being empathetic, compassionate, non-judgmental, accommodating and supportive. The tasks that take you there include being mindful, practising spirituality, ensuring you are physically and mentally balanced and performing acts of kindness consistently.
A heightened emotional quotient is a quality that I have been blessed with, and I always shall use this sensitivity towards enhancing the lives of those around me.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success is not necessarily linear. Hence, I would not say that there are steps that one must follow to achieve it. Growth is linear, faith is linear.
If you continue to grow through your experiences and have the faith and belief to accept that all aspects have challenges within them knowing that you will find a balance between the outcomes, that to me is a success.
What advice would you give to our readers?
Life is simple, it may not be easy, but it is simple. If you look at life in this manner which is therapeutically named as relational, you will understand that in life, there is a give-and-take. You have a relationship with life as much as you have with yourself.
As you would be kind to yourself, it is important to be kind to your life as well, and understand that many times you will face a path which requires faith and belief to take you through.
Do not be discouraged or demoralized/demotivated, for remember – it is always about confusion to a conclusion. This is the journey of life.
Last but not least, what about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Satisfaction is actually a very misconstrued word for in it lays an understanding that all aspects must be met, and if not, then it is less than optimum.
My journey has not been about satisfaction, for I do not quantify it by a feeling of optimum fulfilment. It is more about a balance between bringing a smile to those around me, which in turn brings a smile to my face.
My journey was never about what I found exciting or satisfying, it is rather about being a source of positivity and an outlet to achieve peace and calm.”
Whether it is sessions of cognitive, behavioural therapy, workshops on luxury brand marketing, emotional intelligence development for teenagers, self-love workshops for young women, relationship talks about partnership health, or just talk time with my friends, it is about being a value add and touching as many lives as I can in the process.
I always say, there is a reason we are who we are, a diverse set of communities meant to live within a world created to test us, challenge us and simultaneously improve us, evolve us and ultimately push us to be the best versions of ourselves.
I am not better than the person next to me nor is he/she/them better than I am, nor are we equal; we are different and that is our Unique Super Power.”
I see a lot of humans, however, I do see less of humanity. And this is what I hope to change, even if it is in small numbers.
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.
