Sri Maneru
About Posts Work Photos

Becoming a peaceful warrior

• 2 min read

I was at my lowest in 2020 and 2021, and for almost a year, I battled with mental health issues!

While it was brewing for quite some time, the breaking point was migrant crisis, it literally broke my heart ! And then, things spiralled down very fast - From anxiety and guilt to hopelessness, insanity and trauma.

Thanks to external help (Therapy at mind.fit , Few months at SivaNanda Ashram , a supportive co-founder like Kalyan and mentors like Rajan ), I have gotten over it and life seems promising again! Will talk about my journey at length in future posts.

For now, will speak about one specific suggestion I got from Rajan. The beauty of having mentors like Rajan is they ask seemingly simple questions that nudge you to think more objectively. For example,

  • If you want to solve complex deep-rooted problems that will take decades to solve, how can you possibly play the long game with so much anxiety and restlessness inside you
  • How can you take care of others (leave country or state, even your family) if you can’t even take care of yourself

And at the end of the conversation, he insisted that I watch the below movie. And oh boy! the timing was so perfect, I could relate so much to the gymnast (the lead character).

One of my favourite dialogues from the movie

> Take out the trash Dan.
> The trash is the thing that is keeping you from the only thing that matters.
> This moment.
> Here and now.
> And when you truly are in the here and now,
> you'll be amazed at what you can do,
> and how well you can do it.
>

I am starting to realise and internalise that living in the present (instead of mourning for the past or worrying about the future) is the secret to live a happy and full-filling life!

Hands down, trying to ‘live in the present’ had the biggest and most profound impact on me in my life. It’s a life long pursuit, but I feel it’s so damn worth it (at-least for me).

Note - Everyone might not resonate with this movie (Peaceful Warrior) or the need to live in the present, but each of us should reach out to our mentors/friends/family/therapists when going through a mental turmoil. It has helped me immensely and would strongly advice it to everyone!