Vatsala Bharti - Investing in Your Dreams Is Going to Be the Most Valuable Investment You Will Ever Make in Life and With 100% Guaranteed Returns (Mental Health Activist From India)

Social Media platforms are an exaggerated form of reality of all aspects of life. This leads to envy, which leads to jealousy and ends up in either hatred or self-loathing. Current times are also not very hopeful, which often leads up to many emotions that pent up inside. That eventually comes out as stress.

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I was 12 and was away from home and parents and like any other 12 years old, I needed someone around me to listen to everything I had to say. That feeling of not getting someone around me opened up a hole inside me. I resorted to diaries and journals and somehow got through those two years. When I came back home with the expectation that things are going to turn around for good now, I found myself in an even deeper hole.

I came back to a home where I couldn't relate to anybody. Everything was different and I was just unable to connect with my roots, survival became extremely difficult now. With two years of going through frustration and loneliness pent up inside me, I decided that I had to become “that somebody” for myself. I always wanted to grow up. I realized that what I was going through was more than just sadness.

That was when I started with my first initiative called “Intellectual Ink”. Intellectual Ink was an Instagram page turned into a nonprofit organization that gave people a platform to come and rant to a complete stranger(me). I realized back then that sometimes people don’t need a solution, they only want someone to listen to them without judgment so that they can take out the garbage that they’ve been storing inside.

Intellectual Ink was more for me than for anybody else. By being there for others I was trying to be there for myself. I did the listening work for 2 years and went on to conduct “offline support groups” for the same. Intellectual Ink was a family of 4k+ people. Currently, I am building up an offline peer support group pan India.

2. When did you first decide that you wanted to be a Mental Health Activist?

I was 17 when I decided that I wanted to create accessible resources and become a mental health activist.

3. In today's hyper-converged tech world, what are your thoughts on the current stress conditions?

Opinions I think that a huge chunk of today's youth is developing their personality just to keep up with or copy their favorite social stars. When they can’t mold themselves into that fake persona, stress is built up.

I think people should learn to differentiate the truth from lies called tech and social media. If we stop thinking about what others are doing and use the hyper-converged tech world to develop ourselves, I think the stress will fade up. Read more. Meditate often. Exercise regularly. All these little things have a huge impact on our stress reduction.

4. What are some of the challenges and roadblocks you have faced along your journey?

The biggest challenge I faced was with my mental health. I did start up Intellectual Ink but starting it wasn’t enough. I had to actively show up to work whether or not I wanted to. There were days when it would get too much for me to listen to other’s horrific stories and on those days, all I wanted to do was run away somewhere far.

5. What is that one cause you care deeply about and why?

Mental health is the only cause I care about deeply. I was 16 when I saw my mental health declining and I had nobody around me to tell me what was happening to me and from where I could get help. It was terrifying and at that moment I decided, not another 17 years old should go through what I went through.

6. What piece of advice would you like to give to our readers?

Whatever little life I have lived and whatever two cents of inspiration I can impart, I will tell you to do whatever it is that your heart wants to do. YOU are the only person who can turn your life around for the better. Investing in your dreams is going to be the most valuable investment you will ever make in life and with 100% guaranteed returns.

Even if it only makes sense to you, it need not make sense to anybody else for living YOUR life. And believe in all the good, as if your life depends on it. There is no other way. Get going in the tunnel to get out of it. The only way is through.

7. Which is your favorite book and why?

My favorite book is “Maybe you should talk to someone by Lorri Gotllieb” I recommend this book to everyone who is trying to understand emotions and therapy better. I like this book because it helped me get up from a rough time in my life. And understand emotions in a much better way.

8. What are you currently doing?

I am currently working on a broadcast list called “Leave a light on” where I send excerpts from the book I read, which I find inspiring and full of hope first thing in the morning so that it sets the tone of your day on a positive note. Within a time span of 8 months, my subscriber list has grown to 500+.

As soon as we're back to the “old normal” I’m working to set up offline mental health support groups pan-India in collaboration with counselors and other equally passionate people.