Diwali, as we all know is the Hindu festival of lights, it occurs during the months of October and November. Thus, Diwali is associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and marks the beginning of the financial year in India. Hence, for most Hindus, Diwali is a period of festivities and joy and happiness. Thus, people celebrate by exchanging gifts with friends and family, going to parties, decorating their homes, painting their homes, buying new clothes, jewellery and other beautiful things for themselves, their loved ones, and their homes. The air is filled with the feeling of festivity, joy and happiness.

Unfortunately, some people suffer from depression during this period, while, everyone else seems to be beaming, bursting with Diwali joy and you’re feeling wretched and exhausted.  Those people who are suffering from depression or who have had depression in the past, need to be especially careful when coping with Diwali stress.

 Here are seven steps to manage Diwali Stress: 

Keep it simple: Reduce the number of parties you attend, reduce the number of gifts you give

Do something different: Travel, go out of town, do something different to avoid the madness of Diwali

Don’t do the unimportant stuff: Don’t be under pressure to do everything that was a tradition in the family, cherry pick and do only those activities you enjoy

Don’t worry about things outside your control

Find positive ways to remember loved ones who are no more

Don’t look for the perfect gift, it is the thought behind the gift that counts

Stick to a budget, don’t allow the financial strain to cause you mental anguish

Remember that during the Diwali period, stress is caused by media, social media, friends and relatives who create unnecessary expectations. So, If you are feeling overwhelmed with the Diwali season stress, it is best to meet an experienced psychologist, who can help you manage the stress.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.  

As parents we expect our children to perform brilliantly in school. But most of child  not doing well in school. if your child performing poorly in school. Then It is important to remember this quote:

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Anonymous 

Each child has his or her own inherent skills and things that they enjoy doing, and as a parent, it is important for us to identify those skills whether it is painting, dancing or singing and help them excel in those areas.  Despite this, it is important to understand the root cause of why your child is not performing academically at his or best in school.

These are 7 reasons if your child performing poorly in school :

Cognitive deficits: A quick IQ determination helps here.

Learning disability: Is the child suffering from any learning disability such as dyslexia?

Social-emotional difficulties: Secondly, does the child have issues in interacting with peers, anger management etc?

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Third, is the child suffering from ADHD?

Executive dysfunction: Also, is he facing trouble doing executive function includes mental processes such as planning, organizing, sorting, regulating, prioritizing, and abstracting?

Bullying in school: Importantly, Is the child being bullied at school?

Dysfunctional Home: Lastly, Is the home life dysfunctional? That is to say, are the parents constantly fighting, or are there other issues in the parents’ marriage?

The reason that the child is not performing well in school can be varied and multiple, instead of unnecessarily disciplining and punishing the child, it is far more appropriate to meet with an experienced psychologist.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.

A common management term is FIFO, which means First In, First Out. This term simply means that the item which comes first must go first. This term is also applicable to human beings, to maintain the equilibrium that those who are born first should also die first. When this order of nature is broken, it leads to immense sorry.

In my private practice, I observe that parents who have lost their children are the neediest of psychological counselling. Thus, the death of a child is the most devastating loss. So, the parent mourns the loss of his or her child’s life, the missed potential and future together.

Hence, there are some steps which the parents can take to make to be able to cope with the death of their child.

Be Gentle with yourself: Firstly, don’t blame yourself for the death of your child.

Get Plenty of sleep: Secondly, Science has shown that a loss of this magnitude is equivalent to a major injury, and your body needs rest to recover

Remember to eat: In this grief, there is a loss of appetite, make sure that your body receives enough nutrition to sustain

Drink Water: It is very important to keep your body hydrated to function correctly

Avoid Alcohol and drugs: Also, don’t use abuse alcohol and make it a crutch to cope with this grief

Medication: Most importantly, don’t self-medicate, use antidepressants under the guidance of a doctor only

Meditation: Lastly, Meditate. It brings solace and the ability to cope with the loss

For a parent, death of their child is the worst possible pain, and they most likely need professional guidance to cope with this pain. I strongly urge the surviving siblings and parents to seek professional help from an experienced psychologist.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

 Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.

When your spouse dies your life changes immensely. Thus, you are in a state of mourning and grieving feeling the sorrow of this loss. You may feel shocked, numb and fearful. This is a misnomer among people that if the death of the spouse is after a prolonged illness there is ample time to say goodbye and prepare for death, vs. a sudden death. Whether sudden or not, the death of a spouse leaves scars that take time to heal.

For some this grief leads to depression, and this depression needs to be handled under the guidance of an experienced psychologist.  What is depression? Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. It is important to understand the difference between grief and depression. Grief is an overwhelming sense of loss post the death of a loved one, grief comes in waves, and then recedes and returns when a memory, incident, or emotion triggers a recollection of the deceased. Over a period of time the grief reduces, and one is able to rekindle memories of the deceased with joy and happiness. A perpetual grief is an indication that the remaining spouse is under depression.

 If you or someone you know is depressed after the death of a spouse, you need to take the following steps to manage the stress:

Start exercising, go for long walks, bicycle or start some form of exercise

Get sufficient sleep, 7-8 hours each day

Explore a new skill which involves group activities such as a cooking, photography class etc

Meet with friends and loved ones who can offer support

Join a support group, in the Indian context, become a regular at the “kirtan / bhajan” session. Very few support groups for spousal death are available in India, so the kirtan / bhajan sessions provide a similar support

If despite these interventions you still have:

difficulty performing everyday activities

feeling guilty or blaming yourself for your loved one’s death

feeling as if you have no purpose in life

losing desire to engage in social activities

wishing you had died as well

feeling as if your life isn’t worth living if you don’t have your loved one

You must seek professional help, and meet an experienced Psychologist.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

 Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.

Every human being from time to time will feel low; it is important to be able to distinguish between depression and a feeling low. Hence, It is very important to understand what depression is and when to seek skilled professional guidance.

What is depression? 

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behaviour, feelings and sense of well-being.

If you or someone you love is exhibiting some of these signs given below, please consult with a qualified psychologist at the earliest. Untreated symptoms of depression can have very serious consequences.

Thus, Below are seven signs of depression to watch out for:

Feeling hopeless and helpless

Lost interest in friends and activities that you previously enjoyed

Also, You feel tired all the time

Sleep and appetite patterns have changed

Inability to concentrate

Unable to control negative thoughts as much as you try

Consuming more than normal alcohol or engaging in other reckless activities 

Please note depression is controllable and reversible, but you need professional guidance. Just like you wouldn’t perform surgery on yourself, or ask an unqualified person to do it for you, similarly don’t try to treat yourself for depression, you need to meet an experienced psychologist.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.

There are six Ayurveda supplements that I have introduced into my diet over the last several years, and I find them extremely useful, hence, I strongly recommend you add them to your diet also. I will also give suggested dosages but recommend that you consult your own Ayurveda doctor if you have any questions. These are Over The Counter (OTC) medicines readily available, with no known side effect.

Triphala

literally means three plants fruits in Sanskrit. Triphala is a medicine which is made by the amalgamation of three different plants and has been an Ayurveda supplement for centuries. You can ingest about 500MG per day. Triphala is a non-addictive supplement which can be taken lifelong for the digestive tract.

Trikatu

compliments Triphala, where this works on the upper digestive track vs. Triphala which is active in the lower digestive tract. Hence, Trikatu is a combination of two different types of peppers (black pepper and Indian long pepper) and ginger in equal proportions. So, you can safely ingest about 500 MG per day. Trikatu again is a non-addictive supplement which can be taken lifelong for the upper digestive tract.

Turmeric /Haldi

Haldi is a safe spice which helps as an anti-inflammatory, anticancer, as well as helps in reducing joint pains. Thus, it is safe to consume 2-3 grams of Turmeric per day.

Bitter melon/Bitter Gourd /Karela 

is a vegetable that is popular in the Indian subcontinent, extremely bitter to eat, it is an acquired taste. It is recommended to eat this seasonal vegetable when available fresh, alternately 500 mg may be taken twice daily immediately after meals. Hence, it helps in stimulating the pancreas to produce more insulin and working as a blood purifier.

Holy Basil/Tulsi 

Using Holy Basil 500-600 mg twice a day relieves stress. Also, it is as an antioxidant. Consider growing it in a planter in your house, and you can chew fresh leaves instead.

ASHWAGANDHA 

Ashwagandha enhances memory, increase strength, promotes sleep, promotes energy and stamina and suppresses stress. 500 mg twice a day prior to meals is the recommended dosage.

The six supplements help in gaining a healthy digestive tract, reducing joint pains, relieving stress and promoting sleep. The supplements are easily accessible and are not addictive.

Eliminating these symptoms will result in a healthier body, a more active mind and overall happiness.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
About Dr. Prerna Kohli
She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.

Ubuntu for Happiness!

“Ubuntu is a philosophy that considers the success of the group above that of the individual.” Stephen Lundin

South African author and environmentalist Boyd Varty articulate the South African concept of Ubuntu as “Ubuntu: I am because of you.” Or, “people are not people without other people. It’s not a new idea or value but it’s one that I certainly think at these times is worth building on. In fact, it is said that in the collective consciousness of Africa, we get to experience the deepest parts of our own humanity through our interactions with others.”

Thus, Ubuntu asks us to open our hearts and to share, for it is in giving that there is true happiness.

The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu as:

‘It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion.

Ubuntu originates from the African tribal dialect and is pronounced as “uu-boon-two”, and is a way of African philosophy, of living: where sharing with other fellow human spells the purpose of being human. In giving and sharing is there joy and happiness.

Imagine that there is the tastiest dish in the world, and you are eating it alone, nobody to share it with, there aren’t enough words in the dictionary to describe it’s exquisiteness, how would you explain that to someone else? Now imagine that you are sharing this same dish with someone else, to be able to experience the splendor of happiness on this shared experience.

Frequently a study done on African tribal children is quoted to explain Ubuntu. In an experiment, an anthropologist placed a container of candy at the base of a tree. He then explained that at a command by him, all the children would rush to the candy. Thus, The first one to reach would get all the candy exclusively. On his command, the children looked at each other, held hands and all reached the candy at the same time and divided it equally among themselves. When the anthropologist questioned the children’s behavior they responded: “Ubuntu. How could anyone of us be happy if all the others were sad?”

In conclusion, Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as “I am what I am because of who we all are.” There is happiness in sharing, share selflessly.

More about Dr. Prerna Kohli

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as a professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
About Dr. Prerna Kohli
She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy.

In this day to day hustle of life, we tend to ignore other people around us or be dismissive about their emotions and feelings. So, If someone around is feeling low, depressed we tend to believe that they deserved it, or their own actions and poor judgment put them in that situation.

Empathy is defined as the awareness of the emotions and feelings of others. Thus, Empathy is a pillar of emotional quotient (EQ). In a future blog we will discuss what EQ vs IQ.

Empathy is intuitive; some people are more loving, caring and giving than others. So, for those who aren’t emphatic by nature, it can be a learnt behavior. As I repeatedly say, Fake it, till you make it.

Given below are Seven Ways to be More Empathetic:

Focus yourself on the welfare of others

Suspend your own judgment, and look at it from another’s Point of View (POV)

Listen, without judgment, listen with your ears, eyes, heart and instinct

Ask the other person what they want

Pay attention to the words, emotions and physical and mental behavior

Encourage

Don’t be stubborn, be flexible and open minded in your thoughts

Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. It makes the world a better place. Empathy is born from the phrase, Love Thy Neighbor as Thy Self.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
About Dr. Prerna Kohli
She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides families, individuals, parents and children counselling on being happy. 

Social anxiety /social interaction is the fear of being in public places, to worry about what people will think of the clothes you are wear or what to say when you meet someone new.

Typically people worry about things that the other party don’t even find important. The good thing is that Social Anxiety is not only treatable but the treatment has a very high success rate. Social Anxiety attacks both the young and the old, and it is frequently seen in the elder, who make excuses to stay at home instead of attending family events and functions. At the heart of Social Anxiety is the fear of evaluation i.e. what will people say about me.

Understand the symptoms of social anxiety

Understand the physical symptoms of social anxiety, i.e. sweaty palms, sweating, inability to speak

Recognize the triggers of what causes you to have these attacks

Understand the situations you tend to avoid, such as parties, office lunches

Write down a list of situations that give you social anxiety

Practice relaxation techniques such as meditation

Practice breathing techniques

Learn to face your fears, if you are unable to help yourself, then you should meet with an experienced psychologist who is trained and has a track record of helping patients in these circumstances.

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need – Dr. Prerna Kohli.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and also a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Child Psychologist in India and provides individuals, families, parents and children counselling on being happy.

Some people suffer from the irrational fear of heights. Technically it is called Acrophobia, it is an irrational fear or phobia of heights,  even when one is not very high up. Everyone has a certain degree of fear when at a height; this is known as the fear of falling. But, it is acceptable to have this fear as it safeguards most of us. Hence, those who don’t have a fear of falling are excellent in high rise building window cleaning, and other such activities.

Acrophobia suffers can get panic attacks in high places and can become so agitated that it becomes difficult to bring them down safely. Interesting twice as many women than men suffer from Acrophobia and about two percent of the population suffers from it in various degrees.

Here are seven tips to overcome your fear of heights:

• Understand and face your fear
• Consider the actuality of the outcomes of your fear
• Relax
• Remove caffeine from your diet
• Know your personal limits
• Meet with an experienced psychologist and discuss your acrophobia
• Learn anxiety control techniques & Experience gradual exposure therapy

“You can talk with a close friend or relative about what’s troubling you; but it’s not the same as professionally-trained experienced psychologist who knows exactly what kind of help you need” – Dr. Prerna Kohli.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About Dr. Prerna Kohli

She is a 100 women Achievers Award Winner (2016) from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee

Dr. Prerna Kohli is a Clinical Psychologist, a Public Speaker, a Workshop Facilitator and a Holistic Practitioner. She offers Heart-based workshops and lectures that focus on Life Balance, Self-awareness and Inner Peace. Dedicated to sharing her knowledge and compassion with others, Prerna blends intuitive wisdom with solid understanding, creating a powerful holistic approach, specializing in the areas of Emotional change.

 Dr. Prerna Kohli is a leading Psychologist in India and provides individuals, families, parents and children counselling on raising healthy and well rounded children.