This month, Calibre Creators met up
with Shama Patel, from Pune for an interesting chat about her latest work, in
addition to a prolific profile of being an author as well as a Psychologist and
an Artist. She serves as a inspiration
to the youth as we feel that there is a lot to learn from her, in terms of
following a profession, pursuing one’s passion and sharing her knowledge with
people to spread happiness. Shama is
based at Pune and is currently promoting her book across various cities, viz.
Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai. Read on.....
Brief Bio:
Shama Patel is a Psychologist and an
Author of a recently launched book titled ’21 Ways of Being Happy’. She is an
empathetic soul with a creative mind and a beautiful heart which has touched
the lives of many young adults, couples, senior citizens and several others who
she has met in her journey of life. She has also helped various alcoholics,
drug addicts and survivors of abuse and human trafficking in their healing
process. An ardent believer in the trinity of Body, Mind and Soul, her practice
and writing strongly reflects this philosophy. This altruist finds solace in
sketching and her yoga practice.
Shama Patel, an Author, a Psychologist, an Artist
and a Human Being who loves to be in love with her existence.
CC: Shama,
you seem to be gifted with multiple talents.
Tell our readers
something about them?
SP: I
perfectly fit in the term ‘jack of all trades’! I am a Psychologist, currently
being an Author, a Trainer and an Artist. I definitely consider it as a
blessing and love to explore all these facets of my Being. The more I discover
what I am good at, the more I get in touch with these gifts and talents within.
I believe that each one has this ability but most of them blame it on time and
refuse to journey inward and get closer to their gifts and talents.
CC: You
are a trained Psychologist by profession.
What were the career options before you and why did you choose
Psychology?
SP: Yes.
I am a trained Psychologist. I have a post-graduation degree in Marriage &
Family Counselling. I chose Psychology (Arts) honestly because I am not at a
Science person and Commerce (anything to do with numbers) was way out of my
league. I picked Psychology because of my curiosity to know more about human
behaviour. It was only when I started exploring this subject in my graduation
that I started falling in love with it. It was like getting to know myself
better and at the same time getting an opportunity to make a positive
difference in other’s lives. There were many career options after finishing
Bachelor’s degree like specializing in Clinical Psychology, Industrial
Psychology, Child Psychology and so on. I had undergone a counselling session
during my graduation and that’s when I decided that I want to be a Counsellor.
CC: Your
profile says that you are an Artist too and now you are an accomplished author
too. How you do juggle your time between
your profession and your passion?
SP: Ha
Ha. Well! I am managing to merge my passion and profession. I love to sketch
and paint. Writing and sketching is therapeutic for me. I can sit for hours at
a stretch and completely lose myself in the process. When I learnt about the
power of this passion and its effect on my personal growth, I decided to weave
this in my profession. That was when I began to exhibit and sell my artwork and
my passion for writing and psychology led me to create '21 beautiful way of
being happy'.
CC: What
motivated you to write the book and how did it start?
SP: It
started when I began to maintain a personal blog where I expressed my emotional
experiences and the way I dealt with them. Many people started relating to my
writing then!
I
have been a practicing Psychologist for six years now and in those six years, I
had several clients and friends who approached me to ease their mental and
emotional tension. When I saw them relieved and feel less burdened after
interacting with me, I became determined to reach out to a larger audience and
assist them in their healing process. With that aim, I continued maintaining
the blog and after couple of years, Grapevine India decided to launch a
self-help genre and that’s how I got a platform to merge my experience and
learning with my passion.
CC: How
many hours did you put in while writing your book?
SP: Well
it took me three months to finish the book which, if I tell people, they have
hard time believing it. But those three months were like a meditative period
for me. All I did in those three months was write, eat, sleep and meditate.
Since I knew what I wanted to convey through this book, the creative energy
kept leading me all throughout. There were days when I would just go blank
(writer’s block) and I just wouldn’t know what to write. I used that time for
meditation and solitude. Usually people get a subject and then do a research on
it but for me, I already had six years of research and then got the subject
which made the process more beautiful.
CC: Tell
us briefly about your book “21 Ways of Being Happy” and its basic concept?
SP: ’21
Ways of Being Happy’ is my attempt of bringing people closer to themselves and
make them fall in love with their lives. It is aimed at breaking the barriers
that we all build around us which keeps peace and happiness away from our lives.
It is my way of telling people how wonderful and precious their life is! The
book is like a message to people saying ‘you are wonderful and precious just
the way you are!’
CC: Why
are people unhappy? Or What makes people unhappy?
SP: There
are lot of reasons that lead to a state of unhappiness. I think that we all
somewhere start believing that our life is incomplete without unhappiness. I
have seen people create unhappiness for themselves even when they are blessed
with anything and everything in life. I feel the prime reason to this is
because we all accustomed to live our lives either in the past or in the
future. We are never in the present moment. This juggle is what causes
unhappiness in our lives. The moment we accomplish one thing, we don’t let ourselves
relish that and directly jump to the ‘next thing’ that we wish to achieve in
life. Another most common factor I have observed is no or lack of self-love. We
abandon ourselves and begin to seek happiness outside of us in either
materialistic things or in relationships.
CC: Is
it difficult to achieve a state of perpetual happiness?
SP: To
me, happiness is the ability to be in love and at peace with yourself every
minute of consciousness, in whatever circumstances you experience. As human
beings, we are bound to have ups and downs in life! I am a person who believes
that ‘a state of perpetual happiness’ is overrated. I would rather put it as it
is not required to be in a state of perpetual happiness but embrace yourself
even at times when happiness seems long lost. To me, life is what is perpetual;
my breath is what is perpetual and if I accept these two unconditionally, I
will automatically be at peace with myself and that state of bliss is what
matters – be it perpetual happiness or unhappiness.
CC: What
are the broad key messages that you are trying to convey to your readers
through your book?
SP: Message:
Your life is beautiful! We all feel mentally, emotionally, spiritually and
physically twisty within and that’s what makes us who we are! Our creation, as
human beings, requires us to embrace this good and not so good part of
ourselves and our lives. You are precious even when you feel imperfect and
inadequate. The moment you embrace this and learn to value yourself, your life
becomes a beautiful journey not just for you but also for every single person
you come in contact with! You are wonderful and precious just the way you are.
CC: Shama,
what is the USP of your book and how different is it from other motivational
books that purport to spread happiness and boost one’s morale?
SP: Being
a Psychologist, I have read many motivational and self-help book. With most
books, I had to sit with a dictionary and read and I would feel more miserable
at the end concluding how poor my language is! What would add to the misery was
the way the writer glorified himself / herself as someone who’s got it all and
I as a reader would feel that I can never get there. I wanted to redefine this
whole concept of self-help and thus, I focused more on make this book as light
(in language and writing style) as possible. Also, what I observed was how most
of these self-help books started with ‘lack’ and then talked about ways to
overcome what is labelled as ‘bad or inadequate’ in you. I wanted to create a
book that starts with ‘abundance’ and communicate the means of embracing the
whole of you – good, not good, bold, not bold, creative, not creative,
intelligent, not intelligent – whatever you are, you are your person! This way,
making the readers fall in love with themselves rather than focusing on one
area of their life that deems unfit as per social and moral standards.
I
would like to quote here what this book review said about 21WOBH being
different “This book, unlike other self-help books, hasn't been written in
the patronizing or sermonizing manner, you know, the kind of books where the
author glorifies himself/herself much to the readers' misery. This book is such
a good respite from those pseudo-self-help books, for the author takes it upon
herself to be the example. Now, the whole point of such books is to make the
reader feel better by telling her that she is not alone, and that the person
who is helping her recuperates has experienced the same things, and made some
mistakes, but has learnt from them nevertheless.”
Apart
from this, I have also included caricatures in it which makes the readers feel
light and happy.
It
is a book through which I connect and have a conversation with the readers. It
is as if you are sitting with a confidant (book) and having an unsaid dialogue
with her.
CC: Shama,
what next after this book? What are you working on and what can we
expect?
SP: I
have signed a contract of seven books with Grapevine India. Next book will most
likely be on ‘relationships’. I will start working on it once I am done
marketing ’21 Ways of Being Happy'
Dear Readers, Below is an excerpt
from Shama’s Book – “21 Ways of Being Happy” for the benefit of our readers.
Excerpt
Excerpt 1:
“When I met Sheena, I could totally relate to what
she was feeling – the crave and need to have someone constantly love you every
single day of your life; the desire to have someone who shows you unconditional
love and support and who makes you feel like you are the most precious person
on this earth. Gradually, when the initial affection starts fading, you, with
the whole of your body and mind, begin to cling to that person. It becomes like
an addiction, so much so that even if the drug you were taking starts damaging
your whole being, you still crave for it and consider it to be vital for your
survival. Knowing that the withdrawal symptoms are much worse and painful, you
willingly agree to let go of everything that is in your control – your
self-esteem, your pride, your priorities, your desires, your career, your
happiness, absolutely anything that can get you the drug back.
So while I could connect to what
Sheena felt and counselled her then, the actual first-hand experience happened
when I under-went a relationship breakup myself....... I had heard and read a
lot about this whole ‘self love’ by then but nothing seemed to have worked at
that very moment....
In that state of ache and hurt, I
reached a point where I couldn’t bear my own company and I began craving for
the drug (love) more...... Those were the toughest days of my life while I
struggled to fight the loneliness out of my system. I desired to fill the empty
space with someone (anybody for that matter!) every time I reached a point
where the loneliness seemed unbearable. This is usually the time when we all
give in to the temptation and begin to hop-skip-jump in and out of
relationships. The innate urge of filling that gap with anybody takes over and
we are even willing to walk around, sleep around with anyone just to fill that
empty space within.”
Excerpt 2:
“To love yourself is to
accept yourself the way you are – fat, thin, dark, fair, tall, short,
intelligent, dumb whatever you are, you are your person. To love yourself is to
embrace that person in you with all your heart and mind just the way you
embrace your lover. The feeling that you feel for them is exactly what needs to
be felt by you for your ‘self’. And the moment you begin to feel this inward
love, is the moment when you begin to relax and feel at peace in your own
company. You stop feeling anxious when you are left alone and you no longer
feel dependent on someone else to make you feel good.”
End of Excerpts.
The book “21 Ways of Being Happy” is
published by Grapevine India (New Delhi) and is available at Crossword stores
across various cities, Landmark, Kitabkhana (Mumbai), Title Waves (Mumbai),
Sapna Book House (Bangalore), Amazon (http://bit.ly/1upOcUv) and Flipkart
(http://goo.gl/tl1ixF). Buy your doze of
happiness from any of the above mentioned places and join and support Shama on
her journey of spreading love and happiness!
A favourite quote of Shama is, “You
can touch several lives by just being you. You are wonderful and precious just
the way you are! When you embrace yourself lovingly and unconditionally, you
become a blessing not just for yourself, but also for every single person you
come in contact with!”
You can reach Shama at:
Twitter: @Shama_21WOBH
We urge our readers to quickly get
hold of Shama’s book and attain a state of happiness.
A word of Thanks to Shama Patel.
Shama, CALIBRE CREATORS thanks you for your
precious time spent with us from your busy and hectic schedule and sharing some
very highly useful tips about “Being Happy”.
We wish you stupendous success in all your
future personal and professional pursuits.
We also pray that you and your book receive international fame and
acclaim and the book becomes a Best Seller of all times to come, winning you
many awards, accolades and recognition.
We also look forward to many more epics from you
in the future and you have our best wishes for the same.
This interview was published in the Calibre Creators LEARNING LETTER issue of June 2015, Vol. 3, Issue No.10.
To view and download the previous issues, please visit www.calibrecreators.com.
Or you can simply send us a mail to sarfaraz.calibrecreators@gmail.com to request your copy and receive the issue regularly.
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