Mental health issues were on the rise, Inside me when I turned towards all sorts of help; Medications, Therapy, etc. But that wasn’t the only help that I needed.

“Hey, It’s gonna be okay. I’m here for you. Let’s talk. Don’t worry. It’s alright if you feel this way. You’re loved more than you think. You’re not alone in this. It’s okay not to be okay!”, the simplest sentences that a person can ask for; I was unlucky to have had expected those from certain people in my life who meant the world to me. But that came with a silver lining.

At that unstable period of my life, All I thought about was one thing — “To never let anyone else feel the same way I did.” I wanted to help people who are going through the same issues as me and to tell them those things that I wanted someone to tell me. Be there for them I wanted someone to be there for me.

I wanted to create a space where this can be done. A place for fighting the stigma together. A place where people can be their real selves without being judged share whatever they want, devoid of fears, a Home where everyone could live their life on their own terms.

Hence, The Safe Place!

A community that I have found along with a beautiful bunch of people is a dwelling that will focus on bringing people who are dealing with Mental Health issues together in our fight against the stigma. It is carefully crafted to which will help people deal with Mental health issues through clinical but creative and interactive ways.

Here, We hear. We love and listen, share and support, each and everyone who feels hopeless and helpless. It’s a home and everyone who belongs to it is family.

This whole thing, Me finding a safe haven for others or myself; might seem like a mediocre superhero movie plot where a guy who hit rock-bottom did something and he became invincible. No, you know that answer yourself; It is definitely not like that!

I still have my bad days. I’m not mentally strong yet. I go through certain issues every now and then. But I have realized that those are just bad days and not a bad life. I have found solace in helping people and that keeps me going. And that’s all that matters. Not to give up ever! Even when the world comes crashing down, We must learn to pick ourselves up or grab the hand lent to us and start over again.

I had a couple of beautiful friends and beloved family members who lent me a hand. But I have let them down countless times. They know that It’s not my doing and they still support me no matter what. And one day, I hope that I will properly apologize to them by living my life to the fullest just like it should’ve been.

Now, you don’t have to start or do something right away to prove that you’re living your life. That is contrary to living. You will have your calling when you’re not searching for it. I lost everything in my life to understand that everything, is not my life!

Certain things are not meant for us. Whatever has your name written on it will reach you, not at the right time; But when you are not looking for it. Until then, Look after yourself. Do things that make you feel free and makes you be your own self.

“Life is not about doing the right thing always; It’s about doing things right even after you’ve done it wrong several times!”

But whatever you do; Right or wrong, Do it with all your heart and your mind will follow, just to lead you towards your own safe place!

That little trip was a life changer

On the spur of the moment idea it was. Nagalapuram, A beguiling piece of land nearby our Chennai city. The border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, to be precise.

It was an eminence over cultivation lands. An uncharted strip of wilderness which will leave you in awe if you go in the right time.
People just go to Nagalapuram as a weekend getaway. To blow off the tough week's steam. Of course, It's not a bad idea. It has a good number of waterfalls. I heard it has hot springs too. The place will definitely calm you down.

And also, that place is within our hands reach, if we wanna experiment with the nature. Heaven, Bliss, and all the other nouns that we use as quotes and hashtags in our social media, will absolutely make sense if you take a stroll into that place.

A dearest friend of mine was the one who planned this whole trip. We wanted to go in our motorbikes and post a ton of pictures claiming that we took a "Road trip" too.
Sadly, it did not happen.

But why bother when your good friend has a car in a good condition. We set off to the place without further ado. Only to find out that, Nature is definitely a godsend and a free of charge therapy too, which I needed the most.

People come and go to this place very often for their recreational activities, I heard. The footprints and the tyre tracks on the wet red soil proved it right.

We couldn’t take our car to the bottom of the hill as the road was in an unusable condition. It was a coarse and narrow path covered with greenery on either sides. It resembled an entrance that we see in weddings and other occasions. Nature and Wilderness welcomed us together.

To reach the hills, we had to walk for about four kilometers. Unfortunately, Our guide stood us up and we were on our own. With the help of passers-by and tyre tracks, we walked in the right direction. And finally we made it to the foot of the hill.

To add more thrill to the trek, We found out that we had reached the wrong place. There was no springs, falls or anything that would bring our morale up. We stood there like four human bodies with nil energy.

Stranded with a Plan gone south, we decided to hike our hind parts back home. The couple of water bottles and the food we bought on the way in, were the only good thing left for the day. So we just went to a small pond-like place nearby, climbed on the rocks, ate our food like the stone age men.

After the Jungle buffet, We started our way back frown-faced. But Mama nature wanted to play more with us. So she sent the rain this time. It started pouring down.

We couldn’t stop there as we were soaked up in sweat already. So we just got over with it and continued our way back. After a few minutes, The rain stopped. So did the series of unlucky events.

The guilt-ridden nature gave up finally and gave off a view that left us speechless. The breathtaking view of the hills, clouds and the atmosphere was nature’s way of saying that she made it up for us. Grateful was the only common thought that we all had in our minds after that hard-won day. It was worth every sweat and second.

Hoping that We'll encounter more of these in all other places present in our planet or atleast our country, We hit the road back home.

It was the day when I found out that every man has a traveler within. He just needs a push off his confined ledge.

St.Augustine said, “ The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

So, instead of ending up as a single chapter, Read and live on every page.

Love poured down like a drizzle

Mellow, out of nowhere.

Took me aback, when life was a meadow.

I sang, I danced, I rejoiced

On the high ground.

My dreams,

Graced me like a cool breeze.

Mixed feelings, Like the brown and pink leaves

fell down from the tree,

And threw caution to the wind.

When the heavy tears dropped down

from the sky, like a juggernaut.

“Will the storm pass?”, I hoped

While I got drenched.

And hit by the endeavours

In the path

Longing for a calm, I took a pause.

But the thunderstorm knocked me down cold.

Lying down in the muddle, covered in dirt,

The failures appeared wet and brown.

When the muddy water rinsed the cloudy eyes,

It showed a path with a vision

Clear like a diamond. I saw a redemption.

Sounds faded, water stopped,

Clouds cleared and colours poped out.

A ray of light; like God’s own torch,

Shined down all the hope in the world.

It’s different colors showed me all

the aspects of life,

That a man ought to endure

In all his life.

It picked me up and

Walked with me till the end.

It was a rainbow, it was my life!

“Hold On Pain Ends”

It should have been the abbreviation for hope, isn’t it?

As we start to progress in our life, we stumble at a point. And what do we do?

We hope.

Hope, the most beautiful thing that we have, share, receive rather than the other emotional aspects of life. Hope is not a packaged product. Even though it’s abundant in nature, it has it’s own way of reaching out to us. For example, it can vary from a book to a gap commercial. From our friends and family to people whom we meet halfway.

This is not something that we pick up and run with. Hope is something that helps pick our own self while we get knocked down like a bowling pin and makes us run towards our finish line.

90% of the movies we watch, Books we read, Songs we hear, People we met, provide us hope then and there. It’s ours for the take, simple as that.

Now, I’ve had my fair share with all the pain and sorrows that a man could face in his life. And the only thing that helps me hold my broken pieces together is, Hope.

But I’ve encountered a new enigmatic situation in my life.

The hope that I give and share with others doesn’t bode well with myself.

I constantly motivate people who go through all the trouble that I went through in my life. But I cannot imply it for my own self in the recent times which is pretty much weird, right?

Yes, this is what I’m going through right now and I’m not sure whether I’m the only person in this world who feels like this.

How can a person not follow the faith that he has on others?

How can he not hope for himself?

Did he lose the faith in himself? Does he not trust his own will?

Well, I do have trust in my own self and my will power to push myself forward when I feel that the whole world turned it’s back on me.

Then why do I still feel like this?

The answer to this weird question is a simple, scientific truth.

You fell down at a point in your life or someone or something pulled you down. You hope to let it go, forgive yourself if the fault is yours. You try to move past the point and get back with your goal intended life.

How do you do it?

You seek hope from your family, friends and the beloved in your life. You watch inspirational movies, read all morals about life through books or poetry listen to motivational songs and lectures.

What happens next? You feel that your hope is restored. And you think that your misery has ended and that you can finally get back to your normal life just like the rest of the homosapiens.

But in a short or a shorter period, you come back to square one. Where everything that prevails is grief, agony, anguish, distress, desolation, despair, misery, vexation and woe.

Now, most people follow the first step again for a couple of times or more and they make it out. But a few drown in all the above mentioned synonyms of pain.

What was their mistake? They followed everything accurately, right?

will be the most humane question in our minds.

But there lies the unspoken truth, hidden amidst of the whole thing that we’re talking about till now. Hope.

The answer lies within hope itself.

Trust. Yes, Trust the hope.

Trust the hope that you have in yourself. Getting disheartened and blaming hope is pure baloney and it’s not gonna help you anyway. You cannot just hold the bat and hope that it will get you a homerun. It won’t.

Instead of pulling yourself down and thinking that you’re the smallest person in this whole world whose hope isn’t worth a nickel, think about when, where and why you hit rock bottom.

You trusted. You hoped. Yet you failed.

That’s because you didn’t trust your hope. Hope is a scientific theory too and you need not be a scientist to prove it.

Hope reciprocates.

If you trust and respect the hope that you have in yourself. If you accept your mistakes or your past which is just a lesson and not a life sentence, your hope will open its eyes and show you the path that you were intended to pursue.

It will protect you like a guardian angel at all your perilous moments of life. It will lead you straight to your destiny and will give a hand when you get stuck in between the trenches and obstacles in your path.

This is conjecture about hope that most of us do not understand at our dark hours.

For all of them people, including myself, this is your Hence, proved.

Set your goals, Shut up, stay quiet, work your extremity out.

If you fail, then fail. Fail as many times as possible. But each and every time, your failure should teach you a lesson and explain your mistake. And every time you fail, Hope for a success the next time. Trust the hope like your life depended on it. Success will come knocking your door like a pizza delivery.

Then clap for your self, live out in style, repeat. That’s enough motivation to make you go forward like a clockwork.

Now go grab you dreams and your dreams will come grab you.

Greetings readers, I’m just a rookie writer who’s trying to engender something meaningful out of my dispassionate life. Pardon my article since it’s the very first that I’ve ever published. I assure you that the forthcoming might be worth reading.

Regards,

Shravan Raghav.