Inner Space

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Inner Space Turns 11! - Our One Most Important Learning About Mental Health

Inner Space Turns 11! – Our One Most Important Learning About Mental Health

We turned 11 years old on the 26th of December! This time, we thought of sharing our one most important learning about mental health with you. This is the one thing that has stood out the most over all our work in the last 11 years. Working with this seemed to strengthen resilience of people no matter what their age or situation. That learning is – Mental health is the ability to ‘stay’ with situations. What does this mean? Pick up any situation – a hectic vacation, a difficult relationship, a stressful job or a pandemic. What is the 1 thing that determines how well we are as the situation ebbs and flows? It is our ability to stay with the situation. If we have some relationship with whatever is unfolding at this moment, we are able to go through it more peacefully. On the other hand, if we don’t have any relationship with the present situation, we remain caught up in suffering. This suffering could look like loops of ‘why me’ – ‘why is my nose like this?’, ‘why is my relationship not good?’, ‘why is my life like this?’. We ruminate, we become closed, fearful and resentful. Our mental health suffers.  As this insight became clearer to us, we were convinced that working on looking inwards and staying with oneself is indispensable to mental health. This became a part of our psychotherapy, group workshops, courses, our work with NGOs and other corporate organizations. Here is a snapshot of the year gone by- Transition to Working Online For Good One big change this year was that we surrendered our office space and moved to a fully online mode of work. Big as this step was, it came with the ability to work together even if the team was in different parts of the country!  Ongoing Mindfulness Meditation Courses 8 Week Mindfulness Meditation Course We created our signature 8 week mindfulness meditation course in a robust online cum webinar format. After a lot of thought into how this could be best done online, we came up with a format where course videos are shared with participants over the week. Towards the end of each week, there is a live webinar for further discussion, Q & A and meditation practice. Our First Online Mindfulness Program for Children! We have been doing the Breathing Happiness Program for Children since 2019. This time, we decided to do it online. We were overjoyed to discover how well the children took to it even in an online format! Inspired by this, we also conducted a mindfulness session for parents and children on Children’s Day. Mindfulness Based Train the Trainer Programs with Non Profit Organizations This year, we did mindfulness based train the trainer programs with 4 non profit organizations – OSCAR, CHIP Mumbai, Enabling Leadership and Saath Charitable Trust,  in partnership with EMpower. These programs were all about helping trainers imbibe mindfulness practices and then incorporate it into their curriculum. Some of these programs also involved teaching them to introduce mindfulness to adults and children. As a team, we were very thrilled to be doing this! Mindfulness Programs with Corporates We also did mindfulness workshops with GroupM, ABP news and Mercury Capital. As always, it was nice to work with diverse themes like introductory mindfulness workshops, workshops customized for leaders and sessions tailored to better process emotions that were coming up due to the pandemic. A Support Circle For Young Adults Again, this is something we are thrilled about! We began a weekly support circle for young adults that one of our therapists facilitates regularly. We had been wanting to do this for a long time, since it is immensely helpful to see and hear others who are going through the same experiences and struggles! The group discussed topics like setting boundaries, motivating oneself, dealing with difficult emotions, loneliness, stress related to the pandemic and so on. A Monthly Wisdom Circle Our chief psychologist facilitated monthly wisdom circles which involve meditation, sharing and contemplation on various aspects of emotional health such as compassion to self, how to create some separation from the thinking mind and so on. This is a wonderful space to meditate and contemplate on nuggets of wisdom that come from psychology as well as mindfulness concepts. The ‘Ask the Therapist’ Platform We also began a new platform called ‘Ask the Therapist‘ where anyone can ask any questions about mental health and they will be answered by our therapists. Out of all the questions that came to us, relationship queries and queries about how to help a family member who was going through some mental health condition were asked most frequently. A Book by Our Chief Psychologist- ‘You are Simply Perfect’! One of the biggest things for us this year is that Sadia, our founder, authored a book – You are Simply Perfect! This is a book for teens and tweens catering to their emotional needs. It applies principles of mindfulness and compassion to help them cultivate a friendly relationship with themselves, which is crucial at that age. It is out for sale now!! Click here to get it now! On this note, we end this year while beginning another one. Deep gratitude to each one of you who has been a part of our journey. Have a wonderful and peaceful 2022. May you be well, may you be happy!

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Inner Space Team

Inner Space Turns 9 – Reminiscing 2019!

Inner Space Turns 9 today, 26th December. As always, it is deeply satisfying and humbling to be a part of so many lives. We feel lucky and very grateful that we get to deeply share and process something very human with everyone we meet, over and over and over again, whether in a therapy session or in a workshop. What kept us Ticking in 2019? Everyone loves good work and we are no different! Each year brings with it its own flavor. Here are some things that we loved doing in 2019! Therapy and more Therapy Well yes, this is the foundation of all our training and work. Most of us from the team have had some therapy experience even before Inner Space began in 2010, but this keeps us ticking all the way! Just to be a part of people’s lives in a free flowing, intimate way, where they share themselves as they are and we meet them as we are, is an abundant experience! Working and Interacting with NGOs This year, we did a lot of work with NGOs. We were overjoyed to facilitate mindfulness workshops for the Antarang Foundation team and the Apni Shala Foundation team. We also aligned the social-emotional learning curriculum of Apni Shala with the mindfulness principles of compassion and non-judgment, for 18 Municipal schools. This was a new, fun experience! Any work with children calls for more creativity, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Previous slide Next slide We also continued our therapy and mindfulness work with Kranti, an NGO that rescues and rehabilitates children of sex workers. We have been working on personal and trauma therapy with them for many years now and they now are an integral part of many of our mindfulness workshops! Our New Mindfulness Course! In addition to our 8 week mindfulness course (we did 4 courses this year!) and our mindfulness retreat, we were very happy to begin a new program – The Breathing Happiness Mindfulness Program for children! This has been in the pipeline for long but picked up steam after our work with Apni Shala. Our child counselor Shubhra Mehta facilitates this program. It was surprising to see how effortlessly the children took to the practice. We began a meditation circle for those who have attended our programs and wish to keep up the practice. We also now have regular guided meditation sessions on Thursdays. The more there is meditation, the happier we are! It gives us a lot of joy to watch people grow more peaceful and joyful as they meditate Previous slide Next slide Workshops for Organizations This year, we worked with Mindfulness for Engineers and their families at Tata Power, mindfulness for women at Asian Paints and Mindfulness for Leaders at Motilal Oswal and Microsoft. We also conducted a mindfulness workshop for young employees for Endurance International Group. It is wonderful to see more organizations explore this practice and explore the benefits of mindfulness for their workforce. Previous slide Next slide With this, we close this year and look forward to whatever 2020 has in store! Deep gratitude to each one of you, for all your love and support. Wishing each of you wellness and happiness in the year to come! Stay well, stay happy!

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Inner Space Turns 8!

Inner Space Turns 8! We turned 8 on the 26th of December, 2018! As always, we are excited and happy, more so because we have moved into a new office space! We feel deeply grateful towards everybody who has been with us on this journey, our clients, our therapists and staff, our readers, and whoever has interacted with us in some capacity. We work each day looking to make a difference in some way, through action, intention or through the heart. You all are a big part of what keeps us going, and we thank you for every bit of it! Inner Space in 2018 We’ve put together snippets of how this year was for us and some highlights of the year.   We have a New Office! The biggest change this year was that we moved into a new office space, the inauguration of which we held recently! In addition to bringing in fresh energy and novelty, this space also has a dedicated meditation hall that we are very excited about! Geshe Lobsang Tenzin graced our center with his peaceful, embodied presence. He conducted a meditation session for us and blessed the center. It was a beautiful experience. Previous Next Our Meditation Workshops We hold mindfulness meditation workshops through the year. As always, we feel joyful to hold these workshops and create a space for mindfulness, rest and compassion. This year, we conducted: An eight week course on mindfulness and meditation A mindfulness based psychotherapy course A mindfulness meditation retreat, Introductory mindfulness workshops Previous Next Workshops in Organizations We also feel grateful and happy to have conducted mindfulness meditation workshops in more organizations this year. Among others, we conducted mindfulness workshops for :- Employees and their families at Tata Power Senior Leaders at Mercedes Benz Women employees at Asian Paints Students at iCall (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) A Mindfulness Retreat for Antarang Foundation Sadia Saeed, our founder and chief psychologist also represented Inner Space at the 100 Wellness Leaders’ Meet, Mexico in May 2018. Previous Next Some Sharings from the Team Entering Inner Space began the most beautiful phase of my life. Thank you Inner Space for accommodating me with so much love and warmth in the past three and half years, being patient, allowing me to make mistakes and learn from them, supporting me and giving me space to find my unique style in therapy, fulfilling all my needs and instilling in me a sense of unshakable confidence to take up bigger challenges. Gitali Chatterji, Psychologist and Counselor Working with Inner Space has been rewarding and invaluable. The physical space, team interaction and group work, Sadia’s backing when we’d be stuck with difficulties in cases and the amazing client journeys we could aide through inner space has been wonderful. Truly enriching and adequately stimulating has been my experience. Wishing all of the Inner Space team and the clients a healing, rewarding experience Kunjal Shah, Psychologist and Counselor, 2012-2018 I have seen myself grow with the space since it was founded. Sadia and my other team mates have helped me overcome many a difficulty over these years, be it personal or professional. I have found the practice of mindfulness meditation and its underlying philosophy immensely useful, both in my life as well as in therapy. I am deeply thankful to Inner Space for being a space of warmth and growth. Malini Krishnan, Psychologist and Counselor I have met so many incredible people, as clients and as colleagues, through my 6 years at Inner Space. It has been a very powerful journey, where I have grown internally, been trusted and accepted, where I have unfolded deeper realms within myself while touching other people’s lives. I feel truly grateful. Megha Tulsiyan, Psychologist and Counselor, 2013-2018. We hope to continue working as best as we can and growing with you. May each of you be well and happy, as you enter into the new year. Wishing you the best!

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2015 inner space

REMINISCING 2015: ONGOINGS AT INNER SPACE

In the wake of our 5th Birthday and the New Year turning in, we find ourselves reflectively looking back at the work we have done in the year that has gone by. As we do that, we wish to share with you all about the ongoings at Inner Space for 2015. We deeply thank each one of you for being a part of Inner Space and showing your support.

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Four

WE TURN FOUR!

This post is always my favorite post of the year because I ritually sit down with a nice cup of tea and I can indulge myself in reminiscing about all the wonderful people I saw in therapy, about their movement and growth, about all the work we put in as a team, the activities we did and all the articles we wrote thinking of all of you who read this space regularly.

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pain is an ally that lets you look within

DAY 6 : EMOTIONAL PAIN – AN UNUSUAL ALLY

In the end of this series of looking within, I want to talk about an unusual ally that aids you to look within yourself. In fact forces you to do so. –Pain. As I work with people and also with myself, I am more and more convinced that pain is actually a friend. Unless we are pained, helpless, sorrowful, we never really question or look for answers from life.

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DAY 5: SELF REFLECTION- USING PAINTINGS AS MIRRORS

Paintings, especially paintings of people, are not just beautiful pieces of art, they can also be artistic ‘mirrors’. Usually, when you look at a painting, you dwell on the art – the figures, their expressions, the colors, how they blend and change. Have you ever stopped to gaze at a painting, while remaining aware of what it brings up in you? How it makes you feel? What thoughts, memories or emotions come up within you while you look at it?

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Expressing through doodles

DAY 4: EXPRESSING EMOTIONS- DO YOU FEEL FREE TO DRAW?

The dictionary definition of doodle is to scribble or make a rough drawing absentmindedly. However, doodling, as opposed to drawing, is an activity where you can fearlessly express, without the pressure of having to meet any external standard. A doodle represents something that has meaning exclusively for you.This mental health week, let’s try and see if we can make sense of this activity more ‘present-mindedly’!

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Day 3 MHAW 2014

DAY 3: DISCOVERING SPONTANEITY- CAN YOU STEP BEYOND YOUR ROLE?

With the busy lives that people lead, everyday routines do not have too much room for spontaneity. In that cramped room of “too many things to do/not enough time”, your natural urge to explore, to try something new or to just have fun hides in a corner, eagerly awaiting its turn. You let your roles and responsibilities limit you and thus, miss out on the rest of you! In this article, read about discovering this seemingly lost idea of “spontaneity”.

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The Art of Listening