Shivani talks about mental health

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By Faz Zia

WE all looking and searching for some answer in life, this era has given us many comforts with technology and other materialistic things but for such ease we have paid a heavy price. We have lost our peace of mind, inner strength and happiness, comparing our lives to those on social media and being completed conflicted. Now is the time to get that inner power back and take control of our lives.

People are turning to spiritual alignment through yoga, meditation and mindfulness. There is one very prominent name which stands out which is Sister Shivani Verma from Brahma Kumaris, they teach Rajyog meditation with centres all over the world in 140 countries and it is free of charge to learn. 
A known personality and face of Brahma Kumaris is sister Shivani who is touring UK and Europe. I was very fortunate to have time with her and talked about many mental health issues and how positive thinking can change a life. She is a very supportive and humble personality and when you sit with her you can feel the positive vibes and peace illuminating from her. 

She is a gold medallist engineer so when I asked her about her transition to join the Brahma Kumaris she smiled and said that “my life was perfect, everything was going good and there was no stress;but my parents were started to going to Brahma Kumaris centre and I was going with my grandparents in my childhood. However after I lost touch but gradually I saw transactions in my parents and in the house like you are emotionally strung owards things and situations in life, so for me it was a gradual journey it was not a sudden change.”
Q: As a woman how do you manage your personal and BK life?
Shivani:In life the most important is thought management, not time management. If you decide the timetable but if during this something happens then you can’t do it according to timetable because there is no thought management. The right thoughts when you do meditation and be on the spiritual journey then thoughts are less and not tiring, the mind remains light then everything is easy to do.
Q: People think they are very positive but as soon they face any turbulence in life their positive attitude changes into negativity, how can someone remain positive?
Shivani: If they change, it means they haven’t worked on theirselves properly. Positive thinking doesn’t mean what I am going to do and what I am going to achieve, positive thinking means whatever situation comes in your life you will be thinking positive. Such as something doesn’t come according to your plan but you remain positive and not going into negative thoughts, then you are a positive thinker in an unpleasant situation. If you are a powerful soul then you will never get into negativity. Let’s dedicate at least an hour in the morning for self care “Me Time”, nourish your soul.
Q: Is Brahma Kumaris a religious institution? 
Shivani: Brahma Kumaris is a spiritual institution where we study soul connection with Gods energy. This is a study in our centre and people come from all faiths, religions and different walks of life to study Rajyog meditation to connect to your God whatever you practice. 
Q: How can we take charge of our happiness in life?
Shivani:What is happiness? Means in any situation what comes in our life, how we think and how our mind is in a peaceful place. For example, someone say something and your mind gets disturbed, your happiness is finished, if you are stuck in traffic and late for meeting, your happiness disappears, now in similar many situations if you stay calm and kept and intact with your happiness and not losing in life small situation then you are happy. 
Q: Power of withdrawal from negativity inside and outside, how can we obtain this?
Shivani:We need to replace the negativity with purity, for this you need daily meditation and to study it; such as if I have habit (Sanskar) to get angry easily then do meditation every morning focus on peace and then it will be less day by day towards calmness and peace. Get rid of sanskar of anger and replace it with peace, this is our inside withdrawal, now outside people have their own energies and sanskar. When two people meet they get energy exchange, if I am angry and you get upset, it means my energy influences you, or if I am very angry but you remain calm and peaceful, it means you are intact with yourself because of daily meditation then my energy can’t influence you and eventually your peaceful energy can calm me down. Nothing can disturb us if we are strong and powerful inside. 
Q: What are the reasons for mental health issues, stress, anxiety, is there no belief within?
Shivani: Mental health is depression and what comes after that? When someone commits suicide, it is because of depression which they didn’t know about and nobody else realised their situation or they didn’t get help for their undiagnosed depression and they are unaware that they are going through depression. We need awareness, people should know, parents should know, because they need to make a change in their behaviour and get them help. If they don’t talk, not eating properly, not going out, not sleeping properly, they need to check signs and get help. It is very important to have awareness and compassionate to people around us. Any behaviour change which lasrs more than 15 days, check with professionals and don’t delay. Most people we lose because they didn’t get help on time, so need of the hour is to really be sensitise to behavioural change of the people around you.
Q: What is one message you can give to our readers?

Shivani: Most important is to look after your emotional health, so you can’t go into depression. We start talking that stress is normal, fear is normal, so we take all these things as normal and we do it collectively; then what happens the energy you feel gets lower then it effect us. On that time we are going through with low phases in our life, then the situation hits me and I shift from emotional health issues to mental health issues. So one person can start in the house who can radiate the positive power, so that person can get others out from bad phases. Here spirituality helps, if spiritual health is good your emotional and mental health can be perfect. So the seed is spirituality. 

Her program “Awakening with Brahma Kumries “is a very popular among viewers and millions of people watch that show every morning.