How my personal journey allowed me to help others and normalise these conversations

By Aakanksha Kapoor

I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and my heart beating out of my chest. I thought maybe I didn’t keep the AC on at the right temperature or maybe it’s a weird form of PMS. It happened a few more times and one day I was sweaty with my heart racing that it would explode, in the middle of a call. This was way back in 2016. 

Anxiety has different ways of manifesting in different people but if you catch it at the right time, you can stop it from crippling you. While talking about anxiety, what a lot of us forget is that anxiousness is a feeling that we already have in our bodies. Like stress, it’s our brain’s way of preparing us. It’s normal to feel anxious before a big meeting, going on stage and going to a new place for the first time. But if that anxiety stops you from functioning, that’s when it’s time to reach out and get help.

I was already in therapy when I had my short anxiety episode. But for a long time, I didn’t know why I really was going to therapy. Maybe that was the reason for my anxiety attack. I saw my sessions as a place to vent, talk about absolutely random things but I never truly reflected on the things my therapist would say. It’s only after the episode, I realised something was wrong. My relationships were falling apart, work was not giving me any joy, I used to cry randomly and I was just absolutely unhappy and I just couldn’t figure out why. 

This realization was the start of a very different journey for me in therapy. Me talking at my therapist turned into conversations, where I started addressing my insecurities, fears, thoughts and where they came from and what they made me feel. I’m not scared to say that a lot of what I felt, existed even when I was a 10 yr old. I didn’t know that then and neither did I have an emotional vocabulary to express that. I started to wonder why my school, where I spent most of my time, never gave me a space to learn more about myself.

That’s when I realized I wanted to start a program for equipping schools to be safe mental and emotional wellbeing spaces for children. 

Neevam foundation was set up with the goal to address stress, anxiety and depression amongst the youth in India and Minds At Play (MAP) is our flagship program. MAP works with children and educators to provide them with tools and resources to help them be more self-aware, understand their emotions and regulate them. It is a 4 month long preventative care program using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy & Mindfulness.

Since our launch in 2019, we have worked with 7 different schools in marginalized communities in Delhi-NCR. Through the lockdown, we have continued to work with children from 4 different organizations, providing them online classes and workshops on how to deal with the stress and anxiety caused due to coronavirus and also given them access to pro bono therapy sessions, through our partners.

We also conduct shorter online workshops and programs which are available for anyone to attend. The goal of each of our workshops is to provide easy ways for self-care, understanding one’s own thoughts and working with our surroundings to create ways to cope.

Lead Photo by Finn on Unsplash

About Aakanksha Kapoor:

Passionate about Health and Sustainability, Aakanksha started Minds At Play to address the lack of preventative mental health care in schools in India. Her work revolves around how schools can be safe spaces for children that can help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression in India.

She also heads Marketing and Retail for a Delhi based organic foods company- I Say Organic.

Aakanksha has spent the last few years understanding how emotions play a role in how we communicate and what we grow up to be. Helping others lead a healthy life and a life that they aspire to live has been one of her guiding principles and the reason behind starting Minds At Play.

She has completed a degree in Fashion Marketing from Parsons The New School For Design, New York and holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy (H) from Miranda House, Delhi University. Aakanksha is also a graduate of the Executive Social Impact Strategy Program at The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA (2019), and has completed a program in Leadership in Mental Health by Sangath, Goa. She is now a Teaching Fellow At the University of Pennsylvania.

Instagram: @mindsatplay

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakanksha-kapoor-b05aa531/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindsatplay1/

Website: coming soon

About Minds at Play:

Minds At Play (MAP) is a curriculum-based intervention using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness, under Neevam Foundation, targeting children in the age group of 7-18yrs old. MAP provides affordable preventative mental health care solutions to low-income schools in India and teaches students tools, and techniques to help them regulate their emotions, develop self-awareness, and build resilience and empathy.