Open your heart The anti-hero protagonist of God of War (GoW) is probably one of the best video game characters ever written. The character arc that has been developing since its inception has been one filled with meaning derived from being a warrior, a killer. A Spartan, Kratos moves from being a mere boy to leading a spartan army. His purpose is ever moving, while the strings are being moved by the gods. In actuality, Kratos hardly has any freedom in what he does; this led him to killing his own wife and daughter, a deceit planned by then God of war Ares. His identity, state of being & ..read more

Like many of us, school was not a very good experience for me. It always surprises me that the space where we spend most of our lives across multiple development stages is fraught with such threat & anxiety. I would find myself daydreaming, distracted or imagining scenarios that would never exist, and at times I would find myself soaked into certain proses from my English & Hindi textbooks. It’s surprising to many that I enjoyed the stories CBSE decided, and the context here is that I did not read a book until I was in 11th, so the only access to literature I had were my textbooks. Ado ..read more

The current buzzword in the world of pop-psychology is ‘toxic positivity’. It is an effort to highlight the dangers of ‘good vibes only’, and how negative emotions cannot be avoided. I wholeheartedly agree with what the term stands for, but strongly disagree with the term ‘toxic positivity.’ For some, it might seem a mere semantic issue but I feel it is far more than that, and I shall try to elaborate how. Toxic positivity has been defined as “the excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations” (Quintero & Long, 2019). Simply, it is a state ..read more

Introduction To those of you are familiar with us, it is no secret that we, at Gulmohar, love groupwork! Over the last few months, we have been running Weekly Discussion Groups as part of our response to the Covid-19 pandemic, on topics such as: Hope, Meaning and Despair Relationships The Experience of Artists (All of which are set in the Covid-19 context) As we have found these groups to be a wholesome and fulfilling experience, we are very excited to open them up to all of you! The purpose of the groups we host is usually focused on creating safe spaces for conversation and deliberation ab ..read more

What is Loneliness? Loneliness has been looked at differently by various schools of thoughts. It has been widely studied in philosophy and psychology; understood as “a state of solitude or being alone”, or as “a feeling of disconnectedness or isolation”. Existential Isolation The school of existentialism bridges the understanding of loneliness between philosophical and psychological schools. Yalom (1980) writes of existential isolation as “an unbridgeable gulf between oneself and any other being”. He contends that loneliness or existential isolation is an Existential Concern, i.e. a given of l ..read more

Introduction Suicide is the act of intentionally taking one’s own life. A person might resort to such an agonizing conclusion to their life because their experience of pain has become unbearable. Although most suicidal people feel deeply conflicted about ending their own lives, they just can’t find an alternate way to end the tremendous pain they are carrying. They see ending their life as the only option to escape their suffering, self-loathing, and isolation. Risk Factors The factors that might put someone at a risk of suicide include mental illnesses (such as Major Depressive disorder, Bipo ..read more

Introduction At Gulmohar, we believe in the enormous potential of Group Work in facilitating healing, learning and growth. We translate this belief into practice through our offerings of Therapy groups, Support groups, and discussion groups at our organization.  These groups are safe spaces for people to express themselves without judgement, share each other’s pain and joy, connect with like-minded people, and be challenged in their old and unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling and being.  Group Process  Purpose of the group What goal do we wish to establish at the end of the grou ..read more

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in“.- Leonard Cohen How many of us can say that we have gone through life completely unscathed? The answer is none of us. It’s rather impossible to go through life- especially the thick of it- and not have picked up a couple of scars along the way. Nor is it unusual for us to try and hide our scars from others- or even from ourselves. But the truth remains that we all have cracks. Some that are tiny, some that are more mighty, some in places we cannot see, some that appear small on the surface but run deep, some we have forgotten about ..read more