South Asian Mother of one and support worker. My experience over my personal and professional life is that within the Asian community mental health is still seen as a difficult situation to talk about. It’s still frowned upon within families and still a huge taboo! There are so many mental health conditions that all communities are not aware of. Generations are still trying to understand how they can help & support their family as well as themselves. As Asians we are brought up to respect our elders and not to do no wrong when given advise from them. However, we still fear open communicati ..read more

42 Years old,  UK In July 2018 after over a year of recovering, I started to self-harm again! The reason I started to self-harm was me screaming for help and attention. Since 2017 I was a victim of Domestic Abuse. This led to malicious communication to my family and certain Sikh Organisations that I volunteered with. My perpetrator was threatening my family. I first turned to the Police who let me down very badly and then I had to resort to getting a Solicitor to put protection in place. As a result of all of this, in June 2018 I had a mental breakdown. I couldn’t leave my flat to even pu ..read more

Intro to me and my Cancer journey in 5 emotions fight Well I’m your usual type of second generation Asian British lad, I’m short annoying, loud. Ahh yes and I have cancer. Chronic a Myeloid Leukaemia to be precise. I want to start by saying that I am one of the lucky ones. Why you might ask. Well it’s simple, I get to live. Others are not so lucky. I wasn’t sure how this particular blog / blogs would be formed, as with most of my writing they form eventually after I mull things over in my head and I eventually get to what I am doing now. The actual writing of it. I’ve broken down the blogs in ..read more

It started with constantly checking the news, refresh…refresh…refresh…any, new, news? Anything more of this virus; I, once thought was so far away and now was on the doorstep. It started as a blanket ‘oh only 3% of the people who contract it, die, it’s not a big deal!’. Well it has become a big deal, as it was affecting those most vulnerable and it has scoured the Earth taking most countries hostage. Living in a family which has two vulnerable people in it, I wondered how long I would have to continue travelling on the tube and looking at faces of people who unknowingly carried this invisible ..read more

Tomatoes and Turbans Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh.  First and foremost, I would like to thank Maharaj for giving me the opportunity to write this blog post for Sikh Forgiveness. Without their endless blessings nothing would be possible. Sikh for Forgiveness are doing a great sewa of raising awareness of mental health related issues such a job stress, depression and anxiety.  Depression and Anxiety is one of those things that can just hit you. One moment you’re feeling fine / ‘top of the pops’ and the next minute you are feeling so depressed and miser ..read more

40 Years old London.  2017 was my year of standing back up tall and getting on with things. That’s when I started to deal with all the problems that had accumulated, at that stage after 13 years of marriage. It was abuse, mental abuse and some physical for at least 5 years. Yes, Domestic Abuse. It took a lot to accept that. I didn’t realise until she attacked me physically. Few times she lashed out when she didn’t get what she wanted. I don’t remember much of it, because in addition to the abuse, was depression. I didn’t admit it for years; however, I was diagnosed with depression in 2013 ..read more

By Prableen Kaur Grief… it’s a complicated word. It’s different for everyone and everyone experiences it very differently. There are so many different aspects that make every death so different.There is no right or wrong way to grieve. We all just figure it out when it happens. There are of course some particular ways to grieve in Punjabi culture that tries to force itself on you. That being, the crying of women heavily in a room and then telling you that you must do it too. No one should be pressured into any kind of grieving. It should always be your choice.  It’s been 6 years since my ..read more

My name is Ramneet Kaur and I was born and raised in Canada. I grew up in a Punjabi household and was taught about the Sikh faith and Punjabi culture by my grandmother and parents. A couple of years back, I completed my Bachelor of Child Studies at Mount Royal University and have been working in Early Childhood education. I’ve always been interested and enjoyed styling both western and Punjabi clothing. My fashion has become an expression of my identity as a Sikh woman in the western world. I’ve been sharing this part of my identity for over 2 years and IG has become a creative outlet for me ..read more

Dear Sangat, Why Sikh Forgiveness? Let me entice you on my journey… I’m a young Sikh healthcare professional, clinical hospital pharmacist at the least. The stories I have heard and witnessed on the wards, behind the curtains, and more so over this year is enough to bring chills down my spine every time I let my thoughts wander. Working in one of the biggest Covid-19 hub’s in London amidst the global pandemic has no doubt been a challenge for myself, colleagues, patients and families. It’s the time where we’ve loved harder than ever, lost those close to us whilst feeling helpless every step of ..read more

Since the Coronavirus aka COVID-19 pandemic took over the world, I feel like I’m living a surreal experience. I keep asking myself “is this real?” It’s as if the world is being held captive in their homes by a virus with new symptoms being uncovered each day. It doesn’t matter how powerful or rich a person is, no one has control over this virus. It just proves that no one has any say against God. But more than anything, this pandemic is exposing people’s true colours. For example, the people who are walking around in crowds as if nothing serious is going on, just prove that they don’t care abo ..read more