Insights from the inside

September is Suicide Awareness and Recovery Month. Dr. Serena Wadhwa explores why we struggle to talk about suffering — and what blocks us from being vulnerable.

After 27 years in Chicago, Dr. Serena Wadhwa reflects on moving, anxiety, recovery, and the pendulum of life transitions — and what starting over really means.

I’ve been preparing for August’s podcast on Happiness. Researching the topic, I discovered I have far too many books on the topic than I realized. Who collects happiness books? Was I really that unhappy at some point that I thought I would find the answers in the books I splurged on? Perhaps. I don’t know.

June is a transitional month. Traditionally, spring transitions into summer, a transition into different weather and activities, and for many, no school. It also follows mental health awareness month, is inclusive of its celebrations, and may mean a different schedule or routine for many.

Last weekend I taught a stress-intensive course; as students identified stressors and signs and symptoms of stress, I explored a holistic model of stress, one I developed by blending Western and Eastern approaches (evidence-based practices and energy healing systems), and reviewed numerous stress prevention, management, reduction, and recovery strategies. The students received information and skills and had opportunities to experience some of the interventions to the extent they were comfortable doing so. 

It’s a new month, and most of the time, it cues my brain with various associations like watering my plant or a payment that may be due. This month, it was something different. Not to be cryptic (yet I will be for the moment), I think of the million random (or not so random) events and things (synchronicities, if you will) that happened for this moment to occur.

I read an article by Judith Simmer-Brown on the notion of romantic love. My understanding of how she
conceptualized romantic love is that it’s similar to pursuing “unattainable” but desired qualities. She
describes how romantic love thrives on separation, fantasy, passion, and suffering. She states that
“…romantic love glorifies unhappiness”.

Now and then, I enjoy a good action-packed movie like Mission Impossible, where the character completes
tasks that are amazing and challenging. Yet find this title to be interesting, as each mission proved possible to
complete.

Initiating a “new beginning” seems to trigger some interesting things.  There’s this period of doubt, fear, and
vulnerability.  “Am I making the right choice?”, “Is this really what I want?”, “What was I thinking?” among, I
imagine, a host of other things.