Pooja Raichura is a Psychotherapist, and a Counsellor by profession. Being a certified Special Educator and Early Childhood Educator, she has been working with children of all age groups for over ten years. She is an enthusiast with a lifelong passion for learning. Being a reader for life, she believes words are the most powerful resource available to humankind. If words are used constructively, they can wonderfully transform your life. She has recently come out with the book Wellness Shots, which is a step-by-step guide to reconnect with yourself and attain your inner peace. The book will help readers to strengthen their emotional wellbeing and improve their overall quality of life.

I chat with her about her book Wellness Shots, what inspired her to write this book, book recommendations, and much more.

Hello, Pooja! Tell us a bit about yourself!

To begin with, let me share how I have believed about the superior kind of connecting association of our deep intentions, our thoughts and actions, and the outcome. Have you ever thought about the times when you wished for something, and it showed up in your life as if you placed a direct order with the Universe? Yet, you recognize and register that when you wished for something that happened, you were not even sure that you wanted it to happen, neither when you decided upon something that turned out so virtuous and upstanding that you weren't obvious about your wise decisions.

I do not consider myself as a deep thinker but a deep believer. I don't remember since when I had an urge to read. I have no clue how and when I started manifesting my dreams. Although, I’ve loved reading books that appeal to me, and listening to conversations that hold my interest, yet I never decided I would become a writer until one day I started writing. However, I feel I have been preparing for it all those years.

I believe that our thoughts, our actions, our inner intentions, and the universe dwell in alignment. Intention sets and directs the flow of Universal energy towards your desired outcome. When our actions are motivated from a place of service to serve a greater good, flow activates in our favour. And this is the power of intentions.

I would not describe myself as a person with a lot of knowledge, skills, and confidence but a person with enough self-belief, faith, and poise. I have had my own set of challenges, although they’ve made me truly resilient. That was the time I was in the making of who I am today. I think if one always tries to look on the brighter side of the planet, the planet itself ought to turn brighter. This is the power of our thoughts.

If you could only describe your book Wellness Shots in one sentence, what would it be?

It would be – ‘Immunity Shots to Unlock the Mental Lockdown’.

The magic of inner bliss lies in being your true self to reach your true potential.

Now tell us a little more about the book! What can readers expect?

It is very well proven that self-help books have the tremendous power to influence your life, your thinking and your attitude. If you’re someone who enjoys a mix of stories and philosophy, then this is the perfect book for you. It aims to make positive, constructive, and lasting changes in the reader’s lives, and to influence their behaviour for the better. The book puts to the test well known ideals such as the impact of authenticity on emotional health, gratitude journaling, power of positive thinking and many more. This is a book to help you reflect upon yourself. Living authentically, being able to understand, accept and express your emotions, trusting your ability to make the right decisions for yourself can have significant positive impacts on your health and well-being. Research shows that people who live more authentically are prone to greater psychological well-being. It is about getting to the core of your way of being.

What inspired you to write this book?

May be my mantra is as simple as this, “The best way to stay motivated is to motivate others”.

I have always wondered how strong the power of words is!

Words are the most powerful resources available to humankind. And the biggest inspiration lies in the smallest acts of humanity. Words, when used constructively, can change or transform your life wonderfully. And I’ve been experiencing the same. Inspirations from the best of the words and tiniest of the incidents urged me to spread the magic. I strongly believe that it is possible to get transformed and to be able to transform lives. Life throws trivial situations upon us. It is our responsibility to keep moving, and pick opportunities that come in the way, and learn from every experience. Nobody has read the script of life backstage. You become what you feed your mind every day, what actions you choose to take every hour, and what you feel at heart every moment. The magic lies in being your true self to reach your true potential.

And I truly believe this book will resonate with everyone.

This book, through snippets and anecdotes, describes how people can develop their emotional strength and radically transform their individual lives. Can you tell our readers more about this?

Happiness is an emotion, while bliss is a condition of mind. For instance, you know that when you start loving what you do in your day to day life, everything falls into place and you achieve inner joy.

When you know what you like or dislike and why, you know yourself better. It is said life only bothers you unless you realise your true authentic self.

The sad part is that everyone is disconnected from inside and they search for the meaning of life around the world. It’s not that the world is an unhappy or a difficult place to live in. Too many people are unhappy from inside and this spreads in the outside world. And then they attract similar experiences. It is not an event happening outside, but inside. One needs to make a conscious choice to work on inner happiness, experience it and learn for the opportunity to be more joyful and soon you will have an abundance of similar experiences.

The time you start to understand that you are responsible for everything, the attention begins to shift inward, and when you direct all your energy and attention on yourself, your inner world starts to improve and your outside world gets impacted by it.

This book will help those who wish for such a transformation. For those who already have an aim, this book will help them to achieve it. This book is a mirror. It is a mirror that you hold in front of yourself.

What do you hope readers will take away from reading this book?

The journey towards yourself is the outcome of your thoughts, true intentions, and the actions you take.

We meet thousands of people and none of them really touch us, and then we meet that one person and our life is really changed. The book revolves around the conversation happening between two strangers. The conversation and lessons shared in the book provides readers an opportunity to dive deeper into the thoughts which can change their whole perspective towards life.

When you bottle up emotions, they get to you and define who you are and how you relate with others. This can lead to emotional turmoil and feelings of inadequacy and stop you from reaching the state of self-actualization which is the ultimate psychological need of humans in order to achieve inner peace.

However, it is very much possible to achieve inner peace no matter what situations you are going through. The narratives of simple real-life experiences and short stories of different people are woven in the book, which are relatable and can help the readers to have a deep understanding of the way of achieving peace of mind, contentment and inner bliss. 

How have you been coping with the current pandemic and what will be the new normal for you post it?

For me, the pandemic was more inside me, rather than the things happening in the world around me. The bizarre coincidence is that the pandemic hit me too in three waves; phases you can say. The long held desire of spending quality time with family had come to an edge as soon as everyone started realising how staying in close proximity had a whole new set of challenges. Next in order, remote working is about more than burying yourself in a laptop. Most of the rhythms of the work place can’t be recreated. I certainly started missing out completely on my time. It became mandatory to accelerate my work practices for obtaining sustainable balance in work ‘from’ home and work ‘for’ home. And I began to write this book for myself.

The most effective thing which works best and gives positive results is being agile, and I learnt it during the pandemic.

The second phase happened when in the splurge of webinars and access to online platforms, I started to reach out and help people to know more about mental health checkups. ‘I practiced as I preached’, and locking in all the practices and habits turned out to be effective and productive.

The third phase, being the hybrid set of practices and norms with the everyday changing scenario, still helps me believe that anything is possible if you believe and work upon it. It is always what you do in the situation that matters and not what happens to you. I trust the feeling I have that the universe has been immensely kind and generous to me. Being able to cater to the needs of the family, choosing the right opportunities with the changing times, having neither lost the job nor lives is what fills me with endless gratitude.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Sure. I’ve become a big time fan of Mr. Robin Sharma. I love his flawless writing style. He is super inspiring. Reading has always been my passion. In a way, I can read everything that I get, and believe me, I have been doing that for so long. But with time I have learnt to choose very specifically what I want to read. I like both non-fiction and fiction (some specific books). Earlier I read Dale Carnegie and a few biographies. I also read lots of self help books.

For me, stories are big inspirations. I am deeply impacted by Victor Frankl, and I also loved reading the ‘Chicken Soup’ series. It’s also interesting to read Priya Kumar and Arundhati Roy. I also admire Simon Sinek’s ideologies a lot. I am bad at choosing favourites. I would label everything that is good as the ‘Best’. Books are superheroes for me. Just love them.

The book ‘Wellness Shots’ is available online and at your nearest bookstore.