Behind the Scenes

Dear Health Collective tribe, patrons, contributors and supporters, we see you and the work that you've been doing and we know you see us so taking a moment to share some of our work behind the scenes, and what's coming up next, including for members!

1. Youth Voices: I've been struck by how articulate, thoughtful and brave the young ones are. (You know you've crossed middle age when you talk about 'youth' in a slightly different tone of voice!) But from recent interactions – whether in Jaipur a few months ago, to conversations over the past few months (and even prior), engagement with college students and others on the cusp of young adulthood has been really enriching. They think about the big issues, they sometimes struggle to have open conversations at home (and it's been very gratifying to hear good things about how helpful our title Young Mental Health is in this regard, please grab a copy if you haven't already!)

And so... we're renewing our commitment to feature more youth voices where we can. We have the very articulate 17-year-old Manini Meredith Alva making the case for an Adulting 101 course to help ease up the transition from high school to college and beyond. (I love it!)

"Such a course would help bridge that gap and prepare teenagers for the long and winding road that is their life. This course should include topics like basic housekeeping skills such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry on the one hand and financial literacy topics such as budgeting, banking, bill payments, systematic investment plans (SIP), mutual funds, etc. Algebra and trigonometry are taught from the age of thirteen, but how to handle your taxes or budget your finances is not given the same amount of importance." – Read more here

(Bonus: You can also read an earlier piece by the equally talented Vera Povaiah here on exam stress getting out of hand)

Note: There's also another recent creative piece called Bliss Sick that I also found intriguing, by youth voice Chitra Nathawat, an aspiring journalist!

2. Ways and means to recharge: It's not just about self-care but *how you make time for it. We'll focus on things we can do to recharge the grey cells, give ourselves the time to engage meaningfully and dip in and out of pop culture, with ZERO pressure on our readers and ourselves. To that extent, we've shared a book review here by Asma on The Other Side of Silence: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir of Depression, and a quick take here by Vanita Singh Fernandes here on iParent: Embracing Parenting in the Digital Age.

Personally, I've also shared this via X:

Two very different but incredible books I read recently, one is the brand new Knife by Salman Rushdie (so good, so moving) and the other is the Booker Prize winning Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (genuinely funny, heart-breaking, poignant) – a book that's been out for several years, but I'm getting around to now! Let me know if you read these and if you too enjoy the zero pressure approach!

3. Our third Talking/ Listening Circle on Grief is up: We have a therapist-facilitated talking/ listening circle on Grief and Bereavement today (May 1). People have joined in the past to share, listen, hold space. If you see this before 4 pm IST, you can still reegister via this link to book a spot but don't forget to DM or email us to let us know so we can add you! We should have one more session in June; these are small-group and off-the-record.

Members' Corner: Working on the special EXTRAAAAs for Members while keeping our work as non paywalled and free/ freemium to access as possible, whilst staying sustainable. Some of you have noticed we have a limited-seat membership for patrons (check out here!) and we have some great digital art, members-only merch and swag coming your way soon.

Note: You can also of course do the 'buy me a coffee' as a one-off to support our work – every rupee helps us get on the sustainable path!

PS PS PS

Speaking gigs: I recently had the opportunity to address 100+ teachers and principals on Young Mental Health via FindYourFit (send me a note if you want to hear more! there were apparently 500 in the waiting room).

I also got a chance to appear on a panel with some mental health champions for NDTV Yuva Conclave (young people!) as well as a Times of India Health Day conference. Select speaking events to spread the good word, and hopefully more to come in this space – stay tuned!

Look at this group!

(The livestream is here)

And finally, gratitude.

A big thank you for being part of our journey these past 7? 8? years! Can you believe it'll be 8 years since our debut! (Well our first piece was pulled from the archives and pubbed in 2015 with permission but our real first original content was a call to action back in June 2016!!)

We've benefited from so many voices in the ecosystem, and have been delighted to play a small part in extending and expanding the conversations (including in Hindi & Tamil), and thanks to some of you for the advice and tips and suggestions on how to get into sustainable mode! We appreciate you! 💜