The one with love

Dear Mynd aims to create and encourage conversations around mental health. We do this through stories and that simple fact that connects us all: our human experiences. We are, after all, our stories. And our stories are us.

This episode of Dear Mynd explores the theme of the sheer power of solitude, the freedom that comes with choosing one’s own company, willingly and exuberantly. In her poem, To Want to Love, Shreya Ramachandran touches upon themes such as the dichotomy of wanting company and wanting only one’s own company, the weight of love and wanting to love, and the revelation that love, when asked for, can find its way to the asker.

Details of the episode

• That love can be a choice one makes, not something to fall into unconsciously.
• The sometimes contradictory nature of wanting love and wanting to be alone.
• How acceptance of self is the most important love there is.

Meet the host

Srividya Sivakumar is a reader, a teacher, and a speaker. But what really occupies her mind are those strange things that come hardbound or within soft paperbacks or on a device.  Books. Yes, she’s a self avowed bibliophile and a firm believer in the magic that 26 letters and a few punctuation marks can create.  A critically acclaimed poet, TEDx Speaker and a Voiceover Artist, Srividya believes in using her voice as a vehicle – one that drives change, sparks conversations, inspires calm and encourages you – to slow down, one story at a time.

Author bio

Shreya Ramachandran is a writer based in Mumbai, and her debut young adult novel, ‘The Worlds Within You,’ was published by Penguin India in 2022. It was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar Award, 2023.

Resources

To Read

• Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
• Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
• Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

To Listen

• Maja Francis- Anxious Angel
• Me, Myself and I – Beyoncé
• Let It Be – The Beatles

QOTD

How do you navigate the need for social interactions and the need to have solitude?

Write to Srividya – srividya@myndstories.com

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