Stories of Stigma: South Asian Mental Health

Many of us struggle with setting boundaries in our personal and professional lives, and as a result, we can end up feeling resentful, and even burnt out. Setting boundaries is not always easy, but it's essential for our well-being and happiness. It's a skill that requires practice, patience, and self-awareness. Kirandeep & Drishti are joined by Nisha Desai, co-founder of Anise Health, and Marisa Nagin, LMFT to explore what it means to set boundaries, why it's important, real-life examples, and some tips + insight to help you cultivate healthy boundaries and empower you. a culturally-responsive digital mental health and well-being platform dedicated to meeting the unique needs of communities of color. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mannmukti/message

The podcast team reacts to the Netflix documentary STUTZ featuring candid conversations between actor Jonah Hill and his therapist Phil Stutz. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Jay Anand wears many hats — musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, educator, even casual table tennis player. But the release of his latest project, a title track for the Netflix India film Loop Lapeta, landed him in a new role, one of advocating for and representing the transgender community. Jay sat down with hosts Kirandeep and Chaten to share how music has shaped his life and been a pillar for his mental health. #SpeakUp --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Zarna Garg's journey from aunty to professional comedian is no laughing matter -- MannMukti podcaster Anand Jayanti reached out to her after she brought the house down at the Comedy Cellar in NYC, and she graciously treated the podcast team to the joy of sharing her passion with the world, the minefield of South Asian taboos, and tips in personal finance for the starving artist. Please listen, share, and #speakup! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Finding your definition of love in today's day and age is no small feat. With a click of a button or a swipe of a finger, you open up your hearts and your world. But how will you know that this is your person? How important is sexual chemistry or getting along with your partner's family? What can you do to build, maintain and cultivate a flourishing relationship that can last a lifetime? In this special Valentine's Day episode, producer Kirandeep is joined by her husband, Dhaarak, and Dr. Vijayeta Sinh, a psychologist and relationship resiliency expert to answer some of the burning questions on Modern Love & Relationships. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Many of us have experienced Imposter Syndrome at some point during our life. It can manifest as feelings of self-doubt, self-criticism, or critical comparisons to others that make us feel inadequate and out of place. In this podcast episode, Chaten and Kirandeep chat with Divya Robin, MHC to discuss scenarios and phases of life in which Imposter Syndrome can rear its head, understand what it really is, who can be affected by it, and how we can equip ourselves to manage it. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Many external experiences can shape our perception of how we view our bodies. Drishti and Kirandeep share an intimate and vulnerable conversation with counseling psychologist Dr. Rakhi Sen to talk about the spectrum of effect our body image can have on our lives and at the extremes can even lead to body dysmorphia or disordered eating. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Going home for the holiday can mean drastic changes to our personal space and emotional space. The MannMukti PodSquad share their experiences of going home for the holidays, how they deal with personal questions from family and friends, and how to deal with the lack of personal space! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

In this second episode of the THERAPY SERIES, Dr. Rakhi Sen sat down with producer, Drishti, to answer your therapy-related FAQS. How do I know if I need a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, a just a hot shower or a walk in the park? How do I know if your therapist is right for me? How can I help a friend that might need some support? And more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

In this first episode of THERAPY SERIES, Dr. Rakhi Sen is back for a chat with our producer Drishti, to help us learn how to navigate the conversation with our parents and family members on starting therapy and why this conversation can be so challenging. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

The MannMukti PodSquad discusses their personal experiences in navigating difficult conversations with brown parents. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Join Abhijith, Sri, and Anand, as they reflect on where we have come from as an organization and where we will go, to mark our first transition of leadership from Abhijith to Sri. This episode may or may not contain a Karan Johar inspired lightning round, wherein we discuss underwear preferences among other things! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

The MannMukti PodSquad is back with another episode of Real Talk, a series where our team of hosts chats on hot topics surrounding mental health! In this episode, you will hear Audria, Anand, Drishti and Kirandeep speak on the topic of MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA; what they feel is the root cause, their personal experiences and how they believe we can break this cycle. Press play! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

*TRIGGER WARNING*: Trauma, sexual assault, bullying & self-harm. In this episode, MannMukti Podcast hosts Kirandeep & Drishti speak with licensed psychologist Dr. Rakhi Sen to uncover the different types of trauma, intergenerational trauma, common misconceptions, how to recognize when trauma may be negatively affecting you and how to start the process of healing trauma. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Tune in to our new series Real Talk w/The MannMukti PodSquad where the podcast team engages in discussion on hot topics in mental health. On this episode, you will hear producers Anand, Audria, Chaten, and Kirandeep ask a series of questions to get to know each other and for you to get to know us. Press play to meet the team! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

In a follow-up interview, Parag Mehta & Vaibhav Jain share the details of the challenge to register their same-sex marriage in India and their role in breaking down the stigma and inequalities of marriage within the LGBTQ+ community. Hosted by: Audria & Kirandeep --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Dr. Ankita Krishnan chats with Anand Jayanti about her journey into child psychology, how she navigates complex parent-child dynamics, and what parents can do to raise children with a therapeutic mindset. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Comedy can be a way to process tragedy and joy alike. Audria and Anand sit down with comedian Nimesh Patel to chat about his personal interest in mental health, what can and can't be funny, and how COVID-19 has provided a “renaissance” of sorts for creators amidst all the pain and chaos. Check out Nimesh Patel's latest ventures: Instagram: @findingnimesh YouTube, including his animated series, Zoo Idiots: youtube.com/c/NimeshPatelComedy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Kirandeep is joined by Dr. Jasmine Singh to discuss the heartbreaking story behind the now trending #BreakTheStigma4Nima, the spectrum of PostPartum Mood Disturbances, and the Mental Health Stigmas that plague the South Asian community. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

MannMukti Podcast Co-Producer Kirandeep joins in conversation with Aparna Sagaram, LMFT (@reflectionswithatherapist) to discuss the role of self-compassion in healing two differing but related self-conscious emotions: Shame & Guilt --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Shameem Patel, a 1st grade teacher, shares the educator's side of the school opening debate. Along the way, we discuss child psychology, parental strategies for facilitating home learning, and how to deal with going viral on Twitter.  Find Shameem @meemiecat on Twitter and @livefromfirstgrade on IG. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

The MannMukti Podcast Team collaborates to bring you the very first installment of the Round Table Talk! Anand, Audria, Chintan, Kirandeep & Parth discuss the important current topic of the Role of South Asians in the Black Lives Matter Movement. *Disclosure: These views are solely that of the producers themselves and not of MannMukti as an organization* --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Parag Mehta & Vaibhav Jain sit down with co-producers Kirandeep & Audria to share their experience following the viral wedding speech given by Parag's Father. This LGBTQ Pride Month special episode gets candid on how to embrace love, be an ally, and #SpeakUp on mental health struggles. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

I (Parth) sat down with Amrit Kapai from Family Karma so he can share his journey of coming out and being such a powerful advocate for the LGBTQ community in light of Pride month. He was extremely articulate with his thoughts and I enjoyed having this conversation with him. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on not only to be confident about yourself, but how others like myself can be an ally! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mannmukti/message

Kirandeep joins in conversation with Sahaj Kohli, creator of Brown Girl Therapy to discuss the FAQs surrounding the topic of therapy, coping with the COVID 19 Pandemic 'Stay at Home' orders and the actualities of being a first-generation child of an immigrant and minority.

Relationships are often difficult to navigate in the beginning, and all the more fraught now that communication itself has changed in such dramatic ways. Where in the past, we hurt each other and learned how to be better by being around each other more, it’s getting more and more easy to avoid the lessons of intimacy with another person. I’ve been guilty of this kind of lapse and I feel like there’s a lot I don’t have a chance to learn except when it’s too late. So as always, I called my bullshit detector-in-chief, Audria Choudhury, to explore practical solutions to this and many more of life’s problems.

Kirandeep & Mohan discuss reactions and emotions surrounding the sudden death of Kobe Bryant, and why celebrity deaths affect us.

No pings, likes, or double-taps, oh my! Social media is an everyday norm for 3.5 billion people around the world, and while it has the power to bring people and ideas together, there are studies showing it can make people feel more disconnected than ever. MannMukti veteran, Anand, and rookie co-producer, Audria, talk about the role social media plays in their lives, and what effects cutting it all out for one week has on their mental health.

This month, we sat down with Ms. Parul Mehta and Ms. Tejal Shah Sahasrabudhe from South Asian Austin Moms (http://www.southasianaustinmoms.com/) to discuss their mission of bringing the community together through the medium of dance and social events and how that lead them on to creating a safe space for women and children to thrive and grow into.

In this podcast, Parth Badhiwala interviews the CFO of Dil to Dil: Sachin Doshi where they talk about the importance of social support and community in fighting social isolation. To learn more about Dil to Dil and if you're interested in takeovers, please check them out on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @diltodil

We sat down with Coach Shanita Liu to talk about the state of mental health in our community and why burnouts are on the rise! ---------- Coach Shanita Liu, MPA, CPC teaches women how to say bye to burnout. As a certified transformational life coach, workshop facilitator, speaker, and reiki practitioner, she shows women and girls how to tune in and reconnect to their courage, power, and strength so that they can stop sacrificing themselves and start transforming what’s in their hearts into realities. Her career path includes community-building events for families, college success programs for first-generation students, and professional salsa dancing. You can follow her @CoachShanita and learn more about healthy hacks to address burnout at http://coachshanita.com/hacks.

In this podcast, I invited 3 beautiful ladies from Canada who've created a podcast to help create cross generational change within the south asian community. Harpreet, Nimrat, and Simran talk about life coaching, creating conversations through podcasts (Check them out on Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud), and offering toolkits surrounding mental health on their Instagram page. Tune in and watch how fun aunty is on this podcast!

With Minute Meditations, MannMukti aims to help all of our listeners attain inner peace and strength. In today's fast pace world, we often forget to take a breather and realign our spirits. This leads to stress, anxiety and slew of other issues. Let us take a minute out of our lives and refresh our minds and rejuvenate our spirits. **Please Follow as This Playlist will Continue to Populate with More Tracks in Future** Meditations Conducted by Anand Jayanti

With Minute Meditations, MannMukti aims to help all of our listeners attain inner peace and strength. In today's fast pace world, we often forget to take a breather and realign our spirits. This leads to stress, anxiety and slew of other issues. Let us take a minute out of our lives and refresh our minds and rejuvenate our spirits. **Please Follow as This Playlist will Continue to Populate with More Tracks in Future** Meditations Conducted by Anand Jayanti

With Minute Meditations, MannMukti aims to help all of our listeners attain inner peace and strength. In today's fast pace world, we often forget to take a breather and realign our spirits. This leads to stress, anxiety and slew of other issues. Let us take a minute out of our lives and refresh our minds and rejuvenate our spirits. **Please Follow as This Playlist will Continue to Populate with More Tracks in Future** Meditations Conducted by Anand Jayanti

With Minute Meditations, MannMukti aims to help all of our listeners attain inner peace and strength. In today's fast pace world, we often forget to take a breather and realign our spirits. This leads to stress, anxiety and slew of other issues. Let us take a minute out of our lives and refresh our minds and rejuvenate our spirits. **Please Follow as This Playlist will Continue to Populate with More Tracks in Future** Meditations Conducted by Anand Jayanti

In this podcast, we talk to Ms. Supriya Kini about her struggles and triumphs in life and parenting. How she chose to change her parenting to fit her children's needs, the importance of being vulnerable to your kids.

Join psychiatrist Dr. Manizeh Mirza-Gruber and MannMukti Ambassador Aproteem Choudhury as they explore how the breath can inspire and support awareness in each of our journeys to wellness and peace.

The Power of Finding Your Self-Worth to Conquer Your Dreams by MannMukti

This week, we talk to two members of the MannMukti family who've chosen to remain anonymous but tell the story of their relationship, considerations to take when your partner has anxiety, and some clever ways to make arguments productive. We hope you listen, share, and speak up!

Introducing the new Podcaster for Mannmukti. Giving a bit of a background of who he is and why he wants to be a podcaster for this organization. Keeping it very light, fun and simple, we hope to get you just as excited as he is for the guests he will bring in for the podcasts next year!

You've heard of Uber; you've heard of Yelp. Now there's OOTify, a new platform for users seeking resources like therapy and life coaching to find professionals who offer those services on a streamlined, vetted, privacy secured medium. Today, we have as our guests Ravi Sharma and Michael Quinones, the founders of OOTify. We hope you listen, share, and speak up.

Pooja Mamidanna, a Pre-Licensed Psychologist and Marriage/Family Therapist talks to our CEO Abhi Ravinutala about her experiences and differences in dealing with clients in India and United States. She mentions the complex nature of mental health and how indirect family situations and conflicts can affect client's kids' mental health directly and how she manages to fight the stigma surrounding mental health to provide the right therapy to her clients.

What are the biological components of mental illness? How do parents and children begin to understand each other? What forces conspire to cultivate a mind for mental health work? Dr. Maitreyee Lund, a psychiatrist and educator with Synergy Psychiatry in Austin and Texas A&M Health Science Center, joins us to tackle these questions and more. We hope you listen, share and speak up.

This week's ep, which falls during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, features our very own Vaidehi Gajjar, who not only has experienced assault, but also found herself afterwards. We hope you listen, share, and speak up.

What does it feel like to approach a counselor? How do South Asian students uniquely talk about mental health? We talk about these practical questions and more with Chandni Shah, a licensed Counseling Psychologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an officer of the Division on South Asians of the Asian American Psychological Association. She talks to us about her intersecting passions for social justice and mental health, and what she's learned from speaking with students. Listen to Chandni, and you're sure to feel more comfortable about considering therapy! Musical feature: Whitewoods ft. Chintan. Find them at https://bit.ly/2Gmhzrd.

In this episode, Saajan Bhakta shares his story of recovery from a place of doubt and isolation to one of philanthropy, empathy, and optimism. We hope you listen, share, and speak up.

In this episode, we focus on a different topic than usual. Instead of talking to us about her own experience with mental health, Anita Wadhwani talks to us about watching her loved ones suffer through mental illness. She bares the tough parts of her family's story: taking care of her schizophrenic mother and dealing with her brother's suicide. Listen to her incredibly honest story to learn about how to care for others, how to care for yourself, and where to find joy in the tough moments. Musical feature: Mr.Wllms ft. Shama. Find him at @mrwllms.

In this episode, Faria Akram, VP of Marketing at Mannmukti, and Anand Jayanti, your faithful podcaster, talk about experiencing the holidays from a South Asian perspective, with all of the associated baggage, expectations, and joy. We hope you enjoy, share, and speak up!

In this episode, we highlight someone who’s doing their part to break the stigma! Jai Gandhi, a psychiatry resident in Seattle, started his own radio show to discuss South Asian mental health. Jai talks to us about the good and bad of the show, and what he learned about sharing stories with South Asians. We’ll also hear some of his thoughts on stigma and mental health care. Be sure to listen, share, and #SpeakUp! Music on today's episode is brought to you by Vik Sevak aka Junglee. Listen to more of his beats at www.soundcloud.com/junglee-1.

We know how a negative relationship with your parents can affect your mental state. But, what about if you have a good relationship with your parents? Can you still expect mental strain? Listen in as two of MannMukti's very own talk about how their relationships with their parents has changed over the years and it has effected their mental health. Music on today's episode was provided by Mandippal. Find him @mandippal on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and at mandippal.com.