FINDING YOURSELF

Hinge: (Re)discovering emotional and mental wellbeing

- ANJULY MATHAI

By Vandana Kohli

Published by Rupa

In her book, Hinge, Vandana Kohli advocates a dynamic stability in our lives. She quotes a letter Albert Einstein wrote to his son in 1930, comparing living to riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Although she says that such balance is the norm and does not require enormous reserves of strength and will power to maintain, mental imbalance in our society is becoming increasingly prevalent. Hinge is a thesis on why this is so, and how you can regain emotional wellness in your life.

The book is divided into three sections: Normal, Unhinge and Hinge. In the first section, she talks about various norms in society that impact our well-being. The second part delineates the reasons you might come mentally unhinged, resulting in anger, personality and bipolar disorders, depression, inability to focus and scattered thoughts, among other things. The third part offers an antidote to the above problems and propounds ways in which you can lead a healthy and centred life.

The book lies at the intersection of science and spirituality. The cited surveys, empirical data and expert inputs in the first half give way in the second to a greater emphasis on Hindu philosophical thought and ancient wisdom that she has drawn from personally. Much of this is practical advice that can be implemented.