A Guide On The Side

Bhaavin Shah had to confront early trauma in order to find his life purpose and success as a self-help teacher.

Looking back, I seem to have undergone the hero’s journey. Mythologist Joseph Campbell talks of how a potential ‘hero’ begins his journey with ‘trauma’ only to discover a certain ‘elixir’ that he later shares as his unique ‘gift’ with the world.

As a child, I was pretty complex and touchy. I would think and feel way more more than I should. As a result, I led an emotionally turbulent life by the time I was in my mid-teens. While on the one hand, I graduated with flying colours as an engineer from the country’s premiere engineering institute VJTI, on the other hand, I was sporadically depressed for upwards of a decade, suffered from bouts of anxiety and insomnia, and contended with all sorts of body aches. To boot, the universe blessed me with enough button-pushers to bring gut-wrenching emotions to the fore. It was excruciating. Anybody else in my place would have died a thousand deaths.

Right perception

In hindsight, I realise that all this agony was actually a training ground to make a stronger, wiser and more deeply empathetic person out of me. My struggles also acclimatised me firsthand with the best of wisdom traditions and healing modalities. My illness was not born from any personal negativity; it was actually an answer to my prayers for unlocking my spiritual power. To be able to revalue my traumatic past through a meaningful lens is perhaps the first foundation of all my success in life.

A sense of studentship