In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
Is your relationship causing you stress?
Are you feeling lonely, helpless, indecisive?
You are not alone!
As part of an initiative to help Rediff readers, mind/life coach, NLP trainer and mental health guru Anu Krishna wants you to talk about your problems.
Every week, Anu will answer your queries, address your concerns and offer expert advice on how you can take control of your life.
Dear readers, if you have a question for Anu, please e-mail it to getahead@rediff.co.in (Subject: Ask ANU) for her advice.
Meanwhile, here's the unedited excerpt from Anu's latest offline session with readers:
SB: Hello, I had a very disturbed childhood. My marriage was also in troubled waters with fights happening twice in a week.
Then I came across a girl who was 17 years younger than me. I am a model from a reputed college and was earning much better.
That girl became die-hard fan. Once I scolded her in the middle of the road for her advanced steps toward me like touching etc.
I was very much attached to my kids. Then she became friendly with my 2-3 year old kids.
After 2 years of relationship we became physical. I used to send her Rs 3,000-4000/ month for her expenses in her engineering college.
She used to hug me, love me (acted like she did). When my father expired, I was low. She was there during all those dark times.
Then she got a job and broke up with me. She came back to me after a year. Instead of kicking her out, I got addicted to her and changed myself to keep her happy.
I even went to her native town to assist her during super cyclone risking my own life. I spent 3 days there as a refugee because cyclone had devastated the entire city. There was no food and water. She got me food 2 times a day from her home. After 3 days train services resumed.
I spent my best time with her and felt like a 17 year old boy in her company and I lived my life.
Seven years later she told me that she will not marry me. In between she insisted to get divorce.
I applied for a mutual divorce in family court.
Then I told her to break up. She refused saying she did not want to face that pain again.
She said if she found someone she will say upfront to me.
I agreed and wasted another 3 years with her. I was her CA/bodyguard/driver.
One day she told me she finalized someone and I went for sudden breakup.
We exchanged few e-mails till my ego got hurt.
It’s been 3 years now I have not replied to her mail.
She kept sending mails till March last year.
During this phase I had pain during breathing, high BP and no sleep for 4-5 days.
I consulted doctor and took medication for almost for 6 months.
I suffered from broken heart syndrome.
I am 45 years old now and have no interest in my life.
I am just doing my duty.
My ego does not permit to see her FB/TWITTER. It’s been two years since I saw her on social media.
It appears like everything is fine but I feel hollow from within.
I don’t want her back or her smile. Whenever someone talks about love, I smile from within on his stupidity and try to figure out what benefit the girl is getting from him.
My issue is hollowness and hopelessness.
Dear SB,
Whatever you did in the past with the girl, simply gave you a sense of validation at that point in time. Isn’t it clear that she has moved on?
Simply be thankful to her for the way she stepped in when you were in need. What didn’t happen was not meant to happen!
No point being angry with her for moving on in her life. Try and be happy for her and focus on yourself now.
What do you love doing?
Who are your friends that you love spending time with?
When was the last time you took care of your physical health?
Do you know that spending time in Nature heals your broken heart as well?
All these questions, are for you to have a reality check on how much you have focused on the outside and no focus on yourself.
Answer these questions and start to look after yourself with a lot of self-love and care. You will heal and move ahead very meaningfully.
Be well and all the best!
HK: Hi I have been married to my college mate for more than 11 years now with a girl child of 8+ years.
Wife and I were good friend for 2 years followed by live in for 4 years before we got married. We got into marriage unprepared financially and mentally.
My wife is a great responsible caring person -- way more mature than I am. I am a bit childish and emotional, very talkative and expressive person.
When I travelled to another city after 5 years of marriage for higher studies, I got involved with another girl. We were very much alike in terms of personalities. We could talk endlessly and were very compatible in all sense. We even got physical and felt like we’d never had this experience before. The thing is she too was recently married to another person quite like my wife.
We tried to get separated from our previous relationships but the girl’s family couldn't bear the family pressure and her husband though good otherwise took this on his ego.
I waited for 3 years for her to come out.
In the mean time I was almost on the verge of breaking my marriage because whatever connection I had with my wife had almost come down to negligible.
That girl too had to be in that forcible relationship with no connection at all and had to adopt a child to survive the dead relationship.
I got into a messy situation too -- a marriage with no connection but a lovely child.
I have a connection with that girl but without living together.
I don’t know if I can start a new life and if I do, how much I will be involved with it. Absolutely messed up emotionally and physically. Although my wife and I are financially stable as both of us are officers.
That girl too is a medical practitioner but I have no idea if she will ever be able to come out. Plz tell me what to do.
I prayed a lot, read lots of books, tried meditation, counselling, still I am in the middle of nowhere.
Dear HK,
Why exactly did you feel the need to get into a relationship with another person?
Did your current relationship lack anything that the other relationship was fulfilling you with?
How exactly did the relationship with your wife deteriorate? Did the two of you make efforts to communicate enough in that long distance relationship?
How do you say your marriage is one without connection? How did you lose that connection?
Now, do you plan on continuing in your marriage or move on? If you have decided to move on, isn’t it time for you to come out to your wife and share what has happened?
These questions are possibly ones that are very difficult to face and answer as they bring out the truth; but they will help you get a better grasp of the situation.
It’s nice to live an alternate reality life for some time and relish the goodness but coming back to your real life that holds the ‘real you’ and your responsibilities isn’t something that can be ignored any longer. So, as much as you feel that you are in the middle of nowhere, I see no mention of what your wife must be feeling right at this very moment.
It would help to put things in perspective and talk this out as adults, (and yes, you do owe her that) so that both of you can come to an amicable decision to live more peacefully.
All the best!
VG: Hi Anu, my story is quite big. I am 43 and I love a man of my caste who is 52.
He is not married and my father had showed me his profile in 2006 for marriage. Those days I was not interested in marriage and so I rejected him.
I saw his profile in March 2019 in matrimony and sent him interest and he gave me a reply. I fell in love with his profile in 2020 and further gave him reply on his mobile. I went to see him in Pune in 2020 October. Since then we have only been chatting on WhatsApp.
When I asked for commitment in Feb 2021, he said his sister is not keeping well. Then he lost his father in August 2021.
Earlier in 2020 he used to call me and we used to talk for hours. It all stopped in 2021 February when his sister fell sick. Now I stopped messaging him but he still keeps sending me some or other forwards. He says he wants to marry me (He said this Jan last year when I asked him if he is interested in marriage) but this year has been tough.
I am really fed up of the delay. I still love him very much. He is very intelligent and professionally qualified and has good hobbies -- he is a Himalayan trekker and has sent me pics of his trek.
He also encourages me to do many things but I am bored of the delay. Should I trust him and wait for him?
Dear VG,
It looks likely that when you sent him your interest request, your feelings were from 2006. But hey, everyone has grown older and wiser since then.
Also, to expect him to have the same level of interest that you have, isn’t wise as he has led a different life to yours.
What happens is when we start our lives together when we are younger, we merge on a lot of ideals and thoughts.
When the same marriage/companionship/relationship happens when we are older, having had separate experiences and a different life, we might not have much in common in terms of thoughts and way of being in life.
Given that, have an honest chat with him face to face, and express what you want out of this connection.
Give him time to process his own life, his needs, his wants, his priorities and then get back to you.
If he is clearly not into this, no point waiting for him and tugging at your heart strings.
So the only way that I feel is to have a mature face to face talk where both of you have space to be assertive and communicate boldly. It will help both of you to decide what’s best.
All the best!
SR: Hi I’m 24 years old and have been married for 3 years now.
My husband and I thought we had plenty of fights we did made it up and moving on as we love each other a lot.
But last year after we had our first child, (even before that) I could see that he has changed a lot.
Because of my delivery I came to my parents’ house in my 5th month and till today I’m still here .
In this new year I found out that he is talking to the same girl about whom we had a fight when I was 3 months pregnant.
He said 'Nothing is going on between us. Please trust me and all' because he claims her to be his friend.
This year around New Year when he visited me I got to see the same girl and him taking selfies standing close to each other. And in one pic he also kissed her on her cheeks.
My heart broke when I saw that pic.
When I confronted him he said that nothing wrong had happened, ‘we are just friends.’ He said ‘It will never happen again I swear on my child.’
But he never answered my question on why he had to take such a pic with her that day and that too it was pic taken after my delivery when he left home saying he had some important office work .
He loves me with his words. But I’m not able to make out in some situations if it’s true or not.
Nowadays he insists that I shouldn’t call him on purpose to ask idiotic questions about my lunch or my health and even to show our baby on call.
He said I should call only if there is something important. Even if he calls me, he says he wants to see the baby. He said he wanted some peace from me cause I am torturing him. He said this after we quarelled about that girl.
Please help me with what I should do further. I am not able to figure it out. Thanks in advance.
Dear SR,
Straight and upfront; how much do you want to make this marriage work?
Do you feel he wants to be in this marriage as well?
Are you being a convenient façade for him to be the loving married husband with a child and then go behind your back to another woman?
Are you allowing yourself to be blackmailed into suppressing your doubts about him so that he will still be in the marriage?
What you can do further is bring in a neutral person to bring his ‘floating on the sky party’ to the ground.
His immaturity at not being able to be a father to his child at the time when his wife needs his emotional support needs to be addressed.
Ask an elder member to step in and bring some much needed sense into him so that there is an effort put into bringing you and him on the talk table for a much needed conversation to set things right.
You can do this, remember, you are a woman and now a mother who is strong and knows what she wants.
Step in and take charge and never allow yourself to be cowed down by anyone.
Be YOU and all the best!
H: I am Haarika, mother of two sons. Actually I take any decision after thinking a lot and wisely. But, recently, I made a mistake. I applied for a transfer to another place in order to save me mentally from the harassment of my womanizer and idiot boss. The people who promised me that they will help me in my choice of posting in new place took a U turn. Here I met higher officers, but they didn't consider my appeal. I’m feeling guilty that I took wrong decision and troubled my kids. My kids are 23 years and 19 years old. I’m very guilty why I took such a foolish decision.
Pl. Help me to get rid of this mess.
Dear H,
What is done, is done!
Time to salvage what you can now…
Is it possible for you to try for a job in a new place?
Who else in the current place can actually help you out of this?
Is there a possibility of exposing your boss? What will be the challenges doing this?
What else can you do that you haven’t yet done before to retain the job and yet be at peace?
How can your sons support you in this time that their mother is in need?
Sometimes, we feel that we have reached the end of the tunnel but remember that that is the place where your power will determine how you can bring the dark tunnel down to feel the light back.
Empower yourself with positive thoughts and begin the day with not what has gone wrong, but what more you can do to lift yourself up?
We are defined by our ability to pick ourselves up and overcome challenges and you have done this many times before, why not one more time?
Best wishes!
Anu Krishna is a mind coach, author and co-founder, Unfear Changemakers LLP and Soulful Exploration LLP. She's an NLP Trainer (National Federation of Neuro Linguistic Programming, NFNLP, USA), Energy Work Specialist (Institute for Inner Studies, Manila), Executive Member of Indian Association of Adolescent Health (M.I.A.A.H) and Member of Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI). She has authored the self-coaching book: The Secret of Life – Decoding Happiness.
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