stress

महामारी, आत्म-देखभाल, और सामूहिक देखभाल – ‘तारशी’ के अनुभव
An artwork that depicts humanoid figures in various postures connected to each other on a black background with twinkling stars.
महामारी, आत्म-देखभाल, और सामूहिक देखभाल – ‘तारशी’ के अनुभव

हमारा मानसिक स्वास्थ्य सिर्फ़ हमारी इकलौती ज़िम्मेदारी नहीं है बल्कि उन संस्थाओं और व्यवस्थाओं की भी ज़िम्मेदारी है जिनका हम हिस्सा हैं। इसलिए हमारी सेहत और ख़ुशहाली बनाए रखने के लिए इनका योगदान ज़रूरी है।
By Vani Viswanathan
April 18, 2024
महामारी, आत्म-देखभाल, और सामूहिक देखभाल – ‘तारशी’ के अनुभव
अपना और दूसरो का ख़्याल रखना 
A photograph of a book-shelf, brown-black, with differently coloured books.
अपना और दूसरो का ख़्याल रखना 

मां बनने के बाद से आत्म-देखभाल पर मेरे नज़रिये में बहुत बदलाव आया है। एक अभिभावक की भूमिका निभाते हुए और उसकी चुनौतियों का सामना करते हुए अपना ख़्याल कैसे रखा जा सकता है?
By Deepa Ranganathan
May 16, 2024
अपना और दूसरो का ख़्याल रखना 
Who would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? A Conversation on the Survival Myth
A photograph of a bench on a rocky-slightly bushy terrain. The bench is facing the other direction, which stretches out into wilderness. The sky in tinged with purple, blue, yellow, and pink.
Who would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? A Conversation on the Survival Myth

What does it mean to hold space and extend compassion to ourselves and our  communities? Rachel Cargle reminds us to ask ourselves: who  would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? Similarly, what would care and vulnerability look like if we weren’t trying to survive? The anarchy of queerness constantly and necessarily resists the capitalist engineering of the Survival Myth: one that wants us to endure an isolated life instead of embracing it with the radically transformative joy of togetherness. Caring for yourself precedes, succeeds, and exists alongside caring for the collective.
By Rukmini and Soumya
July 19, 2021
Who would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? A Conversation on the Survival Myth
Where do we begin?
An office space with rows of desks. At the forefront are two desks with monitors, chairs and desk lamps. There are knick-knacks like a wooden statue of a cat, plan, a bottle containing amber-coloured liquid and cables.
Where do we begin?
What does it mean to extend acceptance and support in one of life’s most crucial areas – the workspace? How do we unpack the concept of positive discrimination and affirmative action at the level of the organisation.
By Shikha Aleya
September 19, 2022
Where do we begin?
Video: How to be a Friend to Yourself
An illustration of a woman looking in the mirror, with adornments. She is wearing a pink hat with a feather, and blue long hair.
Video: How to be a Friend to Yourself

This thought-provoking, luminously illustrated The School of Life video reminds us of self-compassion being essential to building our own selves up, and being a safe space where we can extend the same love and imagination to our vulnerabilities, insecurities, fears, and doubts as we do to our friends.
By Curated Content
July 5, 2021
Video: How to be a Friend to Yourself
Video: “Me, We, Us”
A screenshot from the video. Against a black background, there is a faded illustration of a human face surrounded by concentric wave pattern. On top of the illustration are words in English and Hindi in two columns. On the left column are the words: Language, Sexuality, LGBTQIA+, Gender, Mental Health, Rights, Domestic Violence, Sex Work, Activists. On the right column are the words: Tension, Burnout Prevention, Anxiety, Stress, Risk
Video: “Me, We, Us”

Conversations about stress, burnout and mental health have gained prominence, especially during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. But, what is stress and burnout?
By Curated Content
September 1, 2022
Video: “Me, We, Us”
The Politics of Self Care and Feminism
On a pink background, an illustration of a person of colour with black curly hair. On each side are plants, hanging and potted including leaves, cacti, and flowers. The person's arms are wrapped around their torso.
The Politics of Self Care and Feminism

In a time when reason is more valued than emotion, unravelling and understanding the politics of self-care becomes all the more fundamental for us, and the movements we seek to develop and build. When our bodies, our emotions and our needs become weapons to be used against us, acts of defiance become rooted in thinking about your self and how we practice it. I find I am faced with more questions than answers, but I also know that asking the questions is the first step to finding the answers
By Curated Content
July 19, 2021
The Politics of Self Care and Feminism
The Nun Within: Reflections on our self-care workshops with activists
A photograph of a woman sitting indoors. She has cropped white-grey hair and is looking upwards. She is wearing a black full-sleeved top and her palms are open outwards. She is wearing a black necklace and is smiling. In front of her, a person is half-visible, clad in black, holding out their palms. There are red chairs on the side, and at the back, a person with black short hair, wearing a white top and mask, using a phone, is sitting.
The Nun Within: Reflections on our self-care workshops with activists

I know that the lives of many human rights defenders are under continuous threat, that sometimes it is impossible to sleep or to enjoy a moment of peace because of the harassment coming from the outside. What I address in this text is our internal disposition as activists, and the ideas that stop us from taking care of and holding ourselves together.
By Rosa Posa Guinea
July 19, 2021
The Nun Within: Reflections on our self-care workshops with activists
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women
A photograph of a room with one window. The photo showcases the room as semicircular and has a black floor with a window reflected, and brown-white brick walls with a sunlit window.
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women

Pandemics have a profound psychological impact. They are known to disrupt one’s sense of safety, security, certainty, control, concordance, and…
By Ansha Patel
July 5, 2021
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women
MY VAGINA IS DUKHA?
A graphic illustration with a black, inky tree with branches outlined by a silhouette of a face.
MY VAGINA IS DUKHA?

Ageing vaginas in ageing female bodies are joked about. But a vagina shouldn’t have the task of pleasing anybody but itself first. To begin with, we’ll have to love and respect our vaginas in order to pleasure them. Love them just as they are. If they feel a little dry, don’t despair. Use a lubricant or a little coconut oil. If my labia are unshapely, they’re still my labia and respond very nicely to gentleness and tenderness. If I don’t love and respect my ageing body, in need of gentle, loving, patient care, then who will, for God’s sake?
By Nighat Gandhi
July 5, 2021
MY VAGINA IS DUKHA?
Interview – Raj Mariwala
A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.
Interview – Raj Mariwala

Self-care is influenced by the environment we inhabit, the way we relate to others, the way we negotiate with other living beings or structures. Self-care is also interlinked with other types of care – whether that is in community resources, psychosocial support, engagement with medical and health care institutions, and of course in collective agency and solidarity.
By Shikha Aleya
January 3, 2023
Interview – Raj Mariwala
Interview – Raj Mariwala
A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.
Interview – Raj Mariwala

Self-care is influenced by the environment we inhabit, the way we relate to others, the way we negotiate with other living beings or structures. Self-care is also interlinked with other types of care – whether that is in community resources, psychosocial support, engagement with medical and health care institutions, and of course in collective agency and solidarity.
By Shikha Aleya
July 5, 2021
Interview – Raj Mariwala
Editorial: Sexuality and Self-care
A photograph of a rocky landscape with a tabby cat sitting atop a grey rock, lined with green-brown grass, licking itself.
Editorial: Sexuality and Self-care

Continuing with our theme of self-care being about sustaining ourselves, our work, our movements, keeping the fires lit, and relating with love to ourselves, in our mid-month issue we bring you more articles looking at self-care from different perspectives – individual, queer, activist, collective, organisational, not necessarily separated, or in this order, of course.
By TARSHI
July 19, 2021
Editorial: Sexuality and Self-care
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
A photograph of a person's arm and hand. The background of a couch with a blue duvet is blurred, and the focus is on the person's hands, with brown nail-paint, and a blue pen in their hands. They are writing in a spiral bound notebook. Beside them is a black cup.
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about

My journal has many entries that are speculative and fantastic. Writing about the mundane leads me to question the way the world operates and from there I frog-leap into a world of ideas where I imagine a radically different way of being. In my journal, I imagine a politics of care, community, and compassion. I become grand, valuable, and unstoppable, even in a world where I am sometimes made to feel small.
By Sheena D'Lima
July 5, 2021
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
Caring and care-giving
A photograph of a book-shelf, brown-black, with differently coloured books.
Caring and care-giving

Just as capitalism has learned how to co-opt feminism into its model, it has done the same to ‘wellness’, so much so it has become an industry of its own. Mental wellbeing, no matter how necessary and important it is, remains a luxury with more than half of our country either unaware of available mental health resources or not in a position to even afford therapy.
By Deepa Ranganathan
July 5, 2021
Caring and care-giving
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