Shinjini Das' Story:

​

As a teenager growing up in America, I was highly introverted meaning that I spent the great majority of my time immersed in my own thoughts. Extremely long periods of time alone enabled me to become incredibly comfortable with my own solitude, thoughts, self, and heart. I realized to not depend on someone else for my own happiness but instead to look within to discover my own happiness. This is why even today, millions of people comment on my energy, because I learned from a very young age to cultivate my happiness from within. Indian-Americans in particular are generally shunned from speaking out about mental health. Why I do not have an answer because balanced mental health is incredibly critical to personal and professional fulfillment. I nurture my own mental health on a daily in fact minute by minute basis as someone in the public eye with a great deal of responsibilities at a very young age. In fact, without proper nurture, anyone's mental health can deteriorate, and in that case, either the individual should personally ask for help or be open to sharing with someone else. I have always believed that reaching out to others for help is not a sign of weakness, but in fact a sign of remarkable inner strength. As an Indian-American entertainment personality in Hollywood, I want to see more of my community embrace open dialogue about mental health because we only progress if we are open with our struggles, heartaches, pains, and inner reflections. We move forward as Indians and Americans if we choose to heal our own wounds together by speaking out not by stifling our dialogues. I applaud the strength of South-Asians who honestly share their struggles and experiences to build unbreakable inner mental health, and I encourage every South-Asian in America and beyond to also share their struggles with honesty to achieve strong mental health.