The Happy Soul

Actor, relationship columnist, talk show host, reality TV star and personal transformation coach Pooja Bedi, talks about her wellness startup, Happy Soul and the power of staying positive, in an exclusive conversation with BW Businessworld’s Jyotsna Sharma

Tell me about Happy Soul.
Well, Happy Soul ties in kind of intrinsically with me, my journey of life, my lineage and decades of research. My grandparents and parents were immersed in a world of spiritual practices. I grew up with a very robust sense of the world of energy and meta sciences, but with a very logical mind attached to it.

One day, I decided to attend a seminar on hypnosis. It sounded very fascinating and it was about clinical hypnosis that deals with the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and regression. I got so fascinated that I went to take up courses in it and even went on to get diplomas in it. Then I started doing a series of courses in reiki, shamanism, magnified healing etc. Initially, when I started my series of courses which I called ‘Happy Soul ‘in 2016, I was fascinated by the reaction that people had to these meta-sciences. And most importantly how their lives actually changed. Here I was disseminating 12 years of knowledge in a two-day course or a three-day course, sometime a two-hour course.

Tell us how one can stay positive during these tough times.
The most important thing that people need to realise is that sh*t happens. It could be a pandemic, it could be a heartbreak, it could be the death of a parent. Pain and suffering are not exclusive to just one person. Get out of the mindset that says, ‘why me’?

What makes you different is how you respond to it. Do you want to be a victim or do you want to be a victor? Do you want to ride the wave or do you want to be crushed under the wave? The choice is always yours. People say , ‘I am helpless’. Sorry, to be helpless is also a choice! Everything in life is a choice.

When life throws lemons your way, go out there and make lemonade. And how do you do that? By using certain coping mechanisms. There are certain things called happy hormones. Every one of us has these four happy hormones within us in our brains: endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. And these are triggered through exercise, sunshine, laughter, hugging, kissing, sexual intercourse and eating chocolate, for instance. It is important to realise that it is easy to trigger these feel good hormones. Research has shown that even a fake smile can trigger neurotransmitters in your brain that sends signals down your spine saying, ‘I’m happy’. And automatically you start feeling happy. A lot of people are programmed to criticise – change your attitude. If you don’t like something – find a solution. My favourite four words are, ‘this too shall pass’. Whenever terrible things happen, just remember, this too shall pass. Good times don’t last and neither do the bad times.

Your favourite book?
There are many books that changed my life dramatically. At the moment I would recommend Malcolm Gladwell’s, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.