“Living your life as if you are in control means taking 100% responsibility for your life, for the results you produce, and the emotions you feel.” 

By Adrian Jimenez Staff Writer UNSUGARCOATED Media 

In Episode 24 of UNSUGARCOATED with Aalia, host Aalia Lanius discusses the importance of mental well-being with best-selling, award-winning author and social entrepreneur Aanchal Vashistha – the revolutionary founder of Reach Out Together. She has appeared on multiple networks including NBC, CBS, FOX, and ABC and boasts considerable mentorship from the legendary Jack Canfield (the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series). Born in India, raised in Nigeria, and “shaped in Canada”, Vashistha has lived a multitude of experiences. One of them, unfortunately, is loss. 

Her older brother died of malaria when she was a teenager. Years later, she lost her twin brother to suicide while living with him in Toronto. Little did she know that this second loss would change her life forever. 

“Ever since then, it’s not been about what happened. I’ve stopped asking that question. It’s more about what I want to create with what has happened.” Vashistha told Aalia.

Instead of going down a path of debilitating depression, she decided to channel her sorrow into something positive. Out of her desire to help others how she wished she could have helped her brother, Vashistha spent months working with Jack Canfield to become a Canfield Success Principles Trainer and receive mental health first-aid certification.

“Ever since [being mentored by Jack Canfield] I’ve incorporated all the learnings [and] all [those] teachings into my seminars which are mental wellness related. I’m helping people understand where they currently are [and] where they want to go,” said Vashistha.

Six months after her brother’s passing, she founded Reach Out Together – a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada that provides people with the tools and education to maintain strong mental health. An organization run mostly by volunteers, Reach Out Together provides mental health building classes and support groups to anyone who seeks them out. Some of the topics covered in the organization’s seminars include interactive mental well-being exercises, mental health first-aid, mental illnesses and disorders, substance abuse disorders, and how to tell if a loved one is in need of help. 

Aalia commented on the uniqueness of Reach Out Together and praised Vashistha and the organization, telling her: “you are now going out into the world, building communities, and [making] changes for people within their lives by the training that you give.”

During a time of increased tensions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent economic fallout, and heightened political polarization, what Vashistha is doing with her organization could benefit global societies as a whole. People need to experience what it feels like to consciously and deliberately focus on improving one’s mental health. So many societal problems are caused by the collective decision to push down and suppress our emotions until they explode uncontrollably. 

As Aalia said in this episode of the podcast, “Culturally, we’re still dealing with this problem and mindset of ‘you don’t really need therapy’ or ‘therapy’s not going to help you’ and it’s so interesting how our society is so resistant to things that actually help us.”

Reach Out Together is here to let our society know that it’s okay not to be okay, and that there are things you can do to help yourself as well as the ones you love. The mind is a part of the body that needs care and upkeep, just like any other part of the body. It all starts with people realizing that our mental health is not something that should be disregarded.

Tune in below to the full episode to learn more about Aanchal Vashistha and her UNSUGARCOATED discussion with Aalia!

Watch here on YouTube

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Listen here on Spreaker

To learn more about Reach Out Together, visit their website: ReachOutTogether.com and Instagram: @rotambassador

To stay connected with Aanchal Vashistha, check out her Instagram: @aanchalvash

To stay up to date with Unsugarcoated Media, visit UnsugarcoatedMedia.com and follow us on Instagram: @unsugarcoatedmedia. Stay connected with Aalia on Instagram: @aalia_unsugarcoated, as well as on Clubhouse and LinkedIn.