My Journey towards a Purposeful Life

For years I kept searching for a meaning in my living, the true purpose for my existence.

The journey of exploring one's passion and purpose is never easy, it can create many confusions, questions and even lead to self doubt. My prime focus through this journey was to identify what my soul is seeking and for that, I needed to connect better with it. I needed to slow down, and speak less, to be able to listen more, especially to my innermost voice.

It was like peeling of an onion, with one layer coming out at a time, till I could reach that core of me which had the potential to enable my rendezvous with my true self.

Once I did meet myself, the real me, it is rather difficult to explain the ecstatic feeling, the calm, serenity and peace I experienced. Through this process, I learned that we all have all the answers we are seeking, right within us. Unfortunately we are so engrossed with the outside, that we fail to even recognize the power of our within, let alone explore and experience it.

The more I learned about myself, the clearer my purpose in life became. It all revolved around service, love, compassion and gratitude. And when I brought it all together, it began to make sense on the steps I should take to implement this purpose in my everyday living. I became confident that the meaning of this life of mine was to spread the message of love and compassion, to help people meet their truest selves and to encourage making gratitude, a way of life.

I have been an expressive person in general and expressive writing comes naturally to me and so that is where I began. I started with writing blogs. The more I wrote about my thoughts, my experiences and my perspectives, my own belief systems, my personal preferences and my thinking became clearer. Slowly it translated into writing inspiring quotes and phrases.

As I heard back from those who began joining me in my journey, it motivated me to do more.

“I wanted to just let you know how you are impacting so many lives. I may not react to or comment on your posts, but just reading them makes me feel so positive and helps me make better decisions about my life. You are doing a great job. Please don’t stop”, one such message read.

Wanting to reach those who may not enjoy reading, I started recording videos and later podcasts. I initiated an FB group with like minded people ‘Reach Out’ and we slowly became a small yet connected group. We conducted few discussion forums on various topics like depression, resilience and more, recordings of which are all available on our YouTube channel.

With so many parallel modalities, I knew I had to bring it all together in one place. Hence LoveLiveLearn came into existence in 2019 through a Facebook page first and then on other platforms. Incidentally, the name ‘LoveLiveLearn’ was not something I thought through deeply about. It just came to my mind randomly, and I connected with it instantly.

The LoveLiveLearn website was my gift to my soul on the day it accepted this human form, on my 40th Birthday. This was a big step for me. I build the entire website - from content writing, designing to actually building in the features, all by myself, through self learning and, trial and error. This encouraged my soul to keep inspiring me, and guiding me on this path to spreading positivity in this world.

The last five years, have been a roller coaster of a journey, yet the most rewarding and fulfilling one.

I did not plan it that way, but my free counseling services offered respite and courage to manage the struggles Covid brought, to hundreds, and saved tens of them from giving up on life. I only felt more and more grateful for the opportunity to serve. Ofcourse there were those who did not respect the free service and misused it unprofessionally. But I was adamant that I won’t let the act of a few, demotivate me.

One such case, can be read about in this blog - https://www.lovelivelearn.in/post/counseling-diaries-case-1

For nearly 2 years, I offered free counseling services over my weekends while doing my full time job during weekdays. There were some weekends when I started as early as 8 am and went on till 11 pm too. I knew I was stretching it far, but I kept going. But I now understood that if I had to scale this, enable people to respect the service and show up, I had to do something different. So I began charging a meagre amount of INR 100/- for a one hour session and it did make a positive difference. Meanwhile, I designed and ran multiple programs and workshops on Gratitude, Forgiveness, Dealing with Guilt etc. it was all self learning and lots of reading and researching about facts in the field.

To give my sessions a more structured approach, I also attended a Positive Intelligence Coaching Grant program by Shirzad Chamine, a best selling author, influencer and CEO of the Positive Intelligence. His sage and saboteur approach to positive psychology helped me guide hundreds on their path to becoming better versions of themselves. I saw my clients move through self doubt towards confidence and clarity, from victim mindset to award winning professionals in their field.

“Ariana is a constant support in helping me to find out answers to multiple important questions and queries. She helped me to come out of the fear of judgement that was impacting me badly in all areas of my life. Last year I realized that I am missing Love for myself that was impacting me from all directions. I used to be dependent on others to fill that missing love. With her counseling and regular gratitude sessions. I am in love with myself. 

Thanks, Ariana, for helping me to find me, my Nemo ❤️❤️”. - a client testimonial.

It was on 15th September, 2022 when my commitment towards Psychology and the path ahead for Lovelivelearn changed for good. An ex-colleague from an absolutely unrelated industry we both happened to work together in, messaged me on FB and expressed her appreciation of my work so far and offered her subject matter expertise, guidance and time for LoveLiveLearn.

“Hi Ana, How are you? I just bumped into your website from the events you shared - its pretty awesome. If you need any help in running an event or two let me know I'd be super interested. I dont know if you know but I am a clinical psychologist and work in California so I am always happy to share material, clinical insight etc. 🙂”, the message read. And this became a huge turning point for LoveLiveLearn

She had moved to the field of Psychology decades ago and had been a practising Clinical Psychologist for more than 15 years. This was the push, the support and guidance that steered our away ahead.

Kamala Keerthi, Sr. Clinical Therapist, Trauma & SMI specialist and PhD LMFT, began collaborating with us, and then onwards, became my guiding light, my North Star, my mentor, and the beacon of hope for realising LoveLiveLearn’s vision.

This was the same time I was investing time in learning the structured nuances of Counseling Psychology and in November 2022, I completed my training, internship and certification of 50 hours.

Now there was no looking back, with Keerthi’s support and guidance, we onboarded our amazing team of consulting counselors, clinical psychologists, and coaches - Yashi Sonthalia, Amit Pasrija, Shifa Meherally, and Vijay Somannavar. We set up processes in place, added ethical standards and guidelines to our commitment and began taking LoveLiveLearn to newer height with every passing day, every passing month. Recently we also brought onboard two enthusiastic interns Manika and Vidhi as client consultants.

In the next 2 years that followed, we introduced live sessions, spread awareness through our social media posts, counselled hundreds of clients through client centered, counseling and therapy sessions, enhanced our self paced online programs and added new ones too. We launched our Serenity Store product line with affirmation T-shirts which was a big hit. We even collaborated with a Corporate Organization for a three month Mental Wellness Program which touched nearly a 1000 people.

In June 2024, I left my stable, well-paying job to pursue my passion and purpose in life. It hasn’t been easy, it hasn’t been a bed of roses. I am however a deeply blessed person and support comes my way when I need it the most. My family not just stood by me but also encouraged me to take the ‘leap of faith’.

Within no time I could see the impact my undivided attention to LoveLiveLearn could bring. We have been gratefully busy and blessed.

We are now a Trademarked company, ISO 21001:2018 certified for Education and management, and ISO 9001:2015 certified for quality.

Today, 28th September 2024, along with my 45th birthday, as we celebrate our 5th anniversary at LoveLiveLearn, I look back with absolute fondness, joy, and immense Gratitude for the journey we have covered so far and excited about all that is yet to come. I am so humbled by the team that is deeply committed and have truly become partners in my purposeful journey.

Vision 2025 & beyond - In the coming years, we are taking LoveLiveLearn to another level with:

1. Certification courses for aspiring counselors

2. Practice programs for psychology students aimed at providing them with practical knowledge of counselling psychology.

3. Special workshops on Parenting, Anger Management etc.

4. New self-paced online programs on self-love, self-compassion self-care etc.

5. Subscriptions & Membership offers

6. More robust and effective Support Group for Therapists

7. Suicide Prevention interventions and support group

8. New products in the Serenity Store

9. Tons of useful information, self help material, articles and blogs.

10. And above all our continued unwavering commitment to make a positive impact in the field of Mental Health in India.

If you connect with our collective passion, our purpose, or feel we can help guide you to lead a better and more peaceful life, join our journey.

LoveLiveLearn - with you in your holistic wellness journey!