Shruti Haasan: For me, the big step was taking therapy and acknowledging

Actor Shruti Haasan is still on the path of finding ways to love herself, and says taking therapy has really helped her get a grip on the realities, and dealing with it.

Over all these years, Haasan has used her social media to stress on the need and importance of loving oneself, especially amid the ongoing pandemic crisis. And she admits that she is still a work in progress.

“Getting comfortable and embracing my real self has been a process for me. Actually, it is funny because when I think back to my childhood, and if everybody thinks back to their childhood, we all had our insecurities,” shares the 35-year-old.

Someone might have struggled with a communication issue, some might have battled stammering or someone might have failed at sports. “We all had our little bag of worries. But we also had clarity as a child about who we are, and what you like, and what you don’t. I think that slowly erodes over time,” says the daughter of actor-politician Kamal Haasan.

According to her, it also fades a little from other people’s opinion and one’s inability to differentiate what we need and what we don’t. “A lot of us go through that. I really salute the spirit of those who have been unwavering through that,” she asserts.

Going into a confession mode, the actor reveals, “For me, it has been a process about conversing with myself. There have been times where I have not had important conversations with myself. I had avoided things. I have gone down a road that I’ve not liked mentally. For me, the big step was taking therapy, acknowledging and working through with compassion.”

Even in this journey of self-discovery, there are many obstacles. “We tend to put this huge pressure on ourselves, like ‘I should be okay. I have addressed it now, and it should be fine in the next 15 seconds’. These timelines don’t work with us”.

What the spirit and soul needs, is for some care and kindness, she feels, and says, “That’s why I talk about loving yourself. It’s something that requires kindness from you. Forget other people being kind to you or understanding you. You need to ask yourself how much of that you do with yourself? And that’s really something I am really enjoying doing with myself right now.”