From Bharat Khanna, Mumbai.... | The Indian Stammering Association

From Bharat Khanna, Mumbai….

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I am Bharat
Khanna, I am from Mumbai, by profession I am a software engineer and
like many of you I stammer. I would like to share how I am getting on
with it & how the Friends convention last week helped me to get a
better perspective.

I have been a PWS
since I was 5/6/7 age old, I don’t know how I got that &
frankly I don’t care about that.

School and
college life was like most of you experienced, obviously I was
battling the speech demon, but there were other awful things
happening in my life me which made me UNHAPPY – AGGRESSIVE – ANXIOUS
– STRESSED – HELPLESS

So it was like:
Emotional issues + Stammer ==>> frustration + more stammer +
more awful situations. It was a vicious circle.

But now I am in
more Control, happy, relaxed & in Gratitude

What contributed
the change:

1. Professional
Career – During the job hunt, on job, job switch & again on job
phase, I learnt that,

All that matters
is (whether PWS or not) WHAT YOU CAN DO. YOUR STRENGTHS. HOW YOU
CONTRIBUTE to the world engine. Take pride in that.

You don’t
realize it straightaway; you need to go through the grind.

2. ENDORPHINS –
hormone which helps you to be happy. Playing some sport/ workout
benefits a lot.

3. OXYGEN –
Breathing exercises. What I have experienced is the more you breathe
correctly the more speech comes out easily. BrahmVidya excercises
have helped me in this regard.

4. Support system
– Family & friends. Basically you need someone who loves you
the way you are, believes in you that are born to do something
special, for me it’s my MOTHER.

5. DONT GIVE A
DAMN ATTITUDE – (this one is the most important)

Yeah I stutter…
so what!!! That’s the way I speak. That’s the way it is. Some
are tall/short, fat/slim, some speak loudly/quietly, some speak
fast/slow.

I stutter, so
what!!! I am thankful that at least I have VOICE.

For us PWS,
stutter is not the Achilles’ heel, ITS THE FEAR OF STUTTER which
causes the stutter…. cut out that fear from the core and you are
unique free person.

–At FRIENDS
convention–

Harish (met him
at convention) rightly said it: FOCUS ON EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION not
on fluent speech. – accept your speech the way it is, speak out to
convey your ideas & stammer freely.. don’t hide it.
[ACCEPTANCE].

I still stutter
but by meeting wonderful people like Harish, Dhruv, Gaurav, Vishal,
Pradeep, Dr Joe and other attendees at the convention.. My belief on
acceptance has strengthened. I believe I am on right track…

Whatever we go
through in life…makes us tougher for the oncoming battles that we
are going to fight & emerge victorious …

Thank you for your time.

Ed. Thanks Bharat for this “straight from the heart, and straight to the point” kind of sharing! We want to hear more from you..