It was the first day of my internship at a de-addiction hospital in Chennai and I was assigned a 14 years old patient from Bangalore for counselling. As I entered the inpatient room, I could see that she was floating in a general state of “meh”. I gave a big smile and she responded saying she was having weird feelings and did not know why she was feeling this way.
The atmosphere was silent and to break her out of the cloud like feeling, I said let us draw and paint to change the mood. There was no response, so I took out a sheet of paper and some colors that I had in my bag and sat next to her in the couch. Her eyes slightly lit up and she said “Can we draw a villain?” Her choice of words gave me a clue as to how she was feeling. Without much thought we started drawing Cruella De Vil – the villain character from 101 Dalmations. When we were coloring, she immediately hugged me and said- “This is how I feel.” All her feelings of “meh” came into focus and she gave a big happy smile.
To be honest, art is not magic but that day influencing her to draw and paint gave her a breather from the rush of feelings and make her change her mood. I totally agree that #SalesSkillsAreLifeSkills.
